This is the start of my 'Rocky Week', where I watch all 6 films in the series for the first time. And of course, we will start with the first one.

Rocky, directed by John G. Avildsen, stars Sylvester Stallone in his breakout role as Rocky Balboa, the southpaw that gets a chance to go the distance.

As the ultimate underdog film, Rocky glimmers. Stallone is a good-enough actor to portray the underdog, and Burgess Meredith is devastatingly superb as…