Chuck

“You do know me, but you don’t know you know me.” It may sound like an outtake from an old American Express commercial, but it’s actually Chuck Wepner. No? How about the Bayonne Bleeder? Still nothing?

Maybe you know him as Rocky Balboa. Back in 1975, Wepner f ought Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight title, knocking the champ down and lasting into the 15th round before losing. Sylvester Stallone saw the fight and then wrote his screenplay for Rocky. Wepner has been dining out on the connection ever since.

His story was told in The Real Rocky, a 2011 documentary. Some of the same writers are behind this film, with the addition of Quebec director Philippe Falardeau ( The Good Lie, Monsieur Lazhar), melding the story of Wepner’s brush with Hollywood fame and his romantic interest in two women, (Elisabeth Moss and Naomi Watts), neither of whom has time for his BS.

From the opening scene in which Wepner ( Liev Schreiber) fights a bear in the ring, you know this guy is up for just about anything. Hailing from Bayonne N. J., Chuck got his “bleeder” nickname for his ability to take a beati ng from man and beast alike. But he’s got a soft side; the poems he writes to his wife are another true- life detail. Unfortunately, his heart seems to have been up for grabs by anyone with a pretty face.

Falardeau has great fun with the ’ 70s period detail, and stocks the soundtrack with classic Hot Chocolate and B.T.O. The fight scenes are nothing special, but Wepner’s story is more about what happened outside the ring.

When Rocky takes the Oscar, Wepner, watching from home, crows “We won!”

It’s a little bit pathetic, but Schreiber crafts such an innocence in his character that it’s easy to root for him. And to remember him. At the very least, you’re guaranteed never to look at Stallone’s Rocky the same way ever again. ΩΩΩ