Transcending Masculinity (Re)Reading Rocky …Thirty Years Later
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Transcending Masculinity (Re)READING ROCKY …THIRTY YEARS LATER by Heather Collette-VanDeraa NOTIONS OF MASCULINITY have been an epoch’s need to explore an experience that discussed in film scholarship for decades, with as yet has not been adequately formulated and the genre of action films, particularly that thematized” (131). The ‘experience’ that has of the boxing film, providing a most fertile yet to be adequately formulated in Rocky is a ground for discourse. While Rocky (1976) did construction of masculinity that must adapt not inaugurate the genre, it remains one of the to, and reflect, the changing cultural climate of seminal films of not only the boxing genre, but working- and middle-class values in light of civil of all American films, providing an archetype rights and gender equality. In his struggle to of masculinity that spawned a franchise. Many achieve champion status, Rocky Balboa navigates and emotional development, both of which are of these films repeat a theme of triumph a new cultural terrain marked by a disruption of achieved through his interpersonal relationships. against all odds that relies on a negotiation and traditional gender roles. While the hard-body/ Rocky Balboa’s masculinity is marked by a assertion of masculinity in its most physical action genre of films has presented an arguably personal catharsis of emotional self-actualization (and often violent) forms. Jurgen Reeder (1995) homogenous class of masculine iconography, that transcends his raw physicality and role asserts that “these films seem to be a kind of Rocky can be deconstructed today in light of an as an underdog boxer. As any athlete will tell ritual where a seemingly identical dramatic historical re-reading to demonstrate a nuanced you, physical strength is enhanced by a mental structure is reiterated many times over…such representation of masculinity simultaneously and emotional fortitude, which develops in ritual repetition of dramatic themes express[es] embodied in the character’s physical strength Rocky primarily though the titular character’s MAY08 18 CSupdateW interpersonal relationships. Rocky’s development is still caught up in boxing and fighting, but he ...Rocky presents a nuanced, if both physically and emotionally is enhanced is attempting to prove himself as a man who somewhat sentimental, archetype through his relationships with principle love will not fight, in part due to the fact that he had of a man who must negotiate his interest, Adrian (Talia Shire), and boxing rival blinded his last opponent, something he feels masculinity through complex Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) as well as the strong remorse for. Therefore, his masculinity emotional relationships with others, other men, most notably the father-figure is, like Rocky Balboa’s, at least partly defined trainer, Mickey (Bergess Meredith), and Adrian’s by his humanity toward others. Although, like while simultaneously developing his brother Paulie (Burt Young). In contrast to views Rocky, both men must fight at some point to physical strength. expressed in other studies of the film, Rocky demonstrate that masculinity is only partly presents a nuanced, if somewhat sentimental, defined by humanity; it is subtextually implicit archetype of a man who must negotiate his in each of the fighting scenes in From Here to masculinity through complex emotional Eternity and Rocky that regardless of their own relationships with others, while simultaneously self-definition of manhood or personhood, it is (Frank Sinatra), who is ultimately killed. Pruett developing his physical strength. It is these the fight that will define them within the larger then avenges his friend’s murder by engaging relationships that frame the central plot of world they must inhabit. Pruett’s philosophy the perpetrator in a back alley knife fight, killing Rocky’s physical training and ultimate match in of masculinity is revealed when he states, “A him. In the end, it is WWII—the penultimate the boxing ring, which, unlike the interpersonal man should be what he can do,” punctuating fight—that provides the context for the most relationships, ends in ambivalent defeat. the fact that masculinity is a function of action sanctioned form of fighting. Fighting therefore and behavior—not how he feels, what he wants, must be contextualized in the spectacle of how he thinks, but what he does. Just as Pruett formalized boxing or war in order for it to be Fighting The Good Fight defines himself, and his masculinity, through his a redeemable masculine characteristic. Brute humanity and his role as a career soldier, Rocky force or violent tactics without justification Rocky follows from a long tradition of boxing defines himself and his masculinity through his are punished or frowned upon. Pruett’s fate