Cinematic Releases: Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago - The Ultimate Director's Cut (1985 - 2021) - Reviewed

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Courtesy of MGM/UA
In 1985, Sylvester Stallone completed his fifth feature film as a writer-director following the second and third installments of his hit American sports drama film series, the Rocky films.  Dubbed Rocky IV, the film concerned then-Cold War tensions involving the Soviet Union and the introduction of their own top boxer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) into professional boxing.  Poised to fight the world champion Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), his close friend Apollo Creed vows to fight him first in an exhibition match but instead is fatally beaten and killed in the ring by Drago.  Vowing revenge, Rocky decides to fight Drago within the Soviet Union and defend his country’s honor.
 
Despite going on to become the most successful Rocky film in the whole series (to this day), the film was met with mixed critical reception, balking at the film’s leanings towards MTV music video montage, Transformers composer Vince DiCola’s electronic soundtrack, the unlikely inclusion of a walking talking robot and predictability of the plot formulas established by the Rocky films at the time.  Looking back, for years it was deemed the silliest yet most enjoyable of the films, spring boarding from the pro-wrestling mentality established by the third Rocky film which did include Hulk Hogan at one point.
 
But after the hit 2015 film Creed and the sequel Creed II which not only brought back Apollo Creed’s son Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), but Rocky Balboa, Ivan Drago and his son Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) who comes back with his son to defeat Adonis Creed, Sylvester Stallone began looking back at Rocky IV with a different pair of eyes.  Creed and its sequel both proved to be worthy films of equal quality as the very first Rocky film and are on their terms clearly shaped by the chain of events of Rocky IV rather than the film’s tonality.

 
Some thirty-six years later despite ongoing stalls from the pandemic, Sylvester Stallone has from top to bottom reshaped and refashioned his hit Rocky IV film as an entirely new beast with traces of the 1985 film but an altogether different feel, outlook and regard for the main characters.  Swapping out scenes with never-before-seen footage, losing the aforementioned robot character completely, recutting every fight scene as well as remixing the soundtrack and original score and lastly reframing the 1.85:1 aspect ratio to a tighter, wider 2.35:1 scope ratio, Stallone now presents what is called Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director’s Cut.
 
Replete with an entirely new introduction, finale and many scenes playing somewhat differently than we remember them, Rocky vs. Drago is more or less the same film with a new skin and vibe to it.  The result is a more serious-minded picture which still has the music video montages but are played to much greater dramatic effect here.  More in line with the Creed movies than where Rocky III had brought the series up to that point, Rocky vs. Drago attempts to take what many had regarded as a cheesy artifact of the 80s into something more timeless and contemporary.
 
Some have had mixed feelings towards this new cut for a variety of reasons, suggesting the film that came out in 1985 wasn’t entirely his which couldn’t have been further from the truth.  All in all, Stallone’s new cut removes several scenes while restoring some thirty-eight minutes of previously unseen footage, bringing the film to being roughly only two minutes longer than its original 91 minute length.  The creator of the film’s now-excised robot, Robert Doornick, expressed dismay that his most lucrative product would no longer be receiving royalties from the now infamous ‘Happy Birthday Paulie’ scene.
 
Aside from the infamous robot that now only presents birthday cakes to the cutting room floor, there are some changes that range from the perplexing to the profound. In Stallone’s quest to keep the runtime of this director’s cut on par with the original, certain dialogue exchanges now feel more stilted and rough. Apollo’s “it’s time to go to school” taunt to Drago is missing, a key part of Rocky’s ending monologue to the population of Soviet Russia is excised, as well as other various exchanges are cut short, and not always with the greatest of finesse. 

 
While Stallone surely felt that Apollo’s pre-fight talk with Rocky about the importance of the exhibition fight grossly over-telegraphed its punches (pun intended), its absence does make the lead up to that fight feel more rushed, and somewhat dilutes the tension Stallone built in collaboration with Vince DiCola’s ominous score.
 
With that being said, other additions are welcomed with open arms. Talia Shire, demoted to a back burner character in the original cut, is now back in a true supporting role. Her moments with Rocky are allowed time to breathe, and by cutting away to her more during the final bout, the emotional gravitas her presence alone brings to the fight makes it better. More attention is lavished also on Apollo’s widow prior to her devastation at the fatal punch which changed her life forever.
 
Burt Young as Paulie was clearly given a lot of room to improvise his various discontentments with the universe, and these alternate takes garnered huge laughs from the audience. But the single greatest moment by far is the complete chain of events at Apollo’s funeral, glazed over with barely a tear in the original cut. It now plays as a true memorial to this fallen warrior with Stallone and Tony Burton acting their asses off. This is truly great stuff, and it might be 36 years overdue, but better late than never.

 
While I myself haven’t fully decided which cut I prefer, this version does add a wealth more of humanity into the film from all the characters including restoring a great deal of dialogue from Ivan Drago’s character, downplaying the Cold War anxieties of the 1985 cut and instead making Drago more of an individual rather than a faceless moniker.  
 
Seen now in today’s climate, Stallone’s effort to make this new cut more timeless and less of a dated commentary on American-Russian relations, Rocky vs. Drago is more or less a successful attempt to sync the film with the subsequent Creed movies and evoke further sympathy for the Ivan Drago character.  In one additional scene, Apollo refers to Drago as a “propaganda machine,” and one thing this cut of Rocky IV delivers is sympathy for the ghost in that machine that wants to believe he’s still a man who fights for himself.

--Andrew Kotwicki
--Blake O. Kleiner