“Rocky V” might not score highly on a list of every Rocky movie ranked worst to best, but in Netflix’s documentary “Sly,” Sylvester Stallone reveals that it nevertheless reflects some personal truths about his relationship with his late son Sage Stallone.
In “Rocky V,” Rocky’s (Sylvester Stallone) son Rocky Jr. (played, appropriately, by Sage Stallone) feels neglected by his father and turns to some bad kids for guidance. Rocky Jr. thinks that his dad spends too much time with trainee Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison), so in response to bullying at his school, he starts hanging out with this crowd to toughen up. After Rocky realizes what’s going on, however, the two of them reconcile.
“A lot of that is true,” Sylvester Stallone says of this storyline in the Netflix documentary. “Unfortunately, you put things before your family. And the repercussions are quite radical and devastating.”
Previously, Sage Stallone hinted at this storyline’s truthfulness in an interview People conducted in 1996. “When I was screaming: ‘You never spent time with me! You never spent time with my mother!’ that was true,” he said. “We broke into tears a few times. After the film, everything changed. We’d do anything for each other.” Fortunately, then, based on this latter comments, Sage Stallone and his father seem to have righted some wrongs during the making of “Rocky V,” well before his tragic death.
