Stallone’s Passion
Hollywood, it seems, has found religion. First came “The Passion of the Christ,” which broke new ground in bringing Christian themes to the box office. Now there’s “The Nativity Story,” which was screened amid much fanfare at the Vatican last week, and later this month there’ll be… “Rocky Balboa.”
To publicize his latest “Rocky” sequel, Sylvester Stallone has turned to Motive Entertainment, the same grass-roots firm that successfully sold “The Passion” to the Bible Belt crowd in 2004. Stallone, it seems, is hoping that by putting a Christian sheen on his punch-drunk franchise, he’ll increase the odds of scoring a victory in the Tinseltown ring.
Stallone says that the sixth and supposedly final installment of the long-running “Rocky” series is a paean to his faith. “Rocky Balboa has lost everything, and we see him triumph,” Stallone said in a conference call with Christian groups this week. “The last thing he hears before he enters the ring is scripture, and that’s what gives him strength.” And Lord knows, as a 60-year-old boxer he’ll need all the help he can get.
The niche-marketing firm tasked with hawking “Rocky Balboa,” which opens nationwide December 22, has even set up a Web site (www.Rockyresources.com) specifically designed to assist religious leaders in disseminating the film to their flock.
Rocky has come a long way: In the third installment of the series, the champion boxer says Kaddish for his beloved trainer, Mickey, who was played by the late great Burgess Meredith.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
