2. ROCKY (1976)
Rocky Balboa (Stallone S.) lives in Philadelphia, receiving claims
for an Italian-American moneylender and winning some small
matches as an amateur boxer. With the help of a wise coach (B.
Meredith) he accepts, out of love for Adriana (T. Shire) and a bag
of $ 150,000, to challenge the black Apollo Creed (Weathers C.),
heavyweight champion, intending not to win, but to get to the
fifteenth round. B-movie, it received 3 Academy Awards
(director, best film and installation), 6 other nominations and a
vast international success. The movie marks the return to large
institutional myths, as in Frank Capra’s optimistic views:
everyone in America that has enough heart and good reasons,
can achieve the impossible. The newcomer S. Stallone (1946),
who also wrote the screenplay, became a superstar. And the
composer Bill Conti began raking in billions. It started a series
which ended in 1990 with the fifth film.
3.
4. THE GLADIATOR (2000)
The Gladiator (Gladiator) is a blockbuster movie
directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe,
Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Richard Harris,
Oliver Reed and Tomas Arana. Crowe plays the loyal
General Maximus, who is betrayed when
Commodus, the ambitious emperor's son, kills his
father and takes possession of the throne. Enslaved,
Massimo reappears in the arena among gladiator
ranks to avenge his family’s and his Emperor’s
murders.
5.
6. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
(1975)
From a novel by Ken Kesey: a convicted felon is
transferred to a psychiatric clinic where he unmasks
the repressive and prison-like institution. The revolt
does not last long, but leaves some marks and
followers. Awarded 5 Oscars (film, director,
Nicholson and Fletcher, screenplay by Laurence
Hauben and Bo Goldman), it is an effective and
cleverly polemical film about Power that
marginalizes social outcasts and about the racist
background of psychiatry . The substance of Kesey's
novel, written in first person, is here purified and
transformed into an allegory Great team of actors
that includes the Native American W. Sampson.
7.
8. Film adaptation of the novel “First Blood” by David
Morrell with S. Stallone among the adapters.
Vietnam veteran with a medal for bravery, John
Rambo is looking for a job, but stumbles in a nasty
sheriff (B. Dennehy) and his anger explodes. He
keeps in check the Police and the National Guard
while running through the wood, giving up only to
his former commander (R. Crenna). The
outstanding worldwide success of the movie is due
to the figure of the former hero in uniform on one
side, and on the other because it enhances an
outcast who fights against the established order.
RAMBO