The presence of music in movies can’t be understated.  It’s sometimes easy to forget that it plays such a vital role because, traditionally, film is thought of as a visual medium.  This idea is often bolstered because of the perfection in the bodies of the actors and of the messmerizing special effects.

But cinema indeed is audio-visual.  What’s an explosion without a BOOM!?  What’s a punch without a SMACK!  The old Batman television series had it partially right in emphasizing this effect, even if they intended an artistic homage to the comics.

Modern epics and other big-budget films often employ entire orchestras to accomplish the score that is specifically written by studio composers.  In fact, some of the highest paid and most prestigious of Hollywood are not actors, writers, or directors but composers.  James Newton Howard, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, John Williams, Graeme Revell, Alan Silvestri and others are all easily considered A-listers and their masterpieces could be compared to the operatic and ballet equivalent composers of the past.

Bill Conti’s Rocky theme is one of the most recognized movie pieces of all time.  “Gonna Fly Now” helped propel Rocky into an Academy Award winner in 1975 which cemented its place in cinematic history.  It’s presence was essential to the success of the following films as well.  Except for one.

Let’s face it, I love Rocky for a lot of reasons.  The character and his relationship to Adrian, the grit, the fighting, and the corny jokes.  But what I love about Rocky IV is its fairytale quality.  It is so much less grounded and so much more cheesy than the first three, but at the same time there is a sort of transparency that doesn’t quite exist like in the others.  It is so easily overlooked because of its simplicity and glimmery muscle, but there really is some solid story hidden away.  There are some deep emotions, relevant political commentaries, and philosophical underpinnings that are all so well brought to the surface in the best most eighties-tacular movie montages ever.  And it all starts with the music.

Rocky IV is the first and only of the successful franchise, which totals six films, in which Bill Conti does not score.  Vince DiCola officially takes his place, but most of the movie is accompanied by popular music.  It’s not in the background either, but rather in the foreground as a partner to the many images and scenes and make up the bulk of the story’s development.  Here, I’m going to take note of the most prevalent songs of the film and set up the pieces they highlight in the story and their significance.

The first major selection is one of the most prominent in terms of its popular success.  It is James Brown’s “Living in America.”  What makes this song a personal favorite of mine is not for itself, but for the Weird Al Yankovic parody of it: “Living With a Hernia” from his album Dare to be Stupid.  Weird Al’s music is always a perfect match of its subject matter but the lyrics truly set it apart.

“Living in America” is a tricky song.  Where it seems to inspire us to root for Apollo Creed and to appreciate the American point of view, it really achieves the opposite.  I get caught up all the time in the show as I like the song, love Creed’s character, and love my country.  This is the desired effect.  However, when we’re taken into the context of the story, it’s really a display of American brand nationalism.  Apollo is the centerpiece to it.  A man who seems to have absolutely achieved the American Dream, but who’s actually discontented and unsatisfied or unsatiated by the “promised land.”  What the montage really says, quite emphatically too, is “America puts on a good show, but it doesn’t live up to the hype.”  The latter half of the statement is underscored by the death of Apollo.

What comes next is Rocky’s reaction to Apollo’s death and his feelings of responsibility for it coming about.  Rocky spirals into a depression and goes off for a long drive to think this through.  This propels us directly into the next great music video of the movie with Roger Tepper’s “No Easy Way Out.”  All of this is simply a metaphor for one’s realization that there is really little for us to control in life.  Those who have achieved great success in life in the realm of their desire are not exempt from this truth as Rocky shows us.  The song is Rocky’s dialogue with himself about this, about his mortality, as well as a representational disassociation with his material identity as an American, as an icon, and as any other “thingness” that he called his “self.”  I love this song, but another that would have been great for the job, had it been out at the time, is They Might Be Giants’ “A Self Called Nowhere.”

Rocky’s conclusion at the end of the discussion is that he understands that his material pursuit is utterly worthless.  He also realizes that there are bigger things at play here other than just his friend dying.  Given the heightened awareness of the threat of a nuclear holocaust, Rocky fears that his participation in these unfolding events could cause more than just the death of one person.  He also concedes that he has no real will and knows that the only choice he has is to be a willful participant and puppet to fate.  He knows he can’t win.

When he arrives in Russia to train, he is filled with uncertainty.  His ideas on the material cause him to disregard the phoney political implications of why he’s doing what he is doing.  This is seen in the mocking of American patriotism when Paulie, the self described “un-silent majority,” who is wearing a Gadsden flag on the back of his jacket, whines about the “squalid conditions,” the lack of commercial goods, and then ineptly walks off the path and falls into the snow.

Rocky is resigned to play his part.  In this way, he sort of diminishes his own roles in the first two Rocky films. Here, he’s not trying to fulfill his own “destiny.”  He doesn’t know the outcome of what chance has given him, but is somewhat comforted by the feeling that he doesn’t have a choice in the matter.  Survivor returns to the Rocky series with “Burning Heart” which poses the questions that are rattling around Rocky’s mind.  “Is it East versus West, or man against man?”  but ultimately realizes “it’s you against you.”  Rocky is getting his questions answered except for the last one, and that is “can any nation stand alone?”  Once we get past fighting the “other”, the “…primitive clash…” and fighting ourselves (”you against you” again) is the next and last logical conclusion, to complete the circle, that we need the other?  That we cannot make it alone, as the lyrics ask?

This last question is answered for Rocky, who was seemingly resigned to the dice, when Adrian unexpectedly shows up to “throw in” with him.  Rocky and Adrian’s relationship is really the cornerstone, the foundation from which the story is built.  There is no Rocky, as we know him, without Adrian and vice versa.  The first two movies explain this simply when Rocky notes to Paulie that they “fill gaps” for each other.  They become whole people.  They rely upon one another; they are responsible for each other.  This is the heart of Rocky IV and it’s is affirmed by the last song “Hearts on Fire” by John Cafferty.

Silence in the darkness creeps into your soul
Envy moves the light of self control
The gate that holds you captive has the door
Burnin’ with determination to even up the score

Heart’s on fire, strong desire, rages deep within
Heart’s on fire, fever’s risin’, high
The moment of truth draws near

Time will not allow you to stay still, no
Silence breaks the heart and bends the will
Defense is guilty passions out of control

Rules and regulations have no meaning any more

Heart’s on fire, strong desire, rages deep within
Heart’s on fire, fever’s risin’, high
The moment of truth is here.