themes in films. One particularly poignant identification as a boxer and his relationships is to die at the gun of one of his own men on example, From Here to Eternity (1953), was with others. the evening of Pearl Harbor, whereas Rocky another prominent American film with a central In both films, contextualized fighting is an Balboa is scorned by Mickey early in the film, plotline devoted to a boxing match between acceptable form of masculine expression—From who admonishes him for his brutish career the protagonist, Private Pruett (Montgomery Here to Eternity takes place in the military choices: “You could have been a fighter but Clift), and another soldier at an army base. setting at a camp in Hawaii in 1941 prior to the instead you became a cheap leg-breaker to a Pruett’s boxing match is one he explicitly does US involvement in WWII. The film shows the second-rate loan shark. It’s a wasted life.” The not want to fight and much of the film traces brutal barbarism of a military bully habitually commentary suggests that to fight in the ring— his circumvention of the match. His masculinity beating up a sympathetic character, Maggio the formal, controlled, contextualized fight—is MAY08 19 CSupdateW legitimized over the street fight—the informal, we are never self-actualized. And unsanctioned, uncontained fight. while they “fill gaps” together, it is also important to note that filling of gaps does not mean they complete each Binary Oppositions other, only together forming a whole person; rather, through their relation to Much of Rocky’s thematic structure each other, each becomes a whole self. is explored through binary pairings that In an exchange between Rocky and function in a dyadic structure of cooperation Adrian at the ice rink, Rocky reveals or competition. Rocky-as-boxer is situated that his motivation for becoming a Rocky & Adrian’s Thanksgiving date at the rink, in direct opposition to Apollo Creed, but boxer was stimulated by something his discovering their complementarity. Rocky-as-man is contextualized in both his father said to him, “You weren’t born with much opposition to Creed and in his relation to of a brain so better start usin’ your body.” To Adrian, especially, and among the other men which Adrian replies that her mother informed in his life. Rocky’s masculinity is situated in a her, “You weren’t born with much of a body so binary opposition to every other principle male better start developin’ your brain.” This early advances made by feminism” (49). Elmwood character in the film, including Mickey—the scene in the film’s narrative demonstrates (and claims that the oppositional pairing of Rocky aging father figure/trainer, Paulie, the alcoholic not without a bit of campy humor) that Adrian and Apollo Creed somehow advances the fight but aspiring manager (who are also positioned and Rocky complement each other in the most against the feminist movement through the in opposition to each other). The exception is basic way, a way that never denigrates Adrian’s ‘remasculinization’ of (white) men, though it the only principle female character, Adrian. status as his female counterpart, but rather is unclear what content of the film squarely Rocky’s masculinity and Adrian’s femininity are provides a foundation for a relationship based in supports this claim. She states, “It is clear that expressed in relation, not opposition, to each mutual regard, balance, and equality the moral universe of the film relies squarely other. In Rocky’s own words, their relationship between them. on her [Adrian’s] efforts to fulfill a properly with one another is about “filling gaps.” He tells Feminist scholars may be quick to argue feminine role by serving the champ and Paulie in the meat locker, “I don’t know…she’s this point with me, as evidenced in claims humanizing him” (pp 57-58). As I will illustrate got gaps, I’ve got gaps; together we fill gaps.” made as recently as 2005 by V. Elmwood that below, it is not a subservient role that Adrian While the language Rocky employs to express “Rocky offers masculine status and national plays to Rocky, but that of a loving partner who this parity is simple, it is by no means simplistic. citizenship to a previously rejected group in has discovered her own agency through the The gaps he refers to, in both himself and exchange for their allegiance in a quest for the relationship they forge together, not least of Adrian, reflect an understanding of the flawed remasculinization of white men…as well as which is sparked by Rocky’s ability to see Adrian nature of individual existence -- that in isolation offering a bond of solidarity in rolling back the as a real, whole person. MAY08 20 CSupdateW This ability to see is signified in the first scene provides the context with which of the film. Rocky opens with the camera pulling oppositional notions of masculinity away from a mosaic of Jesus (the epitome of come to light in the film.