Posted by
Jim Hunt on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 8:00:00 AM
This isn’t the column I planned to write for today. I actually had a couple of different topics in mind, but they are going to have to wait for another day. Last night I watched a movie that I had seen once before. It is the sixth movie in a series that started more than 30 years ago. It is a story of indomitable spirit, a love story, a story of optimism against impossible odds.
In the play Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote sings the incredible song The Impossible Dream (lyrics by Joe Darian):
To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...
This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...
And I know, if I'll only be true to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest ...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ...
The movie I saw had nothing and everything to do with this song. Although most people probably wouldn’t recognize it as such, this song could have been the script for this series of movies, particularly the first and the last films in the series which I believe were the best. It is also the story of America, of the American dream; a dream which sometimes seems impossible, but is only impossible if we don’t try.
The first movie in the series won the Best Picture Oscar in 1976. The last was panned by the critics and ignored by the Oscars. I find this unfortunate because to me it simply shows how badly the critics and many others missed the point of the film. Although some of the middle films of the series lost their way (particularly the fifth, which was truly awful), Sylvester Stallone’s 1976 film Rocky and his 2006 film Rocky Balboa truly captured the essence of the American dream. Rocky III and Rocky IV picked it up well too, but not as well as the original or the last. This is the story of a nobody who literally fought his way to the top, crashed down and fought his way back again. It is a truly uplifting story of what can be done only in America. If you have the talent, the drive and the heart to get back up when you are knocked down, to keep moving forward no matter the odds, you can make it in America.
Remember what the world was like in 1976 when Rocky fought his first fight? Jimmy Carter was getting ready to tell us that America’s best years were behind us, that there was a sense of “national malaise” that the American dream was dead. Our government was in chaos due to Watergate, the Vietnam War was fresh in all of our memories. But a young man named Sylvester Stallone wrote, produced, directed and starred in a movie that 32 years later still quickens the pulse.
If you haven’t seen Rocky Balboa yet, I urge you to do so. Listen to the message of that movie, and be sure when it is over to watch the credits. Watch dozens of people of all ages re-create Rocky’s run up the steps in Philadelphia. As I watched that I realized how few of those people had even been born when the first Rocky was released. It is very powerful, touching and fun. If you haven’t seen Rocky in years, rent it again. The message is as meaningful today as it was 32 years ago.
It took 37 years for the Impossible Dream of the 1967 Red Sox to be reached by the 2004 Red Sox.
I pray that we Americans never give up on our Impossible Dreams. The only way we can lose is if we stop trying. We are on a glorious quest, please be true to it, the world will be better for this.
God Bless America