Makes you smeel mainly (Stallone: A rocky life - Frank Sanello)

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Product:	Stallone: A rocky life - Frank Sanello
Date:	25/05/01 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I know more than you do!, Good read though

Disadvantages: Hes made some stinkers

NOT A CLIFFHANGER!
Ok heres the deal, if you are going to buy or get this out of the library, then only read as much as you need. My opinion turned into a review and then a essay. It’s a fun and entertaining read and therefore recommend that you don’t read on and buy it. Whatever the hell that means.
If you are not likely to buy this excellent short read, then I have over summarized it here, and enjoyed doing it. It’s a solid review to.

The author is a shozbiz journalist from Americas People magazine and the book is filled with voxpox and many interesting tales and opinions on The States biggest action hero.
I have read better, but the quick fire two hundred pages pack in the detail to keep you interested and keen. How many of us can say they no the real story behind this dog faced actor.

In 1945 just as one Great War was finishing, another was brewing as Sylvester Enzio Stallone popped out of his mother’s womb in Hells Kitchen New work. And to make things worse, the doc extractions methods using a clamp on his skull, severed a facial nerve that has given him his distinctive multi million-dollar look.
As he grew up in the toughest streets of the Big Apple the expectant nasty names came thick and fast. Mr. Potato head and slack brain one of many that honed those early legendary boxing instincts from an early weapon.
His up bringing was a typical brutal father son and wayward show biz mom scenario as his macho pop laid him out in front of his friends when the beer or his mood deemed reasonable. His mom was a vein-conceited girl who eventually grew jealous of her son’s success that she always craved for.

Among his dads many macho hobbies, his favourite one was catching rabbits and fowl and eating them raw as the guts steamed in the winter morning air on Catskills hunting trips. Sly was more fortunate than most when his mom remarried and moved them out of the ghetto and into upstate NY, and its
greener suburbs.

The guy’s confidence was allowed to recover a little more in the mellower districts and Stallone sneaked into community college, a place where people could be them selves and Americas biggest action hero was introduced to acting.
Death of a Salesman was where it all began for the surprisingly small 5,5 actor and his love of Steve Perry, the star of the Hercules films of the 1960s gave him away to forget his disfigured looks, and pump up the muscles for the confidence and the ladies.

Sly wasn’t the brightest in his early days as he once explained in an essay at college, how to eat a car!.But to counter this inadequacy like he did with the weights for his ego, he learnt a different letter from the dictionary, even to this day.

I remember seeing Barry Norman interview him and old Bazzer being flummoxed by these unexpected vocabulary. There is a myth going around that he has a IQ of 140+, I think I know who started that one.

The University of Miami was Slys first real tastes of academia, sadly most of the other scholarships were wasted on future college wanna be sports stars, but he faired little better up top and even failed to make the gridiron side.
His acting efforts here were also repelled which resulted in him setting up of all things, an arty alternative theatre group, with Sly doing the writing. His avant guard efforts included plays like”The bald Rhinoceros” and one about a budding trumpeter (based loosely on his musician brother Frank) who has a heart condition, and can only be revived with bananas stuffed in his mouth.

He or his Israel Norak plays didn’t quite blend with the Florida mentality and Stallone bugged out back to his New York roots. But the Big Apple bought him back to the same city as mom and her oppressive put downs to her distant son.
Both Stallones believe in horoscopes, and as a professional reader, mom used it as away to dictate her son
217;s direction in life. Dropping out of college did not endear him to her and yet again she read the heavens favorably to steer him on the straight and narrow

But like the stars,it didn’t work as Sly quickly found himself homeless in the big city.It seems the town wasn’t quite ready for his avant guard acting although they had a nice cardboard box for him in Central Station.
For a not particularly good destitute actor, theres only one-step down to go, porno’s. Kitty and the Stud, which later became The Italian Stallion after his fame, offered Sly a small part (boom boom) for $100 bucks a day.
Apparently the still available flick was shown at parties years later for $10,000 grand a reel to celeb and poser parties. As much as he tried to get the errrr embarrassment deleted its still out there now on video.
All muscle and know action was never more true in this case. It didn’t quite prove to be his biggest disaster as he was still to make Tango and Cash.

With $500 in his pocket and jobs as a lion cage cleaner and delivery driver amongst others paying the rent, Stallone tried again to with the writing and seek that fame and success his silly mom predicted for seven years time.

