Recently I have moved into the movie writing world and as I have no idea how to do this, I downloaded Rocky Balboa. Sly uses Final Draft, like I do LOL. Good reason, aye.
I read the entire script in one sitting. As I have seen the movie several times I wanted to know how he built up plot point 1 and plot point 2.
He writes almost to the formula that Syd Field describes as the formula for movie creation.
Setup pp 1-30 // confrontation pp 30-90 // Resolution pp 90-120
Sly’s script wasn’t exactly this formula as it was part 6 of a life time story of a character movie goers love and couldn’t (I think) stick to the formula. Plus Sly doesn’t need to stick to any kind of formula. He knows what he is doing.
This is the way movies are meant to be written, I think. LOL. It was simplistic and worked well. It was actually better than the movie. There wasn’t a lot of description I think that was left up to the director — and Sly was the director, right? Plus all the sights we already knew, although they had fallen into disrepair.
What is the underlying theme of this 6th Rocky movie? I think it is about a man who lives in the past — and what an amazing past it was. But Rocky is getting tired of telling all the old stories of his past. Remember Rocky is a brawler more than a boxer, he doesn’t have the expert training of a boxer. But he has heart and courage and the will power to remain on his feet.
This script give you the inside knowledge and the reading of scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor.
And the one liners are great as well.
I will end it here, before this turns into a review of the movie, which I have already done. Next I will read a script of a movie I have not seen.
