An example of diegetic sound from the film “Rocky” could be the sound of the boxers/fighters hitting each other or other objects. The sound originated from the film and therefore is diegetic. There are a lot of other example of diegetic sound. Just to name a few it could be the sound of two people talking or any other sort of sound that originates from the sound. But diegetic sound should not be confused with external sound such as off screen sound. I will explain more on this later in my blog. The next type of sound is non diegetic. An example of non-diegetic is when Rocky goes out for his run and he is running through the train yard and the song “Gonna Fly Now” comes on and starts playing. This is non-diegetic because the music originated not within the film but but when the editing was being done. The last and final one is off screen sound. Off screen sound is when something technically could be considered diegetic but is under a bit of a different category. Off screen is considered external sound. From “Rocky” an off screen sound example would be when Rocky is running through the train yard and you can hear the sound of the train rattling. It is diegetic and then it becomes off screen. Other examples of off screen sound could be vehicles driving, honking, people yelling who you cannot see, and etc.
Why I think this film was so popular in 1976 is because it tells a story that a lot of people experience something like this. A person living in poverty doing bad things or they are in bad situations yet some are given a second chance to prove themselves. A lot of people don’t care to win or to come out on top. They just want another chance to show that they can better themselves and have a chance to prove themselves. This can also relate to the theme of the film. The theme is that Rocky just wants to have a chance to prove himself. He doesn’t care if he wins the fight or not. The following quote is from the film and it is from the scene right before the fight and Rocky is talking to Adrian and he is talking that he won’t be able to beat Apollo.
“Ah come on, Adrian, it’s true. I was nobody. But that don’t matter either, you know? ‘Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either. ‘Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.” -Rocky
This quote is awesome because all he wanted was a chance at the title. He used to be a nobody yet he was able to make something of himself and inspire himself into something better than a lowlife enforcer for the mob. The determination and perseverance he had to have, had to been enormous to know that even though he had no chance at wining, Rocky still trained hard and pushed himself all the way to finish line. He let nothing get in the way of stopping him from training for one of the biggest fights in the sport.
An example from the film where Rocky had a “save the cat” moment in the film is when he took the girl who was about 10-12 years old and he got her away from the bad group of kids. The kids are drinking and smoking and whatnot and he walked with her and told her that she shouldn’t be doing any of that stuff. Even though Rocky is this bad ass dude who does those same things and worse. This tells the film’s audience that he does not want kids to become like him. Another “save the cat moment” is when one of Bazzo’s guys is ridiculing Adrian because she is ugly and stuff. Rocky defends her and tells him he shouldn’t be doing that. Even though Adrian is the ugly girl who works in the pet shop, he still defends her. The last moment is when Paulie makes Adrian go out with Rocky. Adrian cooked a nice Thanksgiving dinner and Rocky wants to go out with her but she does not want to. But Paulie makes her go by throwing out the turkey and ruining everything. Before that though Rocky changes his mind cause he doesn’t want to cause trouble. This shows that his personality is easygoing and he doesn’t like to cause trouble but when the couple does go out that night, he plays it cool.
This was an awesome film and I thought the story of being a nobody to becoming someone everyone knew was really cool. We shouldn’t let our status stop us from becoming who we want to become. If one obstacle were to stop us, than we can become weak and every other little obstacle we have we will not be able to triumph. We have to bulldoze our way through those obstacles and let nothing slow us down or stop us. We are so much stronger than we think as long as we put up a fight. Just like in Rocky even though he was a nobody, he put up one hell of a fight to a champion and almost took the title.
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