Good Guy Dialogue

Stallone’s work, aside from the first few Rocky installments and maybe Rambo, is cinematic candy or Wonder Bread. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it gets the job done if you’re in the right mood. Critics might look at him with upturned noses, naturally, but sometimes his dialogue can strike a decent vein of gold. Rocky doesn’t impart any especially profound wisdom here, but it’s worded and delivered very well. Life isn’t a sprint and it’s not even a race against other people—it’s more of a solo marathon.

Sometimes women don’t get the banter between guy friends, and it’s maybe understood a little less than dudes punching each other for fun. Casual one-upmanship is some good friendship glue, and it parallels nicely with the physical one-upmanship when they launch into the sparring. The sparring itself is the meat and potatoes to the conversation soup; guys tend to bond by doing things together rather than communicating. Think of a group of old men with cigars playing poker around a basement table in dead silence. You can tell these two are old friends who’ve seen some things. Really good, natural-sounding back and forth here.

A good father and son talk. Even though it’s about political strategy at the start, replace the topic with dirt bikes or guitars or girls and it would still make sense. I’m biased towards this scene because I agree with Leto’s thoughts on power. I see the best leaders as able but reluctant; men who are little too enthusiastic about gaining power over others pings my “watch out” radar too aggressively. The skin-on-skin cheek caress at the end is a nice touch (heh). Physical touch between men, especially familial members, is important. Also, Leto’s beard is important. You can set your watch to that thing.

I never saw this movie in full but I know the gist. Aside from the monologue at the end, this also feels natural, as though you’re eavesdropping. And being a Massachusetts native, this is exactly how Boston-area working guys talk. Again, it might sound antagonistic to casual listeners but they are letting their feelings out. Note at the end, Will has no argument against what Chuckie is saying, because it’s Chuckie’s personal experience. All of Will’s book smarts can’t account for someone else’s personal viewpoint. There’s likely a cinematic significance to the excavator doing its thing right behind Will’s head in one part of the shot; it’s too active and even distracting for it to be a directorial mistake. But then the excavator disappears later on, then reappears in a different spot at the end. Weird.