The movie that causes Sylvester Stallone physical discomfort: “I’ll never forgive myself”
It’s fair to say that Sylvester Stallone‘s career has twisted and turned into moments of success and failure. Sure, there have been many high moments for the New York City-born actor and director, most notably his Rocky and Rambo films, but for every high point, there has been a low, something that Sly has never shied away from admitting.
While some of Stallone’s efforts as Rocky have shown that he’s more than just a tough guy, rather a man capable of delivering a dramatic performance as well as writing the damn thing, looking back over his career, we can see there have been a handful of times that would likely serve as triggers of sheer embarrassment.
Stallone’s career began with several uncredited extra roles and a couple of credited performances in the likes of Capone, Death Race 2000 and Farewell, My Lovely. After earning major success with the first Rocky film, one might have thought that Stallone had but the dodgy credits well behind him, but just two years later, he directed and starred in a movie that would make him physically recoil when gazing upon its offerings.
1978’s sports drama Paradise Alley was Stallone’s directorial debut and tells of three Italian American brothers from Hell’s Kitchen who got involved in professional wrestling in the 1940s. Stallone might have been hoping for further success with his Rocky follow-up, but the truth was that it was critically lambasted.
“I received the worst reviews since Hitler,” Stallone once said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “They would actually ignite; they were so hot. They would say, ‘The egomaniac has made a film that warrants nothing but banishment from the archives of any cinema student. His voice is reminiscent of the guttural echoings of a mafioso pallbearer, and we could only recommend that he cut his vocal cords and stand as far away as he can in a crowd scene.'”
Ouch, such reviews were certainly the kind that would make Stallone cringe so early into his career, and according to the actor/director, the critics were the very same people who had been so kind to Rocky. Looking back on the film with experience, though, Stallone understood that the critics were right in their assertions.
“The character was really despicable,” Sly admitted. “No redeeming qualities at all. There are a couple of moments at the end, but that isn’t enough. The character I portrayed should’ve been the lively, effervescent comedic part of the ensemble piece. But instead of being the supplier of the energy, I was the foul spark plug, just sputtering.”
Evidently, there are some problems with the characterisation of Paradise Alley, which Stallone couldn’t correct in hindsight. After all, once a film is out there, it’s out there forever, and that’s always something that a director or actor has to live with. Even worse, Stallone has to contend with his reaction whenever he catches even a frame of his 1978 effort. “I have to look at it with one eye,” he said. “It’s too much to take with two eyes. Ow! It hurts!”
Still, in another interview with Roger Ebert, Stallone said that perhaps Paradise Alley was not all his fault, noting, “I’ll never forgive myself for the way I allowed myself to be manipulated during the editing of that film. There were a lot of scenes in there to give atmosphere and character, and they wanted them out just to speed things along.” So perhaps it wasn’t completely old Sly’s fault that he feels such shame about the movie.
