Rocky (1976)

Drama written by and starring Sylvester Stallone as a small-time boxer and debt collector who somehow finds himself fighting against the world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed. 

Directed by John G. Avildsen, it’s an amazingly low-key film, very little of which is actually about boxing. Mostly it’s a rather sad saga of a man struggling in the world. He finds love in the form of his friend’s sister Adrian (Talia Shire), who, like him, suffers from low self-esteem. 

It’s extremely gritty. You see a lot of Stallone wandering around, seeming a little lost, in run-down parts of Philadelphia. You end up rooting for him as he seems such a sweet and needy character. 

Burgess Meredith (The Penguin from the 1960s Batman TV series) plays his coach, and Burt Young plays his desperate and downtrodden friend Paulie. 

Numerous big-budget sequels would follow, but the impressive restraint of this original would never be repeated.