Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to F.I.S.T.
How do you follow up a movie like 'Rocky'?? A worldwide smash and winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Stallone chose this Norman Jewsion produced and directed drama.
Plot In A Paragraph: plays Johnny Kovak (Stallone) a Cleveland warehouse worker who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the "Federation of Inter-State Truckers". He finds that he must sacrifice his principles and ideals as he moves up through the union and attempts to expand its influence.
Stallone gives possibly one of the most under rated performances of his career, and is brilliant here. It's often forgotten that long before he became the action hero legend that people know today, Stallone was a very talented young actor. This movie gives a glimpse of what he could have been had he not gone down the path that he did!! It's a real hidden gem in his filmography, and I recommend everyone to check it out.
Whilst Stallone carries most of the movie on his broad shoulders, he is ably backed up by Rod Steiger, David Huffman, Melinda Dillon, Peter Boyle, Kevin Conway, Cassie Yates, Richard Herd and Tony Lo Bianco.
It could use a bit of trimming here and there to tighten it up, as it drags here and there and feels like it runs a bit longer than its two hours running time. But for me, this is in Sly's Top 10 non franchise movies/performances.
This movie would be the first time Stallone meddled with things behind the scenes. He rewrote Joe Eszterhas' script, saying "Joe Eszterhas wrote a script that was nearly 400 pages and was more of a novel than a shootable screenplay. A great deal of work was done by myself, along with Norman Jewison, to hammer it into shape, but Joe had conceived a great concept."
How do you follow up a movie like 'Rocky'?? A worldwide smash and winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Stallone chose this Norman Jewsion produced and directed drama.
Plot In A Paragraph: plays Johnny Kovak (Stallone) a Cleveland warehouse worker who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the "Federation of Inter-State Truckers". He finds that he must sacrifice his principles and ideals as he moves up through the union and attempts to expand its influence.
Stallone gives possibly one of the most under rated performances of his career, and is brilliant here. It's often forgotten that long before he became the action hero legend that people know today, Stallone was a very talented young actor. This movie gives a glimpse of what he could have been had he not gone down the path that he did!! It's a real hidden gem in his filmography, and I recommend everyone to check it out.
Whilst Stallone carries most of the movie on his broad shoulders, he is ably backed up by Rod Steiger, David Huffman, Melinda Dillon, Peter Boyle, Kevin Conway, Cassie Yates, Richard Herd and Tony Lo Bianco.
It could use a bit of trimming here and there to tighten it up, as it drags here and there and feels like it runs a bit longer than its two hours running time. But for me, this is in Sly's Top 10 non franchise movies/performances.
This movie would be the first time Stallone meddled with things behind the scenes. He rewrote Joe Eszterhas' script, saying "Joe Eszterhas wrote a script that was nearly 400 pages and was more of a novel than a shootable screenplay. A great deal of work was done by myself, along with Norman Jewison, to hammer it into shape, but Joe had conceived a great concept."