Summary
- Sylvester Stallone reflects on his ’80s action movie legacy, considering himself the last of the dinosaurs in the definitive ‘action guy‘ era.
- Stallone’s career has spanned almost 50 years, with Oscar nominations for his work in the Rocky franchise and a mix of high-profile and over-the-top action movies.
- Despite the changing landscape of cinema, Stallone remains committed to the roots of his career, as seen in his recent work on The Expendables franchise.
Sylvester Stallone reflects on his ‘80s action movie legacy. Stallone began his career in 1969 when he starred in the lesser-known drama The Square Root. Following this debut, Stallone made a splash in the movie world of the action genre, including Capone and Death Race 2000 before taking on his breakthrough role in 1976’s Rocky. After Rocky, Stallone continued to make other action projects throughout the 1980s, including First Blood and Cobra.
The veteran action star looks back on his ‘80s action film career of yesteryear. Speaking with Entertainment Tonight Canada, Stallone referred to himself as “the last of the dinosaurs.” He considers himself an extant remnant of a bygone era where the “definitive ‘action guy’” concept was still being formed. Stallone expressed gratitude towards this bountiful career, calling its length “mind-blowing.” Check out the full quote from Stallone below:
“You can’t be prepared for this…the longevity of this career is mind-blowing. It’s just mind-blowing because I don’t know how much longer you can wait. Society is changing, the commerciality in cinema, it’s faster. So longevity would become a premium.”
“I consider myself like the last of the dinosaurs, you know what I mean? And I’m very proud of that. But yeah, you have to really think about that. It’s incredible. I mean it’s been almost 50 years… So I don’t take it for granted, but I really want to spend it with my loved ones. The majority of what’s left. The ’80s was a very interesting time because the definitive ‘action guy’ had not really been formed yet. Up until that time, action was a car chase like ‘Bullitt’ or ‘The French Connection.’ A film all about intellect and innuendo and verbal this and verbal that.”
The Evolution Of Sylvester Stallone’s Career Explained
Stallone boasts two Oscar nominations from the Rocky franchise, including Best Actor in a Leading Role for the first entry and Best Supporting Actor nearly 40 years later for Creed. Rocky also earned Stallone a nomination for Best Original Screenplay and even went on to win Best Picture. The Rocky franchise also ended up aiding in Stallone’s emergent directing career, as he helmed the later four installments in the series: Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, and Rocky Balboa.
Despite proving his dramatic chops with the Rocky franchise, Stallone curiously kept making B-movies throughout his career. He became a franchise star in not just Rocky but also the Rambo film franchise in the 1980s. This filmography meant that Stallone’s career was quite uneven. In one case, he was involved in this high-profile, Oscar-nominated work in Rocky, and on the other hand, he was making over-the-top action movies and redefining the “action guy” trope.
As Stallone touches on with his “dinosaur” analogy, the threads of his early career have persisted beyond the ephemeral era of ‘80s action flicks. In 2010, Stallone directed and starred in The Expendables, an action thriller that rose as a franchise that will soon have its fourth installment, Expend4bles, released. So, while Stallone’s career may have been varied, the actor still commits himself to the roots of what defined his career.
