I never saw Rocky until I was in my 40s. Strangely, throughout my youth I managed to see the first series of Rocky sequels (II, III, IV) several times. I enjoyed them (never thought they were amazing or became a 'fan'), but as I grew older in my memory they definitely fell into that "fluff" category, and as Stallone consistently made more and more fluff, I never felt the need to catch up with the original Rocky - every piece of evidence suggested it would be fluff. Well, every piece of evidence but one - the fact that it won the Oscar for Best Picture. And that nagged at me from time to time. So finally I sat down and watched Rocky to find that it really did deserve that award, and yes, Weathers' supporting role was a good part of that. The final fight scene in Rocky is one of the, say, 50 best five-minute stretches ever put to film, and that's high praise. And it succeeds in just about every way that it could, in the screenplay, the cinematography, the editing, the sound, and yes, the acting. Convince me that you're a world champion expecting a patsy to throw a fight in the third only to find yourself bloodied in the final round and concerned about nothing but never fighting this man again. Convince me of that while you're wearing a mouthpiece and bloodface from 17 camera angles. Convince me. Weathers convinced me. Well done.
RIP, Carl.
