I had to stop laughing long enough to actually get my fingers to the keyboard. If there are typos just know it’s because I’m still laughing as this is being written. But Rocky stopping the Cold War by almost getting his head beat in is one of the the absolute best explanation of government relations and why they eventually came to work that I think I’ve heard in a while.
You do remember what happened in the beginning of Rocky V right? He was hurt so bad that he couldn’t get his hands to stop shaking. That’s how badly Ivan beat on him. Rocky had the type of brain damage that you normally see in fighters after they’ve been in the game for a couple of years too long, and most of it was from one fight. He was told that if he fought again he’d be risking permanent brain damage and possibly death. But yeah, it was worth it to go out there and avenge Apollo.
As for stopping the Cold War, oh my goodness. The spoof is funny, hands down, but the direction it goes in is kind of ludicrous which, really, is the whole point. Gorbachev and Reagan couldn’t agree on much so Rocky goes over, beats up on Ivan Drago, and then gives a speech that changes the Politburo’s mindset concerning Americans.
It wasn’t just the match itself, but that was impressive enough. Obviously Rocky was way outmatched to begin with. But once he cut the Russian once it was as though he’d stripped away the illusion that Ivan was this big, bad man that was half-machine. He could be cut, he could be hurt, and as a result he was now vulnerable. That seemed to be the same thought about Russia. It was no longer some mindless, heartless machine, it could be wounded, and it could be dealt with. But of course that wasn’t really the desire.
Rocky was there to fight for pride and little else. He was there to knock Ivan down a few pegs and let him know that Americans weren’t as weak as he believed. And when the match was over, and Ivan had lost, and Rocky was, somehow, still standing, he gave a speech that made it known that for all our faults, Americans are more than willing to change to make things work. The standing ovation he gets from the Russians, and the fact that the crowd is chanting his name throughout the last part of the match, is something that one could have anticipated. It was inspirational, it was amazing, and more than that, it was a turn in the right direction that seemed to be desperately needed.
And of course, it ended the Cold War because nothing causes a cessation in fighting like the passionate speech of a man that just went to war with another man inside a boxing ring. Let’s hear it for boxing-based diplomacy folks. No longer will we have to shoot missiles at each other, we can just let two guys beat the living snot out of each other in the ring and presto, problems solved.
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