Rocky IV: (Vince DiCola) Though it's considered by
critics to be among the weaker films in the
Rocky franchise, the
1985 cold war entry,
Rocky IV, is certainly one its most
memorable. The film became a political tool, Sylvester Stallone writing
and directing a story pitting American boxing legends against a
seemingly unstoppable Russian counterpart, with the pride of both
nations on the line. The Russian, Drago, the menacing Dolph Lundgren in
his initial performance, kills Apollo Creed in a Las Vegas exhibition
bout, prompting Rocky Balboa to challenge him to a fight in Moscow.
Lundgren's physicality was so immense that Carl Weathers (Creed)
threatened to quit the production during the filming of their bout, and
Lundgren reportedly struck Stallone so hard in the chest during the
final fight sequence that Stallone spent more than a week hospitalized
in intensive care. In the plot, Rocky trains in the Russian countryside
with improvised equipment while Drago is shown utilizing
state-of-the-art exercise techniques and, of course, steroids. The
inspiration of
Rocky IV comes not just in how Rocky manages to
best Drago in the final scene and wrap himself in the American flag in
front of Russian leadership, but in his path to that success, including
the strain his quest to defeat Drago has on his wife and son. Audiences
ignored skeptical critics and made
Rocky IV the highest grossing
entry in the franchise. It is, interestingly, by far the shortest
Rocky film as well, its MTV-inspired shooting of the fight scenes
actually amounting to a shorter narrative. This brevity caused the
soundtrack to require less music. The
Rocky movies were known in
part for their extremely popular soundtrack albums that combined better
than average songs with contemporary sports scores by Bill Conti, whose
career shot through the roof with the early music in this franchise. Due
to the composer's involvement with
The Karate Kid: Part II,
however, he was unavailable to score
Rocky IV. Stallone turned to
Vince DiCola, a regular collaborator of his musician brother, Frank
Stallone, who had contributed significantly to the
Rocky III
soundtrack. As a keyboardist and arranger, DiCola had limited experience
in film scoring, mainly with 1983's
Staying Alive, but his sound
was what Stallone was looking for in this film.
As expected,
Rocky IV continued to utilize a
variety of prominent song placements, headlined this time by James
Brown's "Living in America," which previews the Las Vegas bout. After
Survivor's incredibly popular "Eye of the Tiger" in the previous movie,
the group returned with the decent "Burning Heart." John Cafferty's
"Heart's on Fire" is a particularly inspirational song, to which DiCola
contributed and would adapt into a moment in his score. As a bit of
irony, Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love" was reportedly rejected from this
movie and used instead as a love theme in
The Karate Kid: Part
II, partially supplanting a Conti-written idea. The song album went
platinum in the United States, selling over a million units, but it was
the final
Rocky album to experience such success. DiCola had two
score tracks featured on that compilation, the pair not surprisingly the
most famous from his work, but the mix on these recordings was an
earlier version of what was actually utilized in the film. His music in
the film is roughly half an hour in total length, and much of the
incidental material failed to make an emotional impression. His
soundscape is largely defined by his keyboards and percussion, though
piano and slight orchestral accompaniment provide some color in the
family and victory passages. His synthetic element is of particular
interest in
Rocky IV, DiCola utilizing electronic effects
exclusively for Drago while retaining the organic elements of the mix
for Rocky and his family. If anything, the split between these two
sounds is not as great as they needed to be, Rocky's most engaging
moments in the film scored with contemporary keyboarding and drum kit
coolness. The choral aspect brought to the franchise by Conti is
completely gone from this equation. To his credit, DiCola was extremely
cognizant of Conti's legacy in the music of the franchise, and while he
didn't access the full range of Conti themes to any great degree in
Rocky IV, the two he chose to interpolate were the themes that
really mattered. The primary anthem of the series, "Gonna Fly Now," is
provided in various guises in DiCola's score, and Rocky's triumphant
music from the first score's "The Final Bell" is reprised in the closing
scene here as well. Sadly, DiCola's performance of the latter
accelerates the tempo and provides terrible synthetic accompaniment for
this theme in the insufferable "Victory" here, though he does allow the
score to close out again with the "Gonna Fly Now" fanfare.
