Sylvester Stallone in “Sly”.Photo:Courtesy of Netflix
Courtesy of Netflix
Sly, which is now available to stream on Netflix, details the inspirations and meteoric screen career of the writer-director-star, 77. But directorThom Zimnydoesn’t shy away from Sylvester’s recollections of a troubled childhood, including physical and verbal abuse from his fatherFrank Stallone Sr., who died in 2011.
Sylvester Stallone in “Sly”.Courtesy of Netflix
It was around then, Sylvester claims in the documentary, that his father interrupted “in the middle of a game” to berate him. “I was going for a nearside backhand, and I didn’t do anything wrong — he goes, ‘You’re pulling too hard on the horse!’” he remembers.
He adds, “I laid there and I went, ‘I never want to see a horse again in my whole life.’”
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Later in the film, Frank Jr. also recalls how Sylvester “became an excellent polo player” and could have played at the highest level “if it wasn’t for my father browbeating him. And that’s why he quit polo.”
Sylvester recalls how his father “spears me in the back. Hit me so hard, I went down… The horse walked right over, I don’t know how it didn’t kill me.”
Wincing in pain at the memory, Sylvester adds that his first thought after falling off the horse was, “He just rode away.”
He adds that the experience caused him to stop playing the sport for good. “I never played polo again from that moment on. I sold everything, I sold every horse, the ranch, the truck, and that was the end.”
Slyincludes press conference footage from after the game, in which theExpendablesstar tells the crowd, “If you notice, the first cheap shot — and only cheap shot in the game — was administered from my father to his son.”
Sylvester Stallone filming as Rocky Balboa.Courtesy of Netflix
The documentary also shows footage of Sylvester visiting his father not long before Frank died.
“He’s on his deathbed,” recalls Sylvester later in the film. “He goes, ‘You know, Sly… you should learn to love and forgive people.’ I said, ‘Really! That just come to you now as the f—ing angels are about to whisper in your ear?… Like you just had an epiphany on the way out?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I did.’”
source: people.com
