Sly
It’s interesting that “Sly” went in quite a different direction compared to the documentary series “Arnold.” While Schwarzy’s story was divided into three episodes each covering one (chronological) side of his personality, Sylvester Stallone decided on one, somewhat unusual, documentary film.
“Sly” also starts in a somewhat unusual way, because we find Stallone as he’s slowly moving out of his Beverly Hills villa (interesting fact is he sold his villa to singer Adele for 58 million dollars), with the intention of moving somewhere else in search of “himself” (he’s currently in Palm Beach, Florida). While workers slowly carry out furniture and numerous works of art, Stallone pulls audio cassettes from his desk and plays them, listening to his voice as he gave interviews when younger and slowly remembers his past.
That would be some summary of this documentary film.
However, what’s interesting here?
Well, many things, because we see how fundamentally different Sly is from Schwarzy (though both are considered the greatest action stars and rivals), in that Sly is definitely a more emotional person who (apparently) experienced greater suffering during growing up than Arnold.
They’re also different actor profiles. While Arnold entered the acting world after quite a successful bodybuilding career, with a simple goal to become an (action) star in a new industry, acting was an escape into something better for Stallone. However, unlike his rival, who profiled himself mostly as actor (and less as producer), Stallone besides acting became recognized as screenwriter and producer, who wasn’t afraid to take complete control over filming some film.
We’ll see how Sly had quite a difficult childhood and after his parents’ divorce lived with quite violent and unfeeling father, who apparently always minded the potential (and later success) of his son.
Stallone will in his story around films base himself most on the “Rocky” series, but not just because it launched him to stardom. Of course, we all know the story that Sly was offered big money for the “Rocky 1” script (which he wrote in a moment of inspiration in incredibly short time), but that he wouldn’t sell it for the life of him if he didn’t act in it. Then Hollywood bigwigs gave in, so they gave him the lead role (but gave him a more modest sum of money for the script), and he didn’t even get actors he initially wanted for roles, which ended up being a hidden blessing – the film had ten Oscar nominations and won three (Stallone was nominated in “best actor” and “best screenwriter” categories, which before that only two legends managed – Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles!) and launched him among stars.
However, from Stallone’s mouth we discover he subtly inserted into the “Rocky” series (especially first parts), through character dialogues and some scenes, parts of his life story, especially around the relationship with his father and his misunderstanding, and later his (Stallone’s) partial failure in the father role. After this documentary, you’ll see completely differently why the role of Rocky is so significant for this actor.
Stallone will (to my surprise) touch much less on other films. He’ll dedicate one part to the “Rambo” series (especially from the perspective that he didn’t want to participate at all in one planned film version, because he thought it would send a strong bad message about Vietnam veterans, so because of him they had to adapt the film), will mention his foray into comedy and farce world, but also how he thought those weren’t good films for him and the audience didn’t really provide support there either (to be honest, I find his comedies quite likeable and fun), his idea behind “Expendables” films, as well as some other film (“F.I.S.T,” “Cop Land”). To tell you the truth, I expected he’d talk more about many of his other films.
Stallone will also reveal to us how he dealt with fame and how media experienced him (and subtly put pressure on him whether he can repeat his successes), what the price of success is and some other things.
However, it can’t escape notice that one of the central figures running through the documentary is his father and the injustices he did to him, even when Sylvester was already a grown man (you’ll see why he no longer loves horses… and he was once a semi-professional polo player!) and that this relationship defined him quite a bit for many things during his life.
“Sly,” surprisingly doesn’t delve much into private (family) life. In a very small segment he touches on his family, his wife, three daughters and late son (I assume partly related to privacy, and partly because he even has a reality show about his family).
However, it’s not just Sly talking about himself. His brother Frank will reveal quite a lot about Stallone, starting from their growing up to collaboration on films. Quentin Tarantino will have solid screen time, who will deal quite a bit with analyzing Stallone, especially from the beginning of his career (and the film “The Lords of Flatbush”), as well as what influence Stallone left on the film world. There’s also his rival-friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will share how he always had the impression that, although both were big action stars, he had to “chase” him to catch up in success. A couple words will also be said by Talia “Eeeeadriaaaaan” Shire, Henry Winkler and John Herzfeld, as well as film critic Wesley Morris.
We’ll see quite a bit of archival footage from Stallone’s life, both on the big screen and on the red carpet, as well as on various shows. We’ll also see moments when Sly walks his “old neighborhood.”
One thing I liked in this documentary is that Sly speaks somehow pensively and deeply, as if trying to find and extract some deeper emotions while trying to convey himself and his thoughts to us (Arnold in his documentary, on the other hand, was more like some narrator who likes to be cynical and sarcastic and sharp and direct).
All this shows us that Sly’s success really didn’t come just easily. He had to break through quite a bit himself, hardly met with support (which somehow came easier to Schwarzy, though realistically Schwarzy always apparently had more of that some… uh, charisma?), had to fight against Hollywood winds and prejudices toward him (quite a bit also due to facial paralysis he got due to complicated birth, which caused difficult speech and facial expressions… and we’re talking about things very important for every actor), and often it seemed Hollywood didn’t even give him opportunities to “spread out” as actor outside classic action hero roles of lots of action (i.e., shooting and beating) and few words.
And what, in the end, to say about the documentary film “Sly”?
Simply, you’re sorry there isn’t more. While “Arnold” is somehow more fun to watch (and listen to), “Sly” is a more emotional story about the path from thorns to stars and you’d simply love to hear more about his thoughts on the topic of film, art and life in general (contrary to many’s conviction, Stallone is quite an intellectual and very eloquent man and great art lover… and according to confirmations from numerous sources, has IQ coefficient 160!) and you’re truly sorry there isn’t more told.
It would be interesting if he touched a bit more on his careers before Hollywood (to survive, Stallone worked as cleaner in a zoo, and also appeared in one softporn film), if he shared a bit more about his family, but also touched a bit on some of his other films (“Demolition Man,” “Antz,” “Creed,” “Tango & Cash,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Escape Plan,” “Over the Top,” “Cobra”). It would be nice if he talked more about comedies like “Oscar” and “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot,” as well as the “Expendables” series or why he wasn’t in later “Creed” films. Simply, much remained untold, and surely would be interesting to hear.
I liked the documentary and didn’t even notice how quickly time passed with it. Quite a few pieces will fall into place for us about Stallone’s profile, as well as why he’s so attached to the “Rocky” series. But there’s still quite a lot that could have been told. After all, the man’s been in the film world for almost 50 years! But for the first documentary about him, good job.
All in all, respect from me for both acting legends with whose films I grew up and which I can always watch!
And you, dear reader, if we exclude “Rocky” and “Rambo,” what would be your favorite film of his? 🙂
Sylvester Stallone’s website | Trailer | Imdb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic
Premiere: 2023 | Format: Film (documentary) | Runtime: 95 minutes
