When you ask Rocky fans to choose the worst installment of the franchise, the answer is almost always Rocky V. After all, that’s the film that left the franchise comatose for sixteen years, so it’s an easy choice. Sylvester Stallone knows Rocky V is a weak link in the saga, and he’d like to do something about it, even revealing he’s been asking Amazon to let him recut the film.
Rocky V Recut?
John G. Avildsen, director of the first Rocky movie, returned to helm Rocky V, so it wouldn’t exactly be a director’s cut, but there’s no one who knows this character better than Stallone.
Stallone called Rocky V “a thorn in my side,” adding, “It bothers me to death because I know I took my foot off the gas. I should have been more aware of not trying to be cool to the audience.“
After Rocky defeated Ivan Drago in the last film, Rocky V found him retiring due to a potentially fatal injury and going bankrupt because of Paulie’s poor business dealings. It’s a bummer. Rocky moves back to his old neighbourhood in Philadelphia and takes over Mickey’s old gym. He begins training a young fighter named Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison), but Tommy turns on Rocky once he finds success elsewhere. It all ends with a brutal street fight between Tommy and Rocky.
The film received awful reviews and was a disappointment at the box office, grossing $119 million worldwide. Not a bad number, but a far cry from Rocky IV‘s $300 million. That might have been the end of the franchise had Stallone not returned with the vastly superior Rocky Balboa years later.
Even if Stallone gets the chance to recut Rocky V, he acknowledges it won’t be “great,” merely “acceptable.” Still, it might be fun to see.
Rocky IV: Rocky vs Drago
Stallone does have experience recutting Rocky movies years after the fact, as he released a director’s cut of Rocky IV in 2021. The new cut put a more dramatic spin on the story and stripped back some of the silly elements, such as Paulie’s robot.
In his review of Rocky IV: Rocky vs Drago, our own Chris Bumbray said, “It’s a more serious film, that’s for sure, but it’s also a lot less political and a lot more personal. Sly cut a lot of the lighter stuff. As a fan of the film, I enjoyed the cheese but I imagine Sly did not. There are moments where I think the theatrical cut is superior, such as in the editing of the training montage’s second half set to ‘Heart’s on Fire’. Yet, there are other moments where Rocky vs Drago is far superior, with the ending especially a lot more serious.“
Would you like to see Sylvester Stallone recut Rocky V?
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