I’ve never seen … Rocky
An underdog fighter wins hearts and respect – then gets punched below the belt by the jingoism of Reagan’s America
- See the other classic missed films in this series
- The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation
I’ll tell you in one word why I have never watched Rocky: Ronald Reagan. Sure, the film came out in 1976, before he reached the White House, likewise Rocky II. But he was US president in 1982, when Rocky III appeared, Eye of the Tiger was in the charts and Sylvester Stallone also starred in First Blood. Reagan was still president in 1985, the year I finished university – rolling up forever my poster of him and Margaret Thatcher in a Gone with the Wind embrace with an atom bomb – and another Stallone double-punch of Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part II hit the screens in a blaze of commie-bashing glory. That was what did it.