The early seventies bought success in this department as he picked up $2500 dollars for a TV script sold in the UK and his first real movie experience. Although The Lords of Flatbush didn’t get him noticed much,it got them of the eviction list and food on the table.
Bullied by his minor achievement he decided to ship out to the West Coast leaving his girl behind to make his name in Hollywood, like many an aspiring young face. A small dingy pad on the notorious Strip greeted him as he sent tickets for the heavily pregnant wife to come join him in the smog.

It was the warm summer Californian nights that changed Stallones writing direction. He finally sussed his own position and out look on film and as he put it”
Losers went to the movie house to see winners”.
It was also that summer that he was watching a championship fight between Muhammad Ali and a little known bum who was supposed to go down early on. But before the bout, the kid was confident he could go the rounds and sting the champ. Wipner (the bum) did and almost toppled the king with a stinging right upper cut.

This of course was the incentive to write Rocky and make his name at the grand old age of 29.He claimed to have wrote it in three days!,but in reality various people chopped and changed it,as he settled for his seventh re-write a month later.
Immediately the buzz rumbled around Hollywood writing circles of this hot script, with an offer of $35 grand on the table to bolster the couple’s miserly 106-dollar bank account. But Sly knew this was a good one and held out for more.

Incredibly it was bumped up to a colossal ten fold, to a third of a million dollars, but still the shrewd, if risky tactics were deployed. The muscle head felt that this was his fortune and he wasn’t going to waste the shot.
Finally he bargained a deal so that he could play the lead and except the actors guild minimal fee, to compensate the risk. The motto of this one as Sly put it”Not selling out, going the distance and having faith in ones self like the movie that he was about to make it in.
A tested film studio had to give in as they knocked back Reynolds, Nicholson, Hackman and Newman who were all lined up to play the punchy fighter.

Talia Shire, who one of Don Corleones kids in daddy director, Francis Ford Coppollas, The Godfather, was cast as Adrian, Slys painfully shy screen wife. Sadly her gangster movie was to grab the big Oscars that Stallones feel good movie just missed out on.

Carl Weathers, who was cast as Apollo Creed was just as brash of camera as on, and would regularly punch Sly in the head and body, be it accidentally during the long punishing r
ealistic fight scenes. The young cocky boxer was not a trained actor and had been playing quarterback for The Oakland Raiders American football team.

Stallone quickly took over the movie as writer and star, giving regular input to all departments, weather they liked it or not. He quickly annoyed everyone on set, but finished the film inside the budget and schedule.
During filming he suffered a lot of pain, once going ass over tit in a freezing Philadelphia when he tripped down those famous steps fracturing a hip bone.

He saved money by employing family members in the flick, including brother Frank and Dad number two as the guy who rang the bell every round.
If you look carefully in the original movie, Stallone can be seen screaming for his pop to ring the bell as Weathers continued pounding his opaque nut long after the cut.
There was also a place for his beloved Bulmastif dog Bupkis who carried the same name in the final cut.
The proud pup was awarded his SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card after his pouchy performance to Slys punchy.

The film wasn’t extroidanary hit as box office records were smashed. Sly even premiered a test screening to his proud mum as her and his prediction had come true. Seven years and the stars were right, and had come to his front door.
Of the 40 million the movie took in the first three months, Stallone was entitled to only the minimum wage he signed up for,a mere $25 grand.But his manager pulled of a great PR stunt by dropping of two million in his front yard with an armed truck and guards.

The film bagged acclaim and Oscars, but not for the writer director which went the way of Adrian’s dad. This resulted in Stallone getting labeled as a curmudgeon actor and a lucky first timer, something that has bugged him through his early career as he longed to be accepted as an intellectual and respected writer.

After Rocky there was a string of flops on better wages. Sly stil
l tried to help out with the writing here and there, not realizing that all he had written in the boxing movie was a parody of his life so far.

Flings and marriage problems followed along with his growing wages and notoriety. Another kid.popped into the world, but by then the marriage was doomed as Stallone married respected West Coast actress Susan Stone.

Stallone had no real choice but to drop the iconoclastic stance, and return to the format that made his name, and had a long way to run. Rocky Two also made big bucks and continued the autobiographical nature as small time guy makes it to the top.
But by now, the knives were out for the Stallone franchise as the media and press mocked him as controlling and malapropos big head. But like the actor said. You know when you are not being backstabbed, as you can see the blades in your front.

