It’s been 30 years since Rocky Balboa won his first heavyweight boxing title, in John G. Avildsen’s Rocky (1976), and the same amount of time since that film jump-started Sylvester Stallone’s career. The character of the boxer, which Stallone created, seems to be the actor’s alter ego. The two are inseparable. So, after three decades and Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985), and Rocky V (1990), Stallone decided to revisit his lovable Italian Stallion a sixth and final time.

Rocky’s wife, Adrian -- played in all six films by Talia Shire -- has recently passed away, and he now spends hours seated on a folding chair near her grave, meditating and reflecting on the past. He has opened a restaurant, where the main attraction is not the food but having Rocky mix with the patrons, telling stories of his past victories. Just about everyone in Philadelphia seems to know him, but he is estranged from his own son, Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia), who has gone into a career Rocky Sr. doesn’t like.

One day, a TV sportscaster presents a hypothetical situation. What if the greatest heavyweight champion of past years, Rocky Balboa, was to face off with the current champ, Mason Dixon? Rocky suddenly realizes that he’s been living in the past, and seizes this opportunity to go back into training and arrange an exhibition bout in Las Vegas to regain his self-respect and his dignity.

And that is the true subject of Rocky Balboa. Though the resulting bout is exciting, boxing takes up few of the movie’s 102 minutes. The film’s first two-thirds, mostly conversation, concerns self-respect, dignity, Rocky’s relationship with his son, and honoring the past without being trapped in it. A good life, the script asserts, is not about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can be hit and keep going.

Stallone, himself now 60, is simply magnificent -- a grand, wise, older icon who still has plenty of life and presence, and much to share with a younger generation. He makes one-liner jokes that refer to his past and earlier Rocky films, and uses subtle facial nuances to display Rocky’s inner feelings. He has also surrounded himself with a cast of excellent new faces. Other than Talia Shire, the only actors from the original Rocky who appear here are Burt Young, inimitably playing Rocky’s old neighborhood pal, Paulie; Pedro Lovell, as Spider Rico; and Tony Burton, who has played the cornerman, Duke, in all six Rocky films.

Rocky Balboa could have been mawkish and sentimental, but it puts on the brakes just before that happens. What’s left are true sentiment and uplifting example. You really want to cheer when things go right, because Rocky deserves every bit of it.

The theater where I see most films attracts a ho-hum crowd that seems to want to watch a movie because they have nothing better to do. They always make noise, munch popcorn, and bolt from the theater as soon as the credits begin to roll. But during Rocky Balboa, no one made any noise except to cheer on the action, and everyone sat through the credits. The audience seemed to feel a camaraderie that I haven’t seen in a long time. Everyone was smiling, at each other and in general, and it seemed we all left the theater feeling as if everything was right in the world.

A film that produces that effect deserves the highest rating, not to mention your attention. The original Rocky has just been reissued in a great two-DVD edition. Buy or rent that, forget its awful clones of Rocky II through V, and see Rocky Balboa. Then you’ll know that Stallone’s character still has it. The original Rocky still rocks.

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