After the success of Rocky III, Sylvester Stallone went to work on the follow up. He wanted to cast a massive monster of a man to play his Russian rival in the fourth installment to the wildly popular franchise. Originally, he envisioned a hulking hairy ape-like figure in the role, but after seeing a handsome towering Swede by the name of Dolph Lundgren, with a statuesque physique, he went in a different direction and cast the 6’5” karate champion and bodyguard, despite the fact he had never really acted except in a brief scene from A View To A Kill. He had only landed that role because his client/girlfriend Grace Jones was in the movie. With that choice, Stallone found the Russian Goliath he was looking for and a star was born.
The new documentary Dolph: Unbreakable by Andrew Holmes covers Lundgren’s iconic career and life. From his tumultuous childhood and relationship with his abusive father to his journey from karate champion to Rhodes scholar with a degree in chemical engineering, to his time as Grace Jones’s bodyguard and then lover, before getting into acting. While the project started as a celebration of Dolph’s personal story and career, it took a turn after his subsequent cancer diagnosis and follows his battle for survival and ultimate recovery.
The film does a great job of exploring Dolph’s rise to stardom and the many highlights of what has been a prolific career spanning four decades and around one hundred roles across movies and television. With appearances from fellow action luminaries and co-stars Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean Claude Van Damme. However it is the peek behind the curtain at his remarkable personal journey that makes the documentary special. We learn of how his relationship with his abusive father followed him throughout his life and the demons he struggled with as he attempted to juggle his work and family and we are there with him as he receives the devastating news of his cancer diagnosis. The doc takes us inside his fight to not just continue to work but to live. It’s moving and at times heartbreaking to see such a strong physical specimen humbled by the disease and makes it that much more inspiring when he is able to recover.
Unbreakable is a tremendous portrait of Dolph’s one of a kind personal journey and impressive career that will appeal to fans and people not as familiar with him. It’s an inspirational story of healing, both emotionally and physically, that will leave you excited for the next chapter in his incredible story.
