Here's Why Rocky IV Is Still The Best July 4th Movie

Fourth of July weekend is the most purely American holiday, and it's not exclusive to being a celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. There's an unapologetic absurdity to Independence Day, where "freedom" and the lives lost in pursuit of it are honored by spending billions of dollars on explosives, getting sunburned for the fun of it, eating thousands of calories of charred meat, and spending hours making red, white, and blue jello molds. It's a day where pure hedonism is encouraged without the stress of familial obligations or gift-giving, and no one is going to judge you if you chug a Pabst Blue Ribbon and smash the can on your head while wearing a Star-Spangled bikini top and cutoff jorts.

Of course, it only works if you're willing to ignore reality for a day. The United States turns 250 this year, and feeling patriotic has become harder than ever when every morning begins with another push notification that gives you another reason to be embarrassed to be American. Every year, movie fans start their day watching films like the alien-invasion classic "Independence Day," Steven Spielberg's blockbuster masterpiece "Jaws," or Brian DePalma's downright unforgettable "Blowout" (even if the film is set on "Liberty Day").

But the film that best embodies everything the Fourth of July represents — for better and for worse — is "Rocky IV." A 90-minute movie that boasts 21-ish minutes of montage and a full-length performance by James Brown of "Living in America," "Rocky IV" is the cinematic equivalent of chanting "USA! USA!" After Ivan Drago kills Apollo Creed mid-match, Rocky Balboa must avenge his friend and personally restore America's honor. It's as American as apple pie, Cold War paranoia, and the belief that one stubborn underdog can fix everything.

Firing up "Rocky IV" rivals watching, slack-jawed, as fireworks explode, dazzling us with spectacle and giving us a break from The Horrors™ for at least one up look at the night sky. And it's because it is arguably one of the greatest pieces of American propaganda ever made. Everything that makes "Rocky IV" a "bad" movie is actually what makes it great. It's also why a holiday like July 4th absolutely rocks. And in both cases, you just can't, uh, think too hard about it. Whether or not "Rocky IV" is a "good" movie is debatable, but it goes above and beyond in succeeding in everything it sets out to do. 

Take the over-the-top training montages, for example: Rocky is in Siberia, chopping wood and dragging a rickshaw through the snow, and growing an ultra-masculine beard to show the passage of time and provide testosterone-driven evidence of his masculine dedication. Meanwhile, Ivan Drago, a walking Aryan wet dream, is juicing with steroids up to his eyeballs and training so hard he overpowers computerized workout trackers just short of making them all explode from his strength. This is the textbook definition of "bootstraps grit" overpowering "science from foreigners," the same ass-backwards sentiment behind bringing back coal as an energy source instead of investing in solar or wind initiatives.

But these so-called "bad" aspects of filmmaking — over-reliance on montage, a musical segment, a Hulk-hand-sized ham-fisted script, Paulie's Robot — are the film's greatest strengths. And the so-called "bad" aspects of July 4th, like eating garbage food and wearing tacky clothing, are precisely why the holiday is interesting. It's no wonder why "The Pitt" chose the holiday for Season 2. I don't know how you watch "Rocky IV" and walk away not feeling bricked up about America.

An idea will never let you down, and that's what most Americans are clinging to as the country crumbles around us. We want to believe that heroes come out on top and villains get their comeuppance. We want to believe blue-collar American grit can take down "evil Russian technology." Rocky was never as good a fighter as Apollo Creed, but he would never give up. And THAT is the dream that we peddle to all Americans. You don't have to be the strongest, the fastest, the smartest, or even the best; you just have to never give up. The film endures because it tells the story America has always wanted to believe about itself.

It's corny, it's politically simplistic, and it's wrapped in enough stars-and-stripes bombast to make Uncle Sam blush, but it's also weirdly hopeful. Maybe that's the reason the movie still works after all these years, and why it's such a perfect watch on the Fourth of July. Deep down, nobody actually believes they can solve a geopolitical conflict by winning a boxing match, but most of us want to believe that perseverance matters and that getting back up after every punch counts for something. "Rocky IV" sells that fantasy with all the subtlety of a fireworks finale, and the Fourth of July asks us to buy into a similar dream every year: that America is always capable of becoming the version of itself it promises to be.

For one day, we suspend our disbelief. We light the fuse, watch the sky explode in impossible colors, and cheer for the underdog one more time. Then we wake up on July 5 and get back to the hard work of trying to make the myth a little more true.