Now the big hitters were offering him parts he was turned down as a s a low down extra not five years ago. But Rocky 3 soon followed and the budget was treble that off the first two. Stallone trimmed down to four- percent body fat and had surgery, which is a stark contrast to the original punch fest.
Another unknown actor muscle head was cast as Rockys major opponent in the movie. Lawrence Tyrone, A.K.A Mr. T who at the time of casting was the world bouncer championship winner who clinched the prize bye throwing a stuntman 14 ft!.

The films gross was second only to Spielbergs E.T.,a triumphant actor and new wife moved into a lavish Malibu beach house.In the palm clad garden,the famous statue was lashed to a tree after being sent back from the National Museum of history and science. The famous symbol was returned, and now stands proudly at the top of those infamous Philly steps.

Stallones life was bland and predictable in his eyes and described his relationship with his girl as”Love is like a new car. You polish it, parade it and show it off. And you want to make love to it
(exhaust I suppose).
As it gets older, you keep it around and keep it in shape. You don’t get rid of it as its nice to have around”. Soon after that she dropped him like a safe of the Empire State.

Like a fine boned pretty girl working in a factory. Sly felt he was under used and wasted on the action no brainier genre.but he also had his eye on a script about a post traumatized Vietnam Vet who turns nasty in the mountainous mid west.
John Rambo was to deliver Stallone back into the big earners with this all action “wounding”machine he was trying to escape. Kirk Douglas was originally cast as the general who tries to bring the killing machine down from the hills. But Slys pugnacious fastidious interfering scared of the illustrious legend.

During the shoot, Sly insisted on doing most of the stunts, breaking 4 ribs, third degree burns, knife wounds and blowing his hand up with some dodgy bullets. Further probems on set came when an organized group stole $50,ooo worth of real guns, believed to be destined for the Middle East.

The film did big numbers and Sylvester Stallone was know longer hot, he was thermo nuclear as the author put it. And this clout gave him the pick of the scripts and wildest paypackets. Unfortunately he strayed from what he does best and picked the wildest scripts the best money.
Rhinestone Cowboy made him a laughing stock with further woes as his kid was diagnosed as autistic. From the outside, young Sage looked like his problems were from showbiz parenting and absent fathers. Tantrums and crayon household abuse were signs of a kid copying his dad, rather than a sick child.

But the young one went into therapy as the parents rallied around. A crank doc rather mockingly suggested that the young child would only be able to do simple things with this condition. Say weight lifting for example.
To this day Sly donates all the profits from his premiers to the autism charities. A
nd some of his writers fees, he’s the fifth, yes fifth highest gross earner from the pen in Hollywood history at half a billion dollars.

The pen was busy for another one paced wonder in John Travolta.Saturday Night Fever had made him big, but he never went on like an Italian thoroughbred the film press hoped he was. Sly kept the food on Travoltas table by writing and directing the sequel in Stayin Alive.

As a true action hero of the eighties, NATO.Not honored him for attacking a small defenseless Muslim country but the NATO that is the Natinal American Theater Organisation.His first real recognition for his prestigious writing. Unlike Dale Winton, he had finally proved himself out side of the ring.

Rambo Two was quickly in the cinemas, even the then President Regan commented on the Rambo character in one of his bullish speaches after flattening another banana republic. The sequel was to be the third biggest gross of the year behind Spielbergs two Indian Jones classics.

The late eighties also saw the arrival of Amazonian temptress Brigitte Nielson on the scene. The latest in a long line of bimbos, it’s as if Sly was going through the Pirrelli calendar at one point.
With his second wife in child, it was not a good time to be scene out with women at parties. But Sly brushed off the talk saying that she was dating Eddie Murphy and not him. Ironically she was, unbeknown to the muscled bound hunter.

Rocky Four followed Rambo Two.Disaster was averted when Sly was punched really rather hard by his opposite, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lungdren) the earlier boyfriend of Bridget Nielson.The big man punched his heart muscle so hard, it snapped.
Fortunately the Swedish nymph persuaded the irritable star to stay in bed for a while, and according to the doctor, saved his life.

Sly rather foolishly married her after her loyalty. His best friend and bodyguard tried desperately to stop him going through with it on we
dding day. Apparently she was banging just about everyone and Sly was heading for another fall.

