Creed — Rocky rebranded
The affair between Rocky Balboa and the boxing ring has blossomed, crashed, revived, shelved and revived again for more than three decades. The third instalment of the Rocky series, in 1982, starts with Rocky Balboa (Stallone) making his first move towards calling it quits as a professional boxer, but he is convinced out of “retiring” and “quitting” respectively in contrasting means by the ferocious Clubber Lang and Apollo Creed (backed by an iconic pep talk by Rocky’s shy wife Adrian). In Rocky V (1990), Rocky is forced into retiring due to circumstances beyond his control, but this time he plays mentor to a young boxer who seeks him out. In the New Yorker, Andrew Bujalski covered this recurring theme of retirement beautifully in this piece.
That Sylvester Stallone had managed to keep the Rocky Balboa flame burning over five films was indeed commendable. But Stallone wasn’t going to put the character to rest just yet. After a 16-year hiatus, the character was revived with the release of Rocky Balboa, a very watchable sequel thanks largely to the nostalgia trip it offered to devotees of the Rocky franchise like myself. The premise — that of a geriatric Rocky (and also Stallone) taking on a boxer half his age — seemed far-fetched (as did Grudge Match with the grandfatherly Robert de Niro) but it was the charm of Rocky Balboa’s character that drew you to watch him one last time. Or was it?
Creed marks the seventh and possibly final instalment of the Rocky series, and the only one that doesn’t have Stallone’s touch as a writer or director. Under a new director, Ryan Coogler, it’s essentially Rocky rebranded, with the name dropped from the title for the first time. Rocky is central to the movie, but Coogler does well to ensure that the cult hero doesn’t upstage the character from which the movie takes its name. The film is about the legacy of Apollo Creed, Rocky’s one-time opponent and challenger for the heavyweight title, and friend.
In Creed, Rocky returns to his Rocky V avatar as coach and mentor, this time to Apollo’s illegitimate son Adonis. Apollo, who died in the ring in Rocky IV, never saw his son. The film begins with Apollo’s widow fetching a young Adonis — a kid notorious for getting into fights — from a juvenile home. He’s now introduced to a life of opulence and wealth but all through his journey into adulthood, he never forgets his past. Like his late dad, he wants to box and would stop at nothing to get in the ring as a professional, quitting his lucrative bank job in the process, much to his mom’s disapproval.
He then moves from LA to Philadelphia, where he seeks out Rocky to coach him. Rocky is content just managing his restaurant, having put his former career firmly behind him. But after much coaxing, he sheds his reluctance, as a way to repay Apollo for reviving his career when he had suffered an emotional breakdown. In Philly, the 20-something Adonis steps back into an environment he once left. Having ruled the relatively minor boxing leagues in Mexico, he’s now up against tougher competition. But the challenges aren’t merely physical. He now has to stay relevant among his peers, who hail from the rough neighbourhoods of the city. Being a Creed boy, he was always destined to box. As he says later in the climax, he is determined to prove he was “not a mistake”.
Adonis’ biggest obstacle — a central theme to the movie — is maintaining the secrecy of his Creed lineage. All along, Adonis is determined to carve out his own identity. When challenged by Liverpool’s Ricky Conlan, the attention — some of which was never bargained for — is thrust on the underdog, just like it did for Rocky in the first movie. When Rocky himself hits a personal crisis — the biggest of his life — the movie takes a deeper emotional turn. Both mentor and protégé hit a wall, one the result of another. The film then follows the tried and tested template of all Rocky movies — a crisis situation overcome by sheer willpower and determination.
The movie, like Adonis, too tries to carve out an identity of its own. Unlike Rocky Balboa, it has no flashbacks to earlier movies, and the theme song “Gonna Fly Now” makes a very cursory appearance. There’s of course Mickey’s gym, the town hall steps and the Balboa statue for nostalgia’s sake. But Rocky’s self-deprecating wit remains. A lot of airtime has been devoted towards building the characters and making them grow on you, though at the risk of slowing down the movie in parts. Coogler thankfully didn’t compromise on the bout at the end. The closing speeches, though, were a bit too cinematic for its own good.
What makes Creed a better bet than its predecessor Rocky Balboa is its context. It was Apollo who plucked Rocky out of a life of relative obscurity in Philly’s ghettos and challenged him to a duel in the world’s biggest stage. When Adonis and Rocky meet for the first time, the latter is reminded of his guilt of detaching himself from the Creed household after Apollo’s death. Rocky now has a chance to make amends.
There may not be much left in Rocky’s incredible life to make another sequel, but Creed showed that Rocky still had a little left in the tank to make it back to the ring, even if on the other side.
Pics — MGM
