It’s of little surprise that Rocky’s most iconic scene was also a groundbreaking moment in filmmaking history. The original Rocky movie created an inspiring legacy that’s grown to include several sequels and a spinoff series, an enduring popularity as one of the best sports films of all time, and a permanent place in popular culture for some of the most iconic film moments in American cinema. From Rocky yelling for Adrian to the famous training montage – the Rocky movie had no lack of incredible movie moments that have helped to establish and maintain Rocky’s prevalence, even today.
As both the writer and principal actor of the film, Sylvester Stallone fully embodied Rocky Balboa’s spirit, and with director John G. Avildsen by his side, he was able to turn what was once a humble screenplay about an underdog boxer into a world-changing movie sensation. Not only were they able to nail all the story aspects of Rocky that made it a cultural phenomenon, but behind-the-scenes, Avildsen and Stallone’s Rocky efforts were breaking ground in filmmaking as well. In fact, Rocky’s most beloved scene helped to popularize a revolutionary tool that has impacted cinema since Rocky’s 1976 release.
Rocky’s Run Up The Museum Steps Was One Of The First Steadicam Shots
The scene in question is the beautifully shot sequence of Rocky’s run through Philadelphia that famously culminated in his ascent up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Rocky’s motivational training montage was a critical representation of Balboa’s narrative arc in the film (and overarching franchise) and has come to be known in popular culture as a powerful metaphor in which the underdog rises to a challenge. The scene captures the training exercises Rocky had to perfect to reach peak physicality for his impending fight, but Stallone’s stunts and displays of agility couldn’t have been caught on film so gorgeously without the early technology of the Steadicam.
First introduced to the world of cinema in 1975 by inventor Garrett Brown, the Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizing mounts intended to produce clear, non-shaky shots for motion pictures. Upon the production of the first Rocky movie, use of the Steadicam was in its beginning stages and had only been employed professionally once before in the 1976 film, Bound For Glory. It wasn’t until Rocky’s iconic training montage, arguably the most iconic sequence of that year, that the Steadicam was truly popularized; Rocky’s successful scene helped showcase the Steadicam’s revolutionary abilities, and since then, the Steadicam has been an invaluable production tool in the movie industry.
How The Steadicam’s Inventor Inspired The Iconic Rocky Moment
Stallone’s movie may have helped popularize the Steadicam as a major motion picture tool, but the Steadicam played a substantial role in Rocky’s success too. Along with capturing Rocky’s run through Philadelphia with appealing fluidity, the Steadicam also actually inspired the best part of Rocky’s training montage. Per The New York Times, while testing the effectiveness of his Steadicam invention, Brown shot his then girlfriend running up and down the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to show how smooth a Steadicam sequence could be.
Rocky’s director Avildsen was impressed by the Steadicam’s demonstration reel and even set out to incorporate Brown’s girlfriend’s sprint up the museum steps into the movie. It’s by mere happenstance that Stallone’s ascent up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art carried such metaphorical weight in Rocky. It goes without saying that if Sylvester Stallone didn’t play Balboa, the Rocky franchise wouldn’t have been nearly as good, but the significance of the Steadicam cannot be understated either, as it played an instrumental role in the legacy Rocky created for itself.
