`ROCKY' ROAD WHAT BROUGHT 60-YEAR-OLD SLY STALLONE BACK INTO THE RING?

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Sylvester Stallone will be the first to admit that he's made a few mistakes.

Like ``Over the Top.'' ``Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.'' Brigitte Nielsen ...

OK, it's a substantial list. But whenever the image was in doubt, Stallone could usually count on some love if he returned to Rocky, his dim but lovable boxer creation that made him a superstar.

Except for the last time. ``Rocky V'' was so bad that it logically appeared to have killed the series (which began with 1976's best picture Oscar winner).

Plus, let's face it, Stallone wasn't getting any younger.

But never count this savant of last chances out. Sixteen years since the last round, and following a string of flops that made the movie industry forget he was once one of its top contenders, 60-year-old Stallone is talking about his new movie, ``Rocky Balboa.''

Just getting it made was a triumph. Regaining a pugilist's physique was even more impressive. And the fact that the movie actually seems to work the way that Stallone, who also wrote and directed it, intended ... well, like they say in the commercials, priceless.

So the sexagenarian Sly is vital and enthused these days -- and for good reason. But also, having taken his lumps for so long, there's a becoming humility, too. You can probably still call him a world-beater, but now he's one whose sometimes arrogant personality has taken a turn for -- the better.

Q: ``Rocky Balboa'' seems to want to do for the AARP crowd what the original ``Rocky'' did for average working stiffs: inspire to greatness, basically.

A: What I'm trying to say in this is that, if you still have this fire in the gut, if you're still up for the challenge, you need to do that. You need something that challenges you in your later years, whether it's learning to play golf or tennis or hike -- something. Even if people say, ``Please, grow up, age gracefully.'' You don't want to age gracefully. You want to run a marathon, you want to do something foolish. And you should do it, because that's the key to staying young. Repetition, loneliness, isolation: that's a very tragic formula.

Q: Um, about doing something foolish ...

A: My wife (Jennifer Flavin, with whom he has three little girls) was afraid of me doing this film. She was crying and telling me not to, that I would be embarrassed. I said, ``I know, but I've got to try it. I feel it.''

Q: Against all odds -- bet you like the sound of that phrase, huh? -- a lot of people who've seen ``Balboa'' feel it, too. It's gotten better reviews than anything you've done in decades.

A: I didn't want to go out with a string of bad films by offshore companies. I really want to go out with some dignity, and I wanted the character to go out that way. ``Rocky V'' was a big disappointment; it was the beginning of a very bad run. And this was the only, last vehicle that I could really say, ``I think I know what this could do.'' I couldn't do that with ``Cobra 2''! But I knew that there are a lot of people out there who will go to a decent film of Rocky, more than any other character I've ever played.

Q: Why do you think that is? Other than Rambo, anyway. Why not Judge Dredd? (Don't feel obligated to answer that question).

A: ``Rocky'' came out on two screens. So it really took a long time, and it was out there for almost a year. It burned its way into the American consciousness and I became incredibly identified with it, probably inextricably forever. And when I would go against that, everything was held up to ``Rocky.'' So if the projects I found myself involved with didn't have a certain kind of heart or a certain kind of expectancy the audience wanted, I think they felt it was a letdown.

Q: Um, speaking of Rambo, you're going back to your crazy old Vietnam vet next. Isn't that kind of pushing your luck?

A: There is a ``Rambo.'' I had agreed to this before ``Rocky Balboa'' had been approved, so I have legal obligations. I would have preferred to have put something in between the two, I really would have. But we have a very good script. It's about an incursion into a war-torn country, but it's not like a ``Rambo III,'' with political bad guys and all that.

Q: Any other sequels in the works?

A: Well, I've been working on this thing called ``Rhinestone: The Slimestone Cowboy.'' That's my contribution to birth control. Put that on and nobody wants to touch. Just kidding. That's what keeps me sane.

Q: Oh, sane, are we? Would a sane man kill off Adrian?

A: You have to pull a man's heart out and take away the thing he loves most. And there is nothing more traumatic than taking Adrian out of his life.

I had been talking to Talia (Shire, who played Rocky's beloved wife in the previous five movies) about the other script I tried to write for this, so I had to call her and tell her that I finally worked out the plot. She said, ``Oh, that's so great! What's my part?'' I said, ``Dead. You're dead.'' She said, ``Seriously?'' And I said, ``Seriously. It opens up on a folding chair and I'm looking at your tombstone.''

She said, ``Come on!'' And I said, ``Yeah, but I bring roses.'' It's a true story. I talked to her the other day. She finally got it, and she's very cerebral. She said, ``It's the journey of Sisyphus and down the River Styx!'' I said, ``Yeah, that's close. That's exactly what it is. `Dante's Inferno,' down the River Styx, OK.' '' But she's great.

Q: Sanity check No. 2: Rocky's opponent is played by a real boxer, Antonio Tarver. Dude, you're an old man! What were you thinking?

A: Because we didn't have a lot of time to choreograph, I needed a fighter. I said, ``We know where we're gonna go, so let's sort of wing it. I'm going to come after you with jabs, you come after me with hooks, but not have it mapped out perfectly. And I want you to tag me. I'll try to slip 'em, but if not, don't kill me, but tag me.'' You couldn't get an amateur to do that. You need someone who can adjust and slip so fast you don't even see it.

Q: You do look pretty great still, a year after the shoot. Are you going to exercise the rest of your life, until you drop?

A: I'll never stop that. You know why? To me it's a hobby, it's not exercise. I've done it for so long, I don't see it as hard or boring. It's a hobby, like the way people play golf.

Q: So, looking back on a career with such extreme highs and lows, is there anything you wish you'd have done differently?

A: Like the song: ``Regrets, I've had a few.'' There's no question about that. But there's no way to go back. The only thing is to talk about it in future projects.

Everyone has the answers. You know the answer. Your heart will tell you the answer, and your head will change it. People know what's right. But then, all of a sudden, the debate -- what I call the roof-brain chatter -- starts to take you off course. Then, before you know it, you're really in a quandary. I knew in my heart that I wanted to do this, and I know when I'm doing something that's just for financial gain and not heartfelt. And every one of those things leaves one grappling with disappointment.

Bob Strauss [phone]

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The Italian Stallion takes a bruising

OK, you've got to be wondering how the heck did Sylvester Stallone, then 59, take a punch from a real champ?

It's all acting, right?

``I was trying to be compassionate. To pull my punches a little when they hit flesh,'' Antonio Tarver says. ``But he wanted the full-throttle of the punch. He wanted his action to be real.''

It was real, all right. Tarver even broke his knuckle on Stallone's head at one point and had to wear a soft cast for a while. Stallone broke his toe. By the end of filming, both were battered and bruised.

``I didn't want to hurt Sylvester Stallone, you know?'' Tarver adds. ``But when we'd film, he'd be like, `Hit me, hit me!'He was egging me on.

``I swear, in another lifetime ... no, if he could turn back the hands of time in this one, (Stallone) really, truly believes he could be a boxing champion.''

-- Ramona Shelburne 

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Punch lines

Sylvester Stallone on going one more round as Rocky Balboa

(2) no caption (Sylvester Stallone)

(3) no caption (Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Tarver)

Box:

The Italian Stallion takes a bruising (see text)