The epitome of the 80’s had to be full on excesses of the MTV generation fuelled Rocky IV. Repeat with a Cold War ending speech, big personalities, even bigger shoulder pads and hair, lightning quick run time compared to it’s three other predecessors, it also was around about the height of the Stallone/Schwarzenegger Movie War (Rambo: First Blood Part II was also one of the highest grossing films in this year). Rocky IV is and was an absolute blast. But Sylvester Stallone wasn’t happy with it (even less so Rocky V), and with time on his hands during the pandemic he decided to go back and recut it and what we have here are the fruits of his labours Rocky IV: Rocky Vs. Drago – The Directors Cut.
In case you have never seen Rocky IV before and they’re surely can’t be that many now here’s a quick recap. After reclaiming the boxing championship title, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) plans to retire and live with his wife, Adrian (Talia Shire). However, during an exhibition match, Rocky’s friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is mercilessly beaten to death by hulking Russian newcomer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). Rocky vows payback against Drago and flies to Russia to train for a Christmas Day fight. Despite their different training methods, Rocky and Drago both wage a long and intense match.
So, what’s new about this version other than the rather unwieldy title (Rocky IV: Rocky Vs. Drago – The Directors Cut, they dropped the ‘Ultimate’ for the UK release). Well first off despite having 40 minutes of extra footage the run time is now only extended by 2 minutes. There’s plenty of new scenes or different angles or entirely new versions of the same scene. The biggest omission from proceedings has to be Paulies (Burt Young) birthday present the robot. Which even by 80s standards was completely off the reservation.. Also, gone are snippets of dialogue, Rocky and Adrian’s wedding anniversary moment and the garish snake watch. Rocky’s child and his friends bouncing up and down on the bed as Rocky pounds on Drago in the final fight and the infamous line “That’s my Dad. Yeah we know, what do you think we are nerds?” Other than that it’s little things that most people who’ve seen Rocky IV only a few times wouldn’t notice.
So are the changes worth it? Well, in a word yes. We have more of Talia Shire which is more than welcome as she was pretty much a background character after Rocky II. There’s more dramatic weight added to the conflict between Rocky and Adrian over both fights with Drago. Apollo now has more of a showing with Drago before his demise. Plus his friendship with Rocky is better explored in the opening flashback sequence. There are now also, two speeches at Apollo’s funeral one from his trainer Tony (Tony Burton) Longer training montages! The fights are re-edited to tell a better story, but probably the biggest change is Drago’s story, he’s now longer a Terminator like figure, but he his story is more nuanced and emotive, with the sub plot of him fighting for his own name and not just as a propaganda machine for the Red State and by doing this it sets up the narrative for Creed II.
However, for those who have watched Rocky IV a good fair few times and are probably able to quote line and verse, some of the changes are quite jarring. It’s quite unsettling at times and some of the transitions aren’t that well executed (A fade at the beginning of the film at the end of the Rocky III flashback in particular). But to be quite honest it’s amazing what Stallone has achieved here (And just how much other footage he had to work with, despite the film being well over 20 years old now) as you can see, he’s made it with highly advanced state of the art equipment and makes a Rocky IV into a better Rocky IV, a super, a great movie into super movie…
Sometimes when these directors cuts appear (Superman II – The Donner Cut) it works well despite the limitations, other times no matter what material you have to work with (Godfather Part III Coda) you just can put shine on cow pat. But Rocky IV: Rocky Vs. Drago manages the feat and gives the audience a much better viewing experience and sits a whole lot better in the series than the original. It also manages to render the awful Rocky V obsolete. While the original will most likely have a special place in the hearts of those who return to it time and again, the new version is a far more mature version.
Just one last thing, with all that money spent on redoing this, you would have thought Stallone would have taken the time to add some CG footsteps in the snow at the top of the mountain…
Rocky IV: Rocky Vs. Drago – The Directors Cut is now available to buy on Digital.