DiCola's adaptations of Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" theme
are thankfully much more nuanced and impressive in
Rocky IV than
some listeners might expect. On the score-only album that came long
after the original song-laden product, the "Theme From Rocky"
arrangement is actually a demo recording not used in the picture, likely
for the better. But DiCola often appends the melody to his own family
theme in this work, and it's highly effective in that position. A very
nicely intimate piano rendition occupies the latter half of
"Anniversary," the idea again softly extending out of the family
material at 1:28 into "Rocky and Son." It's provided after the family
theme once more in an unresolved phrase at the conclusion of "Training
Montage." More brazenly, it punctuates the final 45 seconds of "Up the
Mountain" to match first film's equivalent scene in Philadelphia, and
the underlying rhythm informs the short, fully orchestral "Knockout"
crescendo that represents the score's only truly orchestral track.
(Unfortunately, the performances here are embarrassingly novice and lack
the gravity of Conti's ensembles.) DiCola's new family theme is
anonymously generic but pretty, with a slight hint of jazz inflection at
times in later performances. It opens "Anniversary" on piano and
strings, is reprised in much the same fashion in "Stairs," takes a new
direction with more keyboarded emphasis in "Rocky and Son," and emerges
again on piano late in "Training Montage" as Rocky's wife, Adrian, joins
him in Russia. The villainous Drago receives arguably the most
interesting music that DiCola provided to the picture, and the composer
himself considers this material to be his favorite from the project. The
Drago theme consists of a thumping rhythm over industrial percussion and
breathy, air canister-like noises, with an octave-hopping bass motif
that makes it very highly (and almost distractingly) reminiscent of his
Unicron music for
The Transformers: The Movie the following year.
The simplistic melody on synth strings above all this action is somewhat
non-descript. Summarized in "Drago Suite," this material extends to the
first minute of "Apollo's Death and Funeral" in mostly its melody over a
pounding rhythm. It develops further out of a distinctly unnerving alarm
effect at the outset of "Drago's Entrance." Despite the breathing
effects incorporated into this theme, the tone of its performances sound
appropriately inhuman, an intentional choice given perceptions of
Drago's unbeatable physical capabilities.
Not many other themes weave consistently through
DiCola's short score for
Rocky IV, the most prominent of them
being the composer's "War" theme playing strategically over the fight
between Rocky and Drago. It is previewed in one phrase that closes
"Apollo's Death and Funeral" with subtlety on the synth, signaling the
inevitability of the future bout for retribution. This idea helps turn
the tide in "War," though DiCola's work here is not quite as famous a
recording as "Training Montage." It remains somewhat grating with
militaristic snare and wailing guitars; the cue needed to be more
symphonic as a propulsive force directly against Drago's synthetics. If
anything, this cue is the biggest missed opportunity of the score
despite DiCola and Stallone holding it back until Rocky starts to show
some capability to defeat Drago. The melody of the DiCola-written
"Heart's on Fire" song is also the basis for the "Up the Mountain" rock
inspiration for Rocky's ascent. Singular moments in DiCola's score worth
mentioning include a piano, synth, and string theme of lament for Creed
in "Apollo's Death and Funeral" and an uninteresting, ambient heartbeat
effect with atmospheric swooshes in "Pre-Fight." The early duo of "Gym"
and "Paulie's Robot" are forgettable, Stallone eventually coming to
personally loathe the latter cue's character and its techno music. The
closing references to Conti's style, at about 90 seconds in length, are
too brief to really work. The most hype for DiCola comes with the pop
rhythms and distinct theme of "Training Montage," a cue so immensely
popular and memorable that it has been heard in sports stadiums for
decades since. The synthetic accompaniment for Drago overlaps synthetic
inspiration for Rocky here, but most listeners will remember the
likeable drum kit and keyboarding that foreshadows early Autobot
material in
The Transformers: The Movie. Overall, "Training
Montage" and "Drago Suite" remain highlights from the short score for
Rocky IV, the new family theme and other cues not memorable
enough to endure. While the Scotti Bros. song album had been released
widely on LP and CD since the film's debut, DiCola's score didn't
experience its own release until 2010, when Intrada Records provided a
32-minute product with only the score and none of the songs. Listeners
may not prefer the final, film-oriented mixes of "War" and "Training
Montage" on this product, but the whole is an interesting study and
supplies a sufficient narrative. There are just enough references to
previously existing material for this score to fit into the franchise,
but Conti returned for the following two sequels to bring the music
home.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The insert of the 1985 Scotti Bros. album includes no extra
information about the score or film. That of the 2010 Intrada album
contains details about both.
