Manero / Balboa Deux

Before pairing up for Staying Alive, Stallone and Travolta, aka Manero / Balboa, headlined this inspired drive-in double bill...

Ghost of Serpico

David Shaber's original script for Nighthawks was developed as the basis for a second sequel to French Connection (with Richard Pryor as a wisecracking cop who teams up with Popeye), but Gene Hackman refused to reprise his role as Popeye Doyle again and the script was re-worked for Sylvester Stallone and co-star Billy Dee Williams. From the long locks and facial hair of a beefier than usual (at the time) Stallone, it's clear that the filmmakers (or the star himself) also had another famous '70s real-life and cinematic New York cop in their heads: Frank Serpico.  They're not so interested in the politics or methods of Serpico, nor the realism or tragic qualities of that film, but Stallone's sunglasses, beard, and long hair are surely meant to inspire memories of Al Pacino in his iconic role on a purely surface level.

Stallone's beard was apparently suggested by then-girlfriend Susan Anton, seen here with Warhol, receiving one of Sly's characteristic fake punches to the chin.

In one scene early on, Deke DaSilva (Stallone) and his partner Fox (Billy Dee Williams) scale a tenement via fire escape in order to make a bust.  It's reminiscent of a moment in Serpico in which Pacino uses the same method to enter a building.  I've mashed up these two scenes, as the parallels in costuming and physical appearance are rather striking.

The same scene in Serpico also has a shot of Pacino walking down a street and into building, which is similar to a shot in the actor's later vehicle, Cruising, in which he lazily swaggers home to his girlfriend (Karen Allen) after another night out in the Meatpacking District.  His appearance is completely different in terms of clothing and hairstyle from that of Serpico, but the mise-en-scene and the actor's movements are nearly identical.  In terms of performance, the two scenes reveal an aspect of an actor's bag of tricks--in this case, the way he moves to suit a character and the camera--that is not cited as often as his verbal abilities.

Stallone-isms

With 6 Rocky installments and 4 iterations of Rambo it's no secret that Sly Stallone will return to the same couple of wells multiple times.  For me, a Stallone fan for as long as I can remember, it's interesting to see where some of the dialogue, narrative devices, and visuals of those films creep into other, less-celebrated Stallone vehicles.  Since the star so often writes and / or directs his own projects--whether in official or unofficial capacities--it's not surprising to have some overlap in terms of dialogue and scenarios across different films. 

I haven't seen every Stallone picture nor do I have access to all of them so this project reflects the titles I'm more familiar with and have an affinity for.  I'd certainly be interested to hear about more examples of these "Stallone-isms."

Manero / Balboa

It's by no means unusual for a successful film to spawn imitations, along with the inevitable official sequels, prequels, remakes, and re-imaginings...happens all the time.  So it was that the phenomenon that was Rocky inspired music impresario Robert Stigwood to quickly develop and produce his own urban, working class fable, optioning Nik Cohn's New York article "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" and enlisting Serpico scribe Norman Wexler to write the screenplay version of what would eventually be called Saturday Night Fever.  It's fitting that Rocky director John G. Avildsen was the original helmer of Saturday Night Fever before having "creative differences" with Stigwood and star John Travolta, leading to his being replaced by John Badham during pre-production.  I can only assume that the Rocky poster on Tony Manero's wall is a remnant of the production design overseen by Avildsen (additionally, there's a Serpico poster in Manero's bedroom; incidentally, Serpico is another film that Avildsen was attached to at one point).  Prior to their near-collaboration on Serpico, Wexler and Avildsen teamed on Joe, another blue collar cinematic icon of the '70s, which J. Hoberman wrote about here on its 30th anniversary.

Even with that not so unusual production history in mind, it is interesting to see the mythos and cultural impact of a film, right down to the Rocky poster prominently displayed on Tony Manero's wall, so quickly and openly acknowledged and absorbed, in part, by another film; to put this in perspective Saturday Night Fever was being produced while Rocky was still in theatrical release.  It's this relationship between Rocky and Saturday Night Fever, Rocky Balboa and Tony Manero, that I play with a bit in this short video essay:



Continuing this Balboa - Manero strand, Rocky writer and star and Sylvester Stallone would direct Saturday Night Fever's inferior sequel Staying Alive (complete with theme song by Stallone frere Frank). 

 

Completing this circle, over thirty years later, Saturday Night Fever would inspire the fascinating Chilean film Tony Manero, darker and more disturbing than anything on screen in either Rocky or Saturday Night Fever.

"But girl you've got me thinkin', while I'm drinkin' one more beer..."

You have to love that each guy even has an animal buddy...a hawk for Lincoln and an orangutan for Philo...and each one is a trucker, of course.

Dig the alternate art on this insert: