“I Ain’t No Bum!” – Sylvester Stallone

In which our heroes talk s*** about the 2023 Netflix documentary “Sly”

The Podcast….

In our first episode looking at Sylvester Stallone we focus on the documentary film Sly, produced by and released on Netflix in 2023 which catches up with our hero as he’s moving house from LA back to his home town of New York and he’s reflecting on his career and the body of work he’s created over 50+ years on the silver screen. We’ll look at his childhood and relationship with his father, his most iconic roles and his subsequent career which defines genres, creates the ultimate underdog and an almost 50 year franchise.

This is episode 1 of a 4 part miniseries in which we’ll take a deeper dive into the Rocky-verse, look at the impact of Rambo on 80s Action Movies and look into what happens to a career when the star begins to fade.

Some thoughts on “Sly” (2023) Netflix Documentary

So our first subject, that of one Sylvester Stallone will spawn 4 episodes, this one, an introductory episode revolving around the documentary “Sly” which you can see on Netflix, then 3 further shows looking at the biggest things that the doc raises, so the whole Rocky franchise, Rambo and 80s action movies, what happens when tastes change and your star starts to fade and of course the body of work that makes up a career.

Sly, produced by and released on Netflix in 2023 catches up with our hero as he’s moving house from LA back to his home town of New York and he’s reflecting on his career and I got the feeling that he’s not sure how much longer he’s going to have and also that he’s contemplating his legacy or at least the body of work he’ll leave behind.

“its a love story, it’s a love story”
Stallone on Rocky

And he starts playing these tapes of old interviews from back in the days and I thought that was a really cool device to ground the documentary so he’s listening to a younger version of himself and it’s almost like a commentary track where he’s telling his younger self what he should be saying….there’s the bit where on the tape he’s describing the idea of Rocky to the journalist and he’s going on and on and older Stallone is just there going “its a love story, it’s a love story”

And then we go back to his childhood neighbourhood in Hells Kitchen, New York and we get the story about how the nerves in his face got damaged during childbirth and how he describes his dad as a tough, hard guy…even now when the reality is probably closer to having a violent abusive father and the extent of that jumped out to me

I picked up on the fact that he see’s himself as a writer before an actor and had to write the parts he wanted to play because he wasn’t getting cast, and obviously around him are those who would quickly become giants of cinema, Scorsese, Keitel, De Niro, Pacino…its all there in New York so the fact that Rocky comes out of that isn’t surprising but I liked how he described how they developed the character of Rocky from a tough guy enforcer without any redeeming qualities to the hero underdog we get in the film.

Then we get a few ups and downs before he comes out with First Blood or Rambo…and kind of creates the 80s Action Hero which would dominate that decade and into the 90s….in the doc he talks about wanting to represent the veterans of the Vietnam war properly and I’m not sure that’s the outcome of the film overall, there’s a glorification of violence, especially in the sequels that isn’t entirely sympathetic to struggling war veterans but we do get a glimpse into Stallone where he says we shouldn’t see our heroes die which I thought was quite poignant and harks back to my favourite film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

And then he falls into playing Stallone, so he’s doing the same film but slightly different versions so things like Cobra and Over The Top, occasional comedy stuff that doesn’t work like Oscar or Stop or Mom will Shoot, and there’s maybe a bit of regret around the way he talks about some of those films and then into the 90s and it’s clearly all about the money with Cliffhanger and Demolition Man, The Specialist, Assassins that sort of stuff, Judge Dredd….but he’s getting paid loads to be in these movies but maybe not getting the critical response he thinks he deserves especially in a time when the whole world is going indie film mad.

Which brings us to Copland and in the documentary you can really see how much he thought that movie would bring about a resurgence, maybe like Travolta in Pulp Fiction, and as good as that movie is, and it’s his best performance outside of Rocky, it doesn’t really happen for him….the film doesn’t do as well at the box office as they hoped and even with the weight of Miramax behind them he doesn’t break through as an actor where other people have broken out of their wheelhouses before it doesn’t really happen for him.

I do think its a really good film and Stallone hold his own alongside proper heavyweights in Keital and De Niro…he’s really understated playing this schmuk sherriff who turns a blind eye to all the shenanigans until he cant any longer…cool little film but there were a 100 of them in the 2nd half of the 90s

The documentary then kind of fast forwards through the rest of his career, he lingers a little on Rocky 6 and Rambo: Last Blood and speaks again about not seeing the hero die, glosses completely over the death of his son at 36 and moves onto the Expendables and then there’s hints at the stuff with his daughters…do they have a podcast or something?

But the personal stuff never really gets dug into properly does it, all of a sudden he’s gone to see his dad who has been portrayed as a psycho but now he’s old it’s fine, the relationship with his brother could make an interesting story to get into and of course theres no mention of marriages and divorces.. oh one thing was that his Mum was a wrestling promoter and his dad was a hairdresser so no hetero-normative roles there.

But I thought overall it was interesting, interesting enough for me to go and watch Copland again straight away after and raid the charity shops for Rambo and Rocky DVDs and then get into it with Jamie on the podcast.

So over the next few shows we’ll dive deeper into some of the things that jumped out to us during this documentary so we’ll look into the Rocky-verse if you will, we’ll dive into the world of 80s Musclebound Action Heroes, see what happens when the ride starts to slow down and ultimately look at the body of work that makes up the movie career of Sylvester Stallone

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“I Ain’t No Bum!” – Sylvester Stallone

The Podcast….