NOVEMBER 14, 2023

The world premiere of Sylvester Stallone’s documentary, Sly, was held at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16th, 2023 and released worldwide on November 3rd on Netflix. The film hits your heart and your mind with cerebral, introspective and gritty chapters of Stallone’s life, narrated by him, Arnold Schwarzenegger, directors Quentin Tarantino and John Herzfeld, his brother Frank Stallone Jr, Henry Winkler the cool icon Fonzie of the 70s and Talia Shire Coppola. The unvarnished documentary is a 96-minute account of his life (should have been multi-part limited series in my opinion) without Sly or Sly getting hagiographical. Born to Francesco (Frank) Stallone, a hairdresser and his wife Jacqueline (Jackie), a promoter for women’s professional wrestling, in Hell’s Kitchen, a rough neighborhood in New York, Stallone’s quest to fill the void of unrequited love from his parents drove him to seeking it from strangers through his films. And, very successfully too, by creating a Stallone world of what could be through his pen versus what wasn’t, and could possibly never be. Sly is a wildly inspiring streets to superstar story of Stallone and I loved it. In his words, he made his own fate in the face of adversity and rejection all around. Oh, to be as fly as Sly!

Sylvester Stallone, the original action man of Hollywood and a worldwide phenomenon, and one of only two actors in history, alongside Harrison Ford, to have starred in a box-office number one film across six consecutive decades is remarkably real in Sly. Stallone narrates his own story, in his words, controlling what he wants to share with the public about himself. Writer, director and star of three massive film franchises, Rocky (six films), Rambo (five films) and The Expendables (four films), Stallone made himself an actor by writing and directing his own movies since the 70s. Interestingly, when he moved to Los Angeles for work, he lived in a place in the San Fernando Valley, one street away from Balboa Boulevard. The name of the boulevard inspired the last name of his iconic screen character, Rocky Balboa, in his 1976 breakout hit film, Rocky. He wrote the screenplay of the film in three days, and starred in the film as the protagonist like only he could, leading the film to become an extremely successful and lucrative franchise over the years. Sly is an intimate conversation between Stallone and the viewer, with him revealing the varied layers of his persona without any stirring drama.

Sylvester Stallone leans against a doorway in a hat and a leather jacket in a still from the film, ‘Rocky’ directed by John G. Avildsen, 1976. (Photo by United Artists/Courtesy of Getty Images)

SYLVESTER STALLONE’S INSPIRED THOUGHTS IN SLY:

• Do I have regrets? Hell yeah I have regrets but that also is what motivates me to overcome the regrets. I do that through painting or writing because I can’t fix it physically. It’s gone, that fucking thing called time.
  
  
• I am just not going to break.
  
  
• There was no possibility in our (John Herzfeld and Stallone) minds for failure. Never entered the conversation. We had to make our own fate.
  
  
• The rejection is my encouragement. Are you going to accept their evaluation of you or are you going to evaluate yourself?
  
  
• What is healthier — to live under the illusion and still have a glimmer of hope that you could’ve been great or actually have an opportunity to be great and blow it and then realise you’re a failure?
  
  
• Once you get to your dream you realize that’s not your dream. My dream’s not turned out the way I thought. It also comes with a storm front that you’re constantly battling because you’re disappointed.
  
  
• Once you make it to the top of the mountain, it was all blue skies. It’s not. The air’s thinner, it’s precarious, there’s not many people up there, it’s pretty lonely.
  
  
• I’m a grinder. I just grind and grind and try to outwork myself and my insecurities — I become indifferent to the threat of failure because I know, no matter what, even if it is not a bonafide success, it is good to continue to push yourself.
  
  
• 90% of the journey is tumultuous and ugly but you have to go through it. You may not get there but you’re gonna be better off than doing nothing.
  
  
• When we’re born, we’re soft clay and a heavy handed sculptor starts to put dents in it and that’s in our mold. That’s what we are and we cannot correct those distortions and that’s what develops personality. Not a lot of people can overcome it — it takes work.
  
  
• Life is undefeated, you can’t beat it. You just have to go on the defense is a conversation he had with his son, Sage about what the future was all about, that inspired the line in the Rocky Balboa 2006 film, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows, it’s a very mean and nasty place. I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
  
  
• Life is addition up until age 40 and after that, it is subtraction.
  
  
• The core of human need is requited love.
  
  
• I was blessed with this ability to deflect this bitterness into what I wish had happened. I wish I had a father like Rocky.
  
  
• The children I created, Rocky and Rambo are now taking care of me. The beauty of being able to play those two is literally the entire spectrum of life — the disenfranchised, friendless and lonely Rambo and Rocky, the one that embraces everything, loves humanity and is loved by humanity, and I relate so well to both of them.
  
  
• That’s real what lives, breathes, dies and bleeds — you better take care of that.

Sylvester Stallone sits on a staircase, holding the leash of a dog in a still from the film, ‘Rocky,’ directed by John G. Avildsen, 1976. (Photo by United Artists/Getty Images), a CBS news poster of the film, Sylvester Stallone in London to promote Rocky, on Tuesday 25th January 1977. (Photo by Allan Olley/Mirrorpix/Getty Images) and Sylvester Stallone on the set of the film ‘Rocky IV’ (directed by Stallone), Los Angeles, California, 1984. (Photo by Steve Schapiro)

Stallone and his third wife, Jennifer Flavin, whom he married in 1997, have three daughters, Scarlet Rose, Sistine and Sophia Rose Stallone together. He also has two sons, Seargeoh and the late Sage Stallone from his first wife, Sasha Czack. After selling their Martyn Lawrence Bullard-designed mansion in Hidden Hills, California, Stallone and his wife moved to Palm Beach, Florida two years ago.

Sylvester Stallone attends Netflix’s “Sly” world premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 16, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Ryan Emberley/Getty Images for Netflix)

Stallone rues selling the rights of Rocky to the day to producers Irwin Winkler (no relation to actor Henry Winkler) and the late Robert Chartoff, his anger stemming from being deprived of an equity stake in the franchise for his work — a longterm asset that could have been passed on to his children after his death. Stallone may not have the franchise rights to the films, but he is, and will always be, Rocky Balboa, a character he envisaged, wrote and gave immortal life to on screen. Obsolescence cannot touch Sylvester Stallone and his cinematic legacy. Never.

Disclaimer: Any part of the content on the rubinaakhan.com website cannot be reproduced without prior permission and crediting the website and the author. The © ahead of a name is the copyright of the subject in the photograph and not shot by Rubina A Khan.

©Rubina A Khan 2023