Jersey Shore director Thom Zimny goes distance with Sylvester Stallone in 'Sly' documentary

This time it's personal.

Point Pleasant native Thom Zimny offers a new, intimate perspective of filmmaker and actor Sylvester Stallone, and by extension his creations, Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, in the engrossing new documentary “Sly,” now on Netflix.

Zimny went the distance with Stallone, 77, to film the doc.

“Stallone comes from a place that was a childhood full of trauma, and really at times a difficult relationship with his father. But what he does in the power of writing is he creates a universe, a world that goes beyond his own experiences,” said Zimny to the USA Today Network New Jersey. “It goes to a place of things being better for himself.”

This dynamic played out in 1976 mega smash “Rocky.” The boxer's trainer, Mickey (Burgess Meredith), is a father figure to Rocky.

Stallone, born in New York City and raised in Maryland, and his father were not on speaking terms until the actor visited him on his death bed in 2011.

“Sly was creating a world that in some ways heals his own experiences, but in some ways gives the audience the opportunity to step into that character and see themselves and feel a sense of empowerment, a sense of redemption,” Zimny said.

A major component of Stallone the filmmaker, according to “Sly,” is he wants to give the audience what they want. He was adamant that John Rambo should not be killed at the end 1982's “First Blood.”

“The studio wanted him to be killed in the film and he fought for the principle of not seeing vets that way but also for maintaining this idea of hope,” Zimny said. “That this character didn’t end in a blaze of bullets. In the course of our conversations we unpacked that famous ending and how he came to writing it, but also how he took the dialogue of many different soldiers and made it the scene.

"That's the artist. He was able to listen to the vets talking about their experiences and he added it together into this one powerful scene that really gets across the vulnerability, the trauma of this soldier — but also this moment of connection where he’s able to embrace his commanding officer and talk from this experience. He doesn’t go out in a blaze of violence.”

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The "Rambo" movies were part of pop culture's first wave of framing Vietnam veterans in a positive light instead of the antiwar antagonism of the '60s and early '70s. Freehold-native Bruce Springsteen was one of the first rockers to embrace veterans' causes.

Zimny has shot multiple movies with Springsteen, including “Western Stars,” “Letter to You,” and the filmed version of “Springsteen on Broadway,” for which Zimny won an Emmy.

Zimny got on Stallone's radar after he viewed “Western Stars” and his “Elvis Presley: The Searcher.”

“When making the 'Sly' doc, I definitely had a lot of deja vu at times when I saw Sly the writer because Sly would write in notebooks very similarly to Bruce,” Zimny said. “I saw that similarity in approaching the craft, where you’re completely dedicated, completely focused and carving out a narrative. I recognized in Sly the same commitment and passion when he was writing his scripts and screenplays with 'Rocky.'

"He showed me notebooks and notebooks of revisions and (Stallone and Springsteen) write things out long hand, not typing it. ... The deepest was the commitment to the journey, the craft, the writing. Trying to make a world ... that reflects aspects of their life, but also of higher ideals.”

“Sly” includes interviews with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Stallone, Henry Winkler, Talia Shire, John Herzfeld, Wesley Morris and Quentin Tarantino.

Stallone is the main voice in the film, shot in warm sepia tones and interspersed with movie clips, rarely seen footage, and period film that evokes an era of creativity amid conformity.

“We were not breaking down every single film and every detail of his life,” Zimny said. “What we were trying to do was get into the harder space. Discuss things that many times get passed over, which is what makes the artist? What droves him? What are some of the regrets? ... What’s some of the joy? What’s the overall arc of their body of work?

"... For me, pretty early on I realized it was the idea of hope was everything.”

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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Sly Netflix documentary: Thom Zimny frames Sylvester Stallone