Rocky
Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone, a Philadelphia boxer, is but one step removed from total bum-hood. A once-promising pugilist, Rocky is now taking nickel-and-dime bouts and running strong-arm errands for local loan sharks to survive. Even his supportive trainer, Mickey, Burgess Meredith, has given up on Rocky. All this changes thanks to super-boxer Apollo Creed, Carl Weathers. With the Bicentennial celebration coming up, Creed must find a "Cinderella" opponent for the big July 4th bout some unknown whom Creed can "glorify" for a few minutes before knocking him cold.
Aside from the obvious boxing similarities, in terms of story there isn’t much difference between Rocky in our film that it follows the life, challenges and achievements of an otherwise underdog athlete, however while the projects end story and message is the same “second chances and opportunities”.
Their story beginning are different, where Rocky Balboa began at rock bottom to be given a lottery drawn chance our protagonist was at the top of his game from the beginning which I feel made his losing of it all and his eventual reclamation of it makes it a lot more meaningful. There is the old saying “you never know what you’ve got till its gone” which is the prominent message at the beginning of the project.
The sequels to Rocky also serve as similar films in that once Rocky achieves the title he begins taking it for granted which leads to him being unprepared in Rocky 3 and his loss of it, naturally this leads to a journey of discovery which our protagonist, Mike Dawson, must endure after his release from prison.
8 Mile
With the help of his friends, and his new girlfriend Alex, Brittany Murphy, Rabbit, Eminem, struggles to work up the courage and the confidence to take one more shot at making his dream of escaping inner-city Detroit a reality.
The central premise maybe different in that this is set around a completely different profession however the overall story is relatively similar in that an underdog achieves something where others believed he couldn’t. However unlike Rocky this film is closer to our film in that Rabbit is a very capable of achieving his dream at the beginning but just lacks confidence.
Both Mike Dawson and Rabbit share the feelings and emotions of going from an area of relative comfort to a lesser position in that Rabbit goes from having a relationship and living independently to having to return home and Mike goes from being a potential athlete to convict and then ostracized by those who previously supported him.
Also both protagonists almost take up a life of crime in order to support themselves until realizations hit and they realize it’s not what they dreamed for themselves and are turned around.
