‘Sly’ Review – An Entertaining Yet Shallow Dive Into The Life Of Sylvester Stallone

Sly is a moving biography of an artist and a human being. Netflix’s shallow dive into the professional and personal life of Sylvester Stallone is pulling back the curtain on his relationship with his father. Stallone depicts a violent childhood where Hollywood’s first blockbuster action wasn’t constantly competing with his father. No, Frank Stallone, Sr., was competing with his son. All fueled by petty jealousy that would freeze his cold heart instead of letting warm pride fill his body.

While watching Sly, Stallone has some fascinating revelations. This lets the viewer speculate why the elder Stallone was so jealous of his son’s success. For one, Stallone reveals that he used his father’s rage as an underlying inspiration for First Blood, a movie that established him as the biggest draw in Hollywood. Stallone explains how he stood his ground with the studio. For one, the executives wanted to kill off Rambo at the end of the first film. Stallone staunchly stood his ground because he didn’t want to trigger veterans still dealing with suicidal ideation. If it wasn’t for a disastrous test screening in Las Vegas, the franchise would not be what it is today.

From that point, Sly morphs into a film about fathers and sons. Stallone used his dark past to develop projects with organic performances despite the era’s cinema. You can only imagine (and even speculate) what ran through his father’s mind then. Perhaps being triggered as Sly pulled back the curtain on the emotional toll his service in World War II may have contributed to the abusive childhood. Maybe even causing an unconscious resentment of his son’s success.

The film briefly touches on the loss of Stallone’s son, Sage. (He passed away from coronary artery disease caused by atherosclerosis at the young age of 36.) This is an interesting aspect of Sly’s life and could have used a more in-depth account of that relationship. A juxtaposition could have been used to compare how Stallone was treated by his father. However, it’s understandable why the actor wouldn’t want to reopen such a painful wound.

This does represent an issue with self-biographical documentaries: the subject controls the narrative. While we can call Sly a puff piece, it does provide some insight, as approved by its star. The film avoids discussing Stallone’s marriages and alleged 21st-century legal matters. The subjects would be relevant in today’s age of social justice movements.

Of course, if you are a true cinephile, having Stallone talk about his experiences in films like Rocky, Lords of Flatbush, and even Paradise Alley is a treat. Sadly, there is no archival footage of Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, but we get a hilarious story of Stallone jumping headfirst into the project. That transitions into a brief, wickedly entertaining rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The film skips over Stallone’s collaboration with Irwin Winkler. For one, the story of how Stallone lost the rights to Rocky, a franchise that has amassed 1.7 billion dollars, is a movie in itself. Yet there is no discussion of how Winkler came to own the rights to the project, of which Sly holds none. The subject is something Stallone has been vocal about having some ownership rights to, including this past year. It should be noted that many confuse Irwin Winkler with Henry Winkler. The Happy Days and Barry star helped repurchase the script from ABC when they wanted to rewrite it and make it into a television movie.

Still, while you can certainly view Sly as a glorified pat on the back, the film works on a level to pique the interests of Stallone fans, new and old. The behind-the-scenes footage and words from the star’s mouth are insightful, to a degree. Stallone is like Rambo at the Netflix gates, making sure he approves the documentary filtering insights at his approval, limiting the film’s effect.

Sly is currently available to stream on Netflix. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FMulgkArnw]