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CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who grew up in Philadelphia, does not shy away from sharing his opinions, thoughts and nostalgic memories about his home city.
This week, in advance of a conversation with The Inquirer about his new novel “The Devil May Dance,” Tapper posted a Twitter poll for his 3 million followers, looking to get to the bottom of a very important pop culture question:
What is the best Philadelphia movie?
After his initial tweet garnered dozens of “but you left out X!” responses, as he could only have expected — yes, this is a person who lives for controversy — Tapper broke the field into four separate surveys.
The original poll went untitled, and Tapper split the subsequent polls into three divisions that spelled out “PHL.”
At least 10,000 people cast votes in each round, and there were also hundreds of replies to each tweet. The comments were pretty evenly split: people (mostly from outside the city, probably) who thought the answer was obviously “Rocky,” and people who offered dozens of other valid options.
The most competition for the famed Stallone boxing showdown came in the semifinals, where it beat out “Trading Places,” the classic comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Dany Akroyd, 55% to 36%. Modern day sequel “Creed” didn’t come anywhere close.
Division P was also a hotly contested race.
It housed two films with high name recognition: “Philadelphia,” starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and 1940’s “The Philadelphia Story,” starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart. With 41% of the vote, the former took the win, edging out M. Night Shyamalan’s “Sixth Sense” by five points.
Eagles fans, Jennifer Lawrence fans, and Bradley Cooper fans combined to let “Silver Linings Playbook” easily take the Division H win, with 69% of the vote. State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta threw his support behind it, even though some detractors noted it’s a Delco movie with only two scenes in Philly.
Sidenote: “The Blob” put up a decent showing, considering it’s a cult-fave horror flick. (Also, did you know it’s based on a true story?)
Location also came into play in the debate over Division L’s options, which saw the Harrison Ford movie “Witness” come in strong. Since it’s mostly set in Lancaster County, should it really count?
Many voters thought yes, but the neo-noir drama lost to Terry Gilliam’s pandemic-prescient sci-fi film “12 Monkeys,” which Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe took to a 52%-39% win. Recent Idris Elba movie “Concrete Cowboys” didn’t even put up a fight.
Then it was time for the finals, and there was really no contest.
Like the character in every movie but the original, Rocky took home the prize, with a commanding 56% of the vote. No other finalist even got more than 20%.
As Duke said in the series’ fourth installment, “You’re gonna have to go through hell, worse than any nightmare you’ve ever dreamed. But when it’s over, I know you’ll be the one standing.”
