agree with oldmotem on this. SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME in my opinion remains one of the most underrated boxing films of all time. If James Dean was alive to take the starring role, as it was supposedly a shoe-in for him, Rocky would have been played as a character with much more inner-demon than Paul Newman's portrayal.
As to the Academy Awards, 1956/1957 was a year where epic's and big production reigned. You had the likes of THE KING & I, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and even AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS - from technical achievements to the star-power, SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME stood no chance because both Paul Newman & Pier Angeli were still lesser-known aspiring stars.
ROCKY (1976) won best picture but there were plenty of critics who begged to differ. This was the same year when we had ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, NETWORK, & TAXI DRIVER - by comparison, ROCKY was nowhere near any of these films in terms of sophiscation, but it won because it was really the only film out of the Best Picture category that depicted hope to the idea of the American Dream - in 1976/1977, America was riding high on its 200th anniversary - everyone wanted to forget about the Vietnam war, and they were tired of hearing about Watergate. Bicentennial sentiments took presidence over stories that successfully depicted the flaws to the country's foundations and beliefs - America needed hope, and ROCKY was all about the idea of the little guy standing tall in the land of opportunity.
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