Newman does succeed in capturing the familiar Graziano mannerisms: the crude, New York-Italian accent; the mumbling; the sneers and pouts; the cocky strut, with huddled shoulders and shuffling feet. He has a nervous energy, wiping his mouth and nose with his fingers, rubbing his hands together, scratching his neck, and dancing around in one place, as if constantly facing an opponent in the ring.
This perpetual motion--even when he is seated--suggests a potentially explosive force that naturally finds release in fighting, and it contrasts with the generally listless movement of Brando and Dean. The role is tremendously showy, and it gives Newman a chance to play an extrovert, as contrasted with his character in THE RACK. And whereas his soldier was an intelligent man, his Rocky is almost subhuman, a purely physical being.
The film follows Graziano's impoverished childhood in New York's East Side slums, where he grows up in the streets, among hoodlums and gangs. His father (Harold Stone), a disappointed, third-rate ex-boxer, takes out his frustrations by drinking and by beating up Rocky; his mother (Eileen Heckart), is an unhappy, nervous wreck.
As a result, Rocky becomes a brutal delinquent, spending most of his youth in reformatories and prisons. Defiant, impulsive, striking out with his fists at anyone, he is seemingly incorrigible. Even the Army can't tame him--he punches an officer, goes AWOL and is sentenced to hard labor--but in prison he learns that he can turn his hatred into a living: instead of fighting the world he can punch one man at a time in the ring... He becomes a successful fighter, marries a devoted woman, Norma (Pier Angeli), and eventually makes it in the world, becoming middleweight champion.
The story is in the tradition of a number of fifties movies about delinquency and rebellion... Newman's portrayal of Rocky as an inarticulate teenager is similar to Brando's motorcyclist in THE WILD ONE, who also rebels against anything convenient and practical. But unlike the Brando character, Rocky develops from a causeless rebel into someone with a clear goal--to become a respected member of society--and this strong ambition allies him with many of Newman's subsequent characters.
In THE RACK Newman says he's "half my father's disappointment--half' my mother's hope," and the situation here is the same. Alienated from his vicious father, he runs out "to be something," and strikes back at the world... Their final confrontation, in which each recognizes his responsibility toward, and need for, the other, is a powerful moment; and the two reaching awkwardly for each other recalls the car scene in THE RACK. Another affecting scene is his mother's visit to him in prison, where she says he must help himself... This prefigures the mother-son confrontation in COOL HAND LUKE, except that in the latter, both realize that the rebel cannot change, whereas here there's hope that Rocky will turn his life around.
Newman effectively portrays Rocky's sincere but clumsy attempts at tenderness with Norma; in subsequent films he would play many men who have difficulty being tender... Rocky is made even more sympathetic by his genuine concern for a fellow hoodlum (Sal Mineo), whose idolatry of Rocky as a father-figure evokes the similar relationship between Mineo and James Dean in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
"I got news for you. If it wasn't for the toilet, there would be no books." --- George Costanza.
