In November of last year, Stallone released his new directors cut of Rocky IV,
which introduced 40mins of new footage. Rocky IV was the most successful film of the franchise
earning $300 million back in 1985. It remains a fan favourite, thanks to its soundtrack,
its overuse of montages and of course having Dolph Lundgren as Drago, it was the Soviet Union
VS The United States. But of course the films plot, is kicked off by the death of Apollo,
which spurs on Rocky to fight the Russian Power house, it gave the movie this emotional gut punch.
At the time the critics were mixed on it with most leaning on the negative, which had no effect
on the film’s success. By the 4th entry in the long running franchise, there was a great sense
that Stallone was failing to offer anything new, each sequel Rocky fights a new opponent
and there is an emotional moment in his life to offer some drama. Critics had gotten tired of
the formula, it had become very predictable. Come Rocky IV, it had a very thin story, with 3 lengthy
montages eating up a third of the movies run time. But despite that it was hugely entertaining and
had a great villain but it seemed this could be end of the franchise. Of course it wasn’t,
with two more sequels produced and two spin off movies focused around Apollos son.
When Sly announced back in August of 2020, that he was going to do a director’s cut of Rocky IV,
I was surprised, what else could he bring to the table to improve it? In most cases when
it comes to extending movies or offering a new cut years later, it boils down to
the film having a reputation of having large chunks of material cut out, or the director
had the film taken away from them and couldn’t complete their vision. In the case of Alien 3,
Richard Donner’s cut of Superman II, Ridley’s Scott legend, David Lynch’s DUNE and so on.
When they published the news for this new cut of Rocky IV, I do think it was slightly misleading,
40mins new footage, I was thinking the film is going to be 40mins longer even the IMDB listing
has it over 2 hours long but that is not the case, they have essentially taken out 40mins
and put back in 40mins of new stuff. So the new cut is about 2mins longer than the theatrical cut.
They have also adjusted the films aspect ratio, from the 1:85.1 to 2:35.1,
giving a wider look to the film, which I wasn’t too keen on and will discuss later.
So straight away you are seeing a longer recap of Rocky III ( reminding you of Apollo training
Rocky, they have taken the energetic opening sequence and played this out
in a slower more emotional fashion, form the offset, Stallone is trying to take this story
in a more serious direction. The whole recap of Rocky III is over 7mins long,
compared to the original cut where it run to just over 3mins.
The famous boxing gloves opening the film has been removed and a new title card has been included.
Rocky has removed many of the scenes featuring his son and of course the famous Robot
that is given to Pauly as a birthday gift. Many fans were disappointed to see it go
but Stallone felt it was silly and goofy and removed any sign of it which results in a
number of Pauly scenes being left out. (thankfully Pauly falling in the snow remains intact) Also the
scene with Rocky and Adriene celebrating their anniversary has been removed for this new cut.
We find out that Rocky has been offered to fight Drago, but in this version we discover he unsure
if he should take part, So Apollo wants to challenge him, so it’s the same story but we
are seeing extending conversations between Rocky, Apollo and Adriene. Which includes a
new scene with Rocky talking to his wife in the kitchen trying to get her to understand
Apollo’s reasons to fight. She says Apollo thinks he is fighting for the whole country.
Dragos arrival at the airport has been removed, probably down the fact that Bridget Nielson and
her role in the film has been heavily reduced. Stallone was married to her from 1985 to 87,
so given the chance he has decided to remove a lot of ex-wife scenes. Her performance isn’t
great in the film so it’s not a huge loss and more of the focus shifts onto Nicolai.
Most of the scenes remain intact, but we are seeing the scenes from different angles,
with Stallone relying on a lot of the wide shots instead,
the theatrical cut had made use of a lot of close ups.
Before Apollos fight with Drago they cut out Rocky’s chat with him in the backroom –
Rocky is offering advice and suggesting Apollo postpone the fight. Apollo isn’t
listening. In the new cut it goes straight to Drago being surprised by Apollos entrance.
On first viewing I thought the James Brown sequence was longer
but it runs at the same pace but scenes have been changed for different angles,
and includes more coverage of Apollos wife, but her interaction with Bridget has been taken out.
The first big fight runs around 2 mins longer, with Apollo putting up more of a fight at the
start. The funeral has been extended with Duke now giving a speech alongside Rocky
and there is a shot of Apollos wife with her children which was cropped and from
a different angle in the theatrical cut so you didn’t really see them.
One of the new scenes is Rocky speaking with the boxing commission,
who are only featured in the theatrical cut in a newspaper clipping. In this scene they argue
with Rocky not take part in this fight and don’t support his reasons to enter the ring with Drago.
The first of the montages has minor changes, all the scenes that are flashbacks are now
presented in Black & White, and the close ups of Stallone have been swapped for wider shots.
There is an additional sequence of Rocky and Adrian before he leaves to Russia
after he chats with his son, which shows they have made up after their argument the night before.
Once Rocky is in Russia and preparing to train,
we see an extended scene with him putting photos up on a mirror,
we have additional voice over as well. The next big montage has some additional shots, Bridget’s
moments have been trimmed and we see some new moments of Rocky working out on a punching bag.
The third montage has some minor alternations,
with shots been changed for different angles and wide shots.
