Rocky Editing Review

In 1977, Rocky won an Oscar for best film editing. It won this because of the precise timing of cuts and keeping what needed to be kept. Richard Halsey and Scott Conrad were the editors in charge of Rocky. They brought feeling to all the scenes in Rocky but the most famous edits in the film come from the training montages and the actual boxing match scenes.

            When it comes to Rocky’s famous run Richard and Scott were able to give us a look at Philadelphia as a whole. But truly how far did he run? It was calculated that the run totaled 30.61 miles! Honestly, it’s not impossible to run that far but I don’t think Rocky was able to run that far that quickly. That’s the beauty of Richard and Scott’s editing! They were able to fool an audience who hasn’t been to the city of Philadelphia! After all isn’t editing just making the audience think a certain way? Never the less, as an audience member we were able to feel that Rocky ran very far in his morning runs. But did he actually run that far? No.

            The boxing matches are some of the best in cinematic history for the way they were put together. Scott had looked at over 14 hrs of film before making a single cut! He also says that he went through it about 3 times before making an edit so he would know how the boxing scene needed to be told. The boxing match between Rocky and Apollo has many cuts in it but they all flow together easily. From a single punch being thrown in slow motion, to the same punch at a different angle continued in slow motion. To a constant back and forth and the chaos that is a boxing match.

            The cutting in the boxing match really gets the audience members on board with the match seeming like an actual boxing match! It adds to the suspense of who will win in the fight and having cuts to Adrian, Paulie, and everyone else to see how they cringe at the strikes being thrown makes the audience cringe with them.

            In the end of the film, you will be so enthralled and please with the boxing match you will find yourself standing and cheering as if you are there in the arena with them.