In 2008, indie filmmaker and content creator James Rolfe, better known to many on the internet as the Angry Video Game Nerd, or the Angry Nintendo Nerd from humble beginnings, made a little documentary to express his love towards a certain beloved franchise featuring an underdog rising up to the challenge of his life and becoming a champion. It was an insightful documentary chocked full of passion as Rolfe traveled around Philadelphia, visiting locations which were used for the first Rocky movie, while also interviewing locals in the area and asking them about their thoughts on the 1976 classic.
In 2022, fourteen years later, James Rolfe gives us an unexpected sequel, entitled Rocky Climbed a Mountain, it sees Rolfe heading off to Jackson Hole, Wyoming which stood in for Siberia, Russia in the 1985 sequel, Rocky IV, where he aspires to visit the various filming locations, most notably the mountain used for the famous training sequence. Along for the ride is a fellow Rocky fan by the name of Derek Wayne Johnson, who has also made several Rocky documentaries of his own, John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs (2017) and 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic (2020).
What could possibly go wrong? It has the ingredients of being a fine documentary, James Rolfe proved he could do it once before. But alas, it's not the case and for one simple reason. No prepping.
The one thing any filmmaker should do, be it making a movie or a documentary, is prep. That way you avoid unnecessary headaches like being ill equipped or unprepared for what lies ahead. Pretty simple stuff. And in James' case, the first thing he should have done before setting out to Wyoming was do research to see if the areas he planned to visit were available to the public, and if not, simply enquiring for permission to shoot on the private property wouldn't have taken too much time, and if permission to shoot on the locations were denied, at least he had tried and could have stated in the documentary that they were refused permission, letting the viewers know these simple measures were taken, It goes a long way in showing that there was passion and effort behind the scenes. Instead, James goes in blind, just assuming the locations are freely available and comes off unprofessional and amateurish when he discovers that certain areas are off limits. But that's not the worst of it. One has to wonder what James was thinking when planning a documentary called Rocky Climbed a Mountain, surely he knew that would entail having to climb the said mountain himself, or at least attempting to climb it. No one would have begrudged him if he quit halfway if things became too hazardous, at least we could say that he tried. But it seems James thought climbing a mountain would be as easy as walking in a park, or jumping over a park bench, since James not only goes into the documentary unprepared, but ill equipped too. Taking with him his worn out sneakers, a t-shirt, a cap, and a backpack, and some twigs, James neglects to bring any form of climbing gear, equipment, or even hire a guide, for such a perilous journey, and is then stunned when his attempts to climb even a fraction of the mountain doesn't go to plan, leading to the final scene where he breaks down on camera and decides to back out on his goal of reaching the top.
As you can imagine, with all these issues holding the documentary back, what we're left with is a surface level look at the locations, mostly seen from afar, rather than up close and personal, defeating the whole point of what James set out to accomplish. A far cry from Rocky Jumped a Park Bench. Be it complacency, or incompetence, or both, Rocky Climbed a Mountain fails to deliver on what it promises and overall, it feels underwhelming and anti-climatic. Had James been better prepared, it could have been a contender, with a triumphant moment which sees him reaching the top and reliving the iconic final shot of the training montage. The drone suggests that Rolfe had intentions of recreating the helicopter shot atop the mountain from Rocky IV.
The documentary isn't entirely without merit. What we are shown is interesting for any Rocky fan to see how the locations look today, and if there's one thing James does really well, it's matching shots up. His attention to detail and keen eye is on full display as he spots the subtle differences between the two mountains used for the helicopter shot and the medium, close up shots, as well as pointing out in a mountain climbing video, likely done to show some kind of mountain climbing in a documentary about climbing a mountain, that the climbers have passed the exact spot that Rocky did in the montage. Rocky Climbed a Mountain is also useful as a textbook example of how not to make a documentary.
Always come prepared.
In 2022, fourteen years later, James Rolfe gives us an unexpected sequel, entitled Rocky Climbed a Mountain, it sees Rolfe heading off to Jackson Hole, Wyoming which stood in for Siberia, Russia in the 1985 sequel, Rocky IV, where he aspires to visit the various filming locations, most notably the mountain used for the famous training sequence. Along for the ride is a fellow Rocky fan by the name of Derek Wayne Johnson, who has also made several Rocky documentaries of his own, John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs (2017) and 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic (2020).
What could possibly go wrong? It has the ingredients of being a fine documentary, James Rolfe proved he could do it once before. But alas, it's not the case and for one simple reason. No prepping.
The one thing any filmmaker should do, be it making a movie or a documentary, is prep. That way you avoid unnecessary headaches like being ill equipped or unprepared for what lies ahead. Pretty simple stuff. And in James' case, the first thing he should have done before setting out to Wyoming was do research to see if the areas he planned to visit were available to the public, and if not, simply enquiring for permission to shoot on the private property wouldn't have taken too much time, and if permission to shoot on the locations were denied, at least he had tried and could have stated in the documentary that they were refused permission, letting the viewers know these simple measures were taken, It goes a long way in showing that there was passion and effort behind the scenes. Instead, James goes in blind, just assuming the locations are freely available and comes off unprofessional and amateurish when he discovers that certain areas are off limits. But that's not the worst of it. One has to wonder what James was thinking when planning a documentary called Rocky Climbed a Mountain, surely he knew that would entail having to climb the said mountain himself, or at least attempting to climb it. No one would have begrudged him if he quit halfway if things became too hazardous, at least we could say that he tried. But it seems James thought climbing a mountain would be as easy as walking in a park, or jumping over a park bench, since James not only goes into the documentary unprepared, but ill equipped too. Taking with him his worn out sneakers, a t-shirt, a cap, and a backpack, and some twigs, James neglects to bring any form of climbing gear, equipment, or even hire a guide, for such a perilous journey, and is then stunned when his attempts to climb even a fraction of the mountain doesn't go to plan, leading to the final scene where he breaks down on camera and decides to back out on his goal of reaching the top.
As you can imagine, with all these issues holding the documentary back, what we're left with is a surface level look at the locations, mostly seen from afar, rather than up close and personal, defeating the whole point of what James set out to accomplish. A far cry from Rocky Jumped a Park Bench. Be it complacency, or incompetence, or both, Rocky Climbed a Mountain fails to deliver on what it promises and overall, it feels underwhelming and anti-climatic. Had James been better prepared, it could have been a contender, with a triumphant moment which sees him reaching the top and reliving the iconic final shot of the training montage. The drone suggests that Rolfe had intentions of recreating the helicopter shot atop the mountain from Rocky IV.
The documentary isn't entirely without merit. What we are shown is interesting for any Rocky fan to see how the locations look today, and if there's one thing James does really well, it's matching shots up. His attention to detail and keen eye is on full display as he spots the subtle differences between the two mountains used for the helicopter shot and the medium, close up shots, as well as pointing out in a mountain climbing video, likely done to show some kind of mountain climbing in a documentary about climbing a mountain, that the climbers have passed the exact spot that Rocky did in the montage. Rocky Climbed a Mountain is also useful as a textbook example of how not to make a documentary.
Always come prepared.