As this is a new remaster, the sound mix has been beefed up for clearer separation
of the channels and the sound effects are more meaty, though Vince DiCola’s
score is dialled back in areas which is often common when Studios remaster the sound mix,
they play up the sound effects and often reduce the music which always drives me nuts.
Vince’s score does go goes full swing however when Drago makes his big entrance with some heavy bass.
There is an added scene between Apollo and Rocky before the final fight as Rocky has
a flashback of Apollo and we see an extended scene of Rocky getting ready before the fight.
So the big fight for the third act is a lot different to the theatrical cut,
it runs a lot longer with Rocky putting up more of a fight in the first few rounds
and he takes a little longer to do some real damage to Drago.
Most of the shots have been changed for alternative angles again with wider shots used,
there is more scenes in the corner with Rocky and Drago speaking to their team and there is a scene
with some voice over as Rocky encourages himself to get back on his feet. Stallone has removed the
scenes of his kid and his friends reacting to the fight as the Robot is in the background.
And finally after Rocky gives his inspirational
speech it no longer freeze frames on him holding the American flag,
we instead see him walk from the ring, acknowledge Drago and exit the crowd before the credits roll.
This new directors cut, essentially offers a story with more meat on its bones. It’s the same film
but with scenes extended to offer an expansion on the characters, more time is taken to get to the
fights and we Apollos reasons to fight Drago are more clear, his ego doesn’t seem so over the top,
Rocky seems more level headed and concerned but also has a stronger reason to seek revenge
for the death of Apollo. There is less urgency to get to the fight to let the story breathe.
I did really enjoy seeing the new material, its surprising how much Stallone left on the
cutting room floor, in efforts to cut to the chase to get Apollo into the ring with Drago
and eventually Rocky’s confrontation with the roided up Russian. I can understand Sly’s reasons
to cut out the more goofy stuff from the film with Pauly’s Robot, and his interaction with his son.
But as Sly starts to strip away the goofy silly moments and adjust what he already
edited back in 1985, he starts to unravel what was so finely tuned with the fights
that it loses a bit of its emotional impact and the excitement of the final fight is reduced,
the surge of adrenaline you get watching the theatrical cut, was no longer there for me in
the director’s cut. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun to watch but something was missing.
The first act of the movie is a big improvement, a lot more story on offer, After Apollo’s death
and Rocky, chats with the commission about his fight with Drago and they try to stop him from
taking part, this is a whole new scene was a welcome addition and it’s a shame it was cut as
it offers a bit more insight and gives reasons as to why Rocky takes the fight to Russian.
As this is a new 4K remaster, the HDR colour grade and changes to its photographic look,
has improved some scenes, to create a more evened balance with the flesh tones but also
they have blown out the colours and added a blue filter over the training sequence in Russia,
its just blinds you with white and blue, that it naturally would do, with the sun bouncing
off the snow, but in the theatrical cut, its doer look made it look more oppressive and
difficult to train in. Thus creating a more threatening location for Rocky to be in.
The change of the aspect ratio has seemed to have come about at the last minute, we see Stallone
watching the final edit at his home in the excellent making of which you can find on YouTube,
and it’s the correct ratio, so with the quick change, it does mess up a lot of the compositions,
as the black borders have cropped shots, that now look poorly framed, or closes up
seems more extreme. The montage of newspaper and magazine covers don’t work as well as they have
their top and bottom sections cut off. Its great making use of a wide ratio when you cut to wide
shots of the arena and locations but Sly didn’t shoot the movie original in this scope format,
and also messes up visual continuity in the series. I get a sense Stallone
is really trying to link it with the Creed films, which also took advantage of that aspect ratio.
But is this new cut better? I don’t think so, I still prefer the theatrical cut,
because it’s silly, over the top, Stallone’s ego is in full swing it just gives you a movie
that is pure entertainment. it was nice to see some of the new scenes and seeing that Stallone
had made an effort to write an interesting sequel that would eventually get streamlined heavily in
the edit to focus on the energy and excitement for Rocky to train and face up against Drago,
which the help of montages, great pop music and a heavy use of synthesizers by Vince DiCola
to get the audience pumped up, Rocky 4 had one of the best soundtrack albums of the 80s.
I appreciate Stallone taking the 4th entry in the series in a more serious direction with this new
cut, he may have set out to do that when he wrote the script, to keep it more inline with
the original film but during the course of editing back in 1985, he has shifted it to focus on the
energy and MTV style editing, reflecting on what was going on at the time and it proved the right
move, as the film was a smash hit. But as Stallone has got older and wiser, it’s clear he wanted
Rocky IV to be taken more seriously to strengthen the death of Apollo and its impact on Rocky.
It’s definitely worth a watch, you may even think it’s better than the original cut,
as you may have found the theatrical cut far too cheesy and would appreciate its
more serious tone with this director’s cut. its great we have both cuts and I expect fans are
already putting their own cuts together, I suppose it’s the same position I’m in with Superman II,
the Donner cut gave us what Richard Donner original wanted to do with the sequel,
Brando’s scene were restored and the silly comedy from Richard Lester were reduced
but I grew up with the theatrical cut, and that film felt more complete as the Donner Cut was
never properly finished, I still think another cut of Superman II is needed to combine both edits,
but in the case of Rocky IV, Stallone has managed to get across his true vision but in his attempts
to strike a more a serious tone, he has lost some of the fun and excitement during the process.