Rambo Three saw a super muscled Stallone up on the big screen. This one proved to have the biggest body count and lowest dialogue, some 163 sentances for the star. A cool half a million per sentence quoted a press wag.
Minimal words and maximum action was the savior of this genre when it didn’t so good in America’s movie house hoses. The foreign grosses were three times higher for Slys films in Europe, which often turnaround turkeys into earners.

As the bodycount grew, so did the stars personal entourage with ten bouncers in tow at one point. He later agreed that his ego and status was running as wild as his minigun magazine in the 1980s and regretted it some what. He was even taking five showers a day on set, as well as halting multi million dollar productions so he could jog around film studios.
He was also neglecting his young family with his tight film schedule. He joked that his kid’s first word was money, not mummy.

The final installment of the tired rocky franchise was like a Hollywood punch, predictable and we all saw it coming. It flopped badly in the nations cinemas. Gone were the queues around the block and murmuring anticipation. The grosses were so poor that all concerned put the franchise to bed.
His supposedly autistic son (he could be just dumb like his dad) played a small part in the film. One of his only lines was rather cutting to his unsuspecting dad”You never spent time with me when I really needed you”.

More good cop bad cop films flipped and flopped as Stallone was cut free from his background of the Rocky and Rambo winners. He continued to be the man in Hollywood and work his way through the ladies.
Critics were still out for him and his work, describing his writing style as a bull in a script shop.

He again dipped disastrously into comedy with Oscar and Sto
p or my mum will shoot. When a stars ego is running amock,the world is indeed his oyster.Outside of his two winners,ten movies had failed to make back production and actor costs.Any profits were absorbed by his vulgar paypackets.

Jonathon Ross later described the actor and his lesser films as light planes on a Sunday,”up there for no particular reason with no where to go, whist making an annoying whine. The high look at me kinda movie making”.

The Specialist was one of those little Piper Cherokee’s that was slatted by all. Set in around Colombian drug underground of his hometown of Miami and starring the sexy Sharon Stone.It featured a gross out nude scene and minimal plot.
The author of this review actually had a tiny part in this movie believe it or not, and ain’t talking about my role as his shower stunt double.
Demolition Man came and went like the pop group Cleopatra.His new girl Jennifer Flavin,a student from the West Coast didn’t and the two became close.She continued with her studies living with her mom as the star wooed and gave her pressies.

Cliffhanger bought some serious money in for Sly as his best days looked over. Again he did most of the stunts, even though he was scared of heights. His ego got the best of him as he dangled and swung thousands of feet up in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains.
90 million it took in America plus twice that abroad. The kind of numbers Sly were getting in the 80s,but didn’t have the same impact these days.

He continued to return to typecast until Daylight, which portrayed Stallone as a sensitive hero trapped in a tunnel. Sadly it cost 100 million to make, and made a bigger thump when it bombed. Again the foreign audience weighed into to save the day.
Another product in Slys life to get bombed out was his girl, and this time he used a Fedex delivery in the form of a six-page document. These days the done humiliation is the fax!.

>His muscled physical incarnation could no longer protect him as he ventured into unknown territory with Copland.He had to put on 50lbs and work with one of America’s greatest contemporary actors in Robert Deniro to!.
The role was a weighty one in many ways as Sly stuffed himself with cream cakes up to the required weight and waddled on set. The crew enjoyed ribbing him, which began to hurt the exposed actor. He could no longer hide behind the muscles and confidence he aquired at 15.
He would regularly tell fans looking for autographs that he wasn’t normally this big. Without his trademark, he felt mentally and physically exposed.

He took the minimal fee of $55,000 to work alongside Deniro and despite the flab, enjoyed the experience, sadly most of the critics didn’t and the film bombed as the Stallones that went to see the intelligent film, didn’t get to see the usual mayhem.
One described the retarded cop he played in the movie, as having a similar “dim bulb”up top as the actor, and would finally get to play himself. The specter of Stallone being stupid would never seem to go away as hard as he tried. Well he could just be dim anyway I say.

Copland also celebrated twenty years in the big time for Sylvester Stallone as he wondered where next. The inevitable Rambo Four and Rocky Six are kicking around. The aging superstar has already penned the later in his growing spare time.
At fifty years plus he creaks and groans with fellow action heroes like Schwazenneggar as they hang up their rusting miniguns. Hasta La Vista baby would be a good way to end this mammoth minibook!.

Summary: