Film: Rocky (1976)
Screenplay by: Sylvester Stallone
Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Talia Shire, Burt Young, Sylvester Stallone
Dear Sylvester Stallone,
Last night I watched Rocky again. I had been at the Philadelphia art museum with a soul sister, and jeez louise, Sylvester, you just made that art museum extra special. Do you know that on Saturdays and Sundays, if I drive past the Philadelphia Art Museum, there are people lining up to stand next to the statue of Rocky from your iconic movie? They all want a picture with the statue. It’s a Philadelphia landmark.
Listen, Syllie, I’m an unknown movie filmmaker person. I don’t know where my interest in movies came from—it was like the heavens or sumpin. I took an acting class 5 years ago and every time I walked in, I felt like an inner movie star, and then the people in the classes and my yoga friends said, “I can see you on the red carpet.” And I was like, “Huh? Me? I’m a yoga teacher at Temple University and I’m trying to figure out how we went so wrong in reading Jesus’s gospels because I’m loving Jesus, but I don’t see how the religious right stole him. Ya know? And you think I’m an actress, mm? That’s interesting.”
So what happened, Sylvester, is the pandemic came, and I already got this Quaker religious practice of ministering to the people from the silence in a meeting for worship, which was how I came to know that God was real and not just an idea. (Something made me stand up one day in Quaker meeting in, uh, 2008, to speak a message, and that was not my will, but I had to do it, because I was shaking so bad, and I had the fear of God ever since.) So, anyways, as I was saying, the Covid pandemic came, and I’m reading all my Jesus scripture every day, and I started ministering from my front porch, and I was so alive and happy, but some things you publish just rub people in a way they don’t want to be rubbed. And a series of events unfolded, and I made a few strange little movies on YouTube, and I was lit up with the holy spirit, but you have to travel that path alone, because it’s a period of testing, and you don’t quite know what you are or who you are becoming. People will doubt your decisions, and you have to believe in yourself, and you of all people, Syl, you know the drill. You did that “believing in yourself thing,” with your movie Rocky. You were broke, I hear (is this story true?), and you were about to sell the script, but you wouldn’t sign off on the rights unless you could play the main character, Rocky. And you were tested, Syl. And you won the role of Rocky, and the producers took a risk, and look at what you made! It was worth it. I rented Rocky again last night after a long day, because the spirit moved me as I was unlocking my door with a bunch of groceries in my arms, in good old Philadelphia. I had already run a bunch of errands, and done a little art musing, and it was close to 10 o’clock in the evening, but I just couldn’t stop looking at you on that screen, in your black leather, and your awesome shoes, and that strange lip, and your cool hat. What a man.
“What a mighty good man.”—Salt-N-Peppa.
Anyways, I’m wondering if you can help me make movies. I make little ones for fun, but I have all these scripts and I want to learn more from people who have done it well. And especially, I want to help young people with a focus for their future that is positive and uplifting. We are all consuming a crazy amount of information these days, and young people need to be monitored in a healthy way so they don’t mess up their brains and become the robots and zombies that Hollywood inadvertently manifests through all the “blockbuster” judas-junk, you know? Shooting film is way better than shooting guns, and we need some conscious and thoughtful men and women working together.
I’m a high school teacher and a mom, and I’m from Philly. Can you help me, Syl? Can we do this Philly thang for the teens? Look me up on my website and reach out, or have a person reach out, if you’re willing to have a conversation, and let’s get in the thick of the truth of how a story functions, and what stories are worthy to be telling, and how we can find the line between dreams and reality and keep a nice healthy balance without hurting people no more. If we gotta punch slabs of dead meat in a cold warehouse instead of hurting people, let’s punch slabs of meat in a cold warehouse, ayight? And since John Avildsen is gone, maybe we can find a new director who has got the gold for the underdog-hero’s journey, and we start a new enterprise of inspiration.
I been emailing with this Gold-character-film-guy for years, cause he made a movie about air drumming that was weird and he sometimes responds to emails. But he don’t give me a call even though I’m throwing him all kinds of healthy good ideas about how to make money, help people, and write a good story. I don’t know, maybe we Philly people just gotta stick together and leave L.A. out of it. Mmm? Maybe L.A.’s gotta make its way to the brotherly love capital of the United States. What’s brotherly love anyway? It’s friendship, I think. It’s True Friendship.
I just want a city that includes us sisters wholeheartedly, ya know? Without trying to knock us down. I want more Rocky-types who treat women the way Rocky treated Adrian. Defending her, seeing her, being patient. Helping her open up and stand up to the toxic bullshit of her life. Those are the kinds ‘a guys I want to know.
Do you think they exist in Philly or L.A.? Honest? Genuine? Embodied?
It ain’t the 70s anymore. How many guys have the discipline to wake up every morning and run up the art museum steps, knowing they are preparing for a fight they’re going to lose to politics, but saying that the thing that matters most, is “going the distance” and “still standing”?
My experience of guys, and my sisters’ experiences—what we see is guys bowing out and sitting in front of their computers with a lot of addictive tendencies and images that are full of lies, lies, lies.
That ain’t good for the psyche or the next generation, ya hear me?
So let’s be the peace and the piece, Sylvie. I’d date Rocky in two minutes flat—I love how he just keeps talking to fill the space when he gets nervous. And how sweet he is to animals. Turtles, even.
He’s good soil.
Cheers,
Ms. Wonderful
Here’s a playlist I made for January 2025. I did it with my vinyl records, because you don’t know who’s watching/running/managing/finagling those online thingamajigs!
A black and white photo of a colorful abstract painting I made that I call “Mmhm.”
Upcoming performances by women.