Paul Rouse: Afternoon 'Creed' delights and the difficulty of re-engaging with real life
CREED III: Michael B. Jordan stars as Adonis Creed in CREED III A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Pic: Ser Baffo © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc
There is something magnificent about going to the cinema in the middle of the day. Especially a weekday.
It is glorious to walk from the light into the dark and then on up into the world that comes alive on the screen in front of you.
What makes this particular trip on this particular weekday all the better is the three teenagers who are here, still willing to be seen out in public with a parent, even if only in certain tightly controlled circumstances. Like sitting in the dark.
They are working their way through the heroic quantities of sweets and chocolate that they’ve brought with them. Their dedication to sugar consumption fills me with swelling pride.
On the way to the cinema, we had walked down Dublin’s Henry Street. It was there in the early twentieth century, alongside the site of Penney’s, that Dublin’s first cinema – the Volta – had opened its doors on Monday 20 December 1909. It was managed by James Joyce and could hold 420 people who were drawn to this new and impossibly glamorous technological experience. The cinema eventually closed in 1948, but by then it had brought colour and joy to the lives of several generations of people who walked through its doors..
Apparently, these historical nuggets were not as interesting or important as I thought so there was no need for me to have shared them. Naturally, this is a lesson that I will leave unlearned.
Today’s film is ‘Creed III’. It is the ninth instalment in the ‘Rocky’ film series. It is hard to believe that almost five decades have passed since ‘Rocky’ first made it to the cinemas in 1976. That first film is one of the great sports movies – and one of the landmark films of all time.
It is of course a charming underdog story, starring Sylvester Stallone as the people’s champion, Rocky Balboa, who defies the odds to reign supreme.
Talia Shire is brilliant as Rocky’s girlfriend Adrian, as is Burgess Meredith as Mickey, who is Rocky’s trainer.
From iconic scenes to popular catchphrases, it was a film that spilled out of cinemas and into the mainstream of people’s lives.
Most famous of all, is the shout: “Yo, Adrian!” But there are also lines such as “I don’t hate Bilbao, I pity the fool!” These were the words of the vicious Clubber Lang, to Rocky Balboa in ‘Rocky III’ as they headed towards a climactic fight. Clubber Lang was played by Mr T, who went on to become a truly famous actor in the 1980s, as part of The A-Team where he played BA Baracus. “I pity the fool!” still endures as a catchphrase.
Some of the subsequent films in the Rocky series were truly awful – charmless and pointless. Except they made people some money, in that mercenary way that ultimately is the downside of every franchise.
But the film ‘Creed’ in 2015 re-invigorated the ‘Rocky’ franchise. In this film, Rocky now has cancer but has ended up as trainer of the son of Apollo Creed (once occasionally Rocky’s enemy and occasionally his friend). Young Adonis Creed, played by Michael B Jordan, is a talented fighter, but naturally enough is directionless and needs saving from himself and from the world. It’s a good yarn that ended up with Stallone being nominated for an Oscar.
‘Creed II’ was also decent enough so going to ‘Creed III’ was something that had to be done.
On the way into the cinema, there’s a sneery comment passed about my own (short-lived) “career” as a boxer. But, of course, I rise above that. I ask whether the teenagers would like a short lecture on the history of boxing as we waited for the feature? “Short!” is the snort that passes as a reply.
I take it as an offer that has been declined.
The lights go down and the screen comes alive. And the film is great fun. It’s no classic and will surely win few awards. But it’s great fun.
It centres on how Adonis Creed’s childhood friend Damian walks back into his life after serving a sentence in prison. Damian was a great boxer as a kid and now he's trying to resurrect this greatness in adulthood and get a shot at the title. He emerges as a nasty piece of work who is bent on destroying Adonis Creed. The film turns into a proposed fight between Damian and Adonis and – in the way of these things – soon becomes about much more than just a fight.
Naturally, the basic storyline is absolutely preposterous. In fact, even by the standards of the ‘Rocky’ franchise it is truly absurd.
But there is a raw attraction in the basic (repeated again and again) premise where the star boxer is washed-up, looks like he’s done, faces the daunting prospect of a terrifying new opponent, trains like a dog, steps into the ring in front of a huge crowd, looks like he’s going to lose, but pulls the cake out of the oven just in time.
And all the while in the background, there are human interest stories pulling at the emotions: the death of a parent, the toils of a marriage, the challenge of raising a child, and so on.
It's one of those films where you could decide to be truly cynical and hate what you are being served up or you can make the most of it and enjoy it for what it is.
There are two other reasons to go: the music is absolutely brilliant in it. It hits every emotional note with overwrought precision. And the cinematography is class. The camera gets inside a punch in a way that is quite stunning.
By the way, the future of the franchise was laid out in the scenes near the end. Creed’s daughter Amara – who is profoundly visually impaired – steps into the ring that her father is in. The crowds have long since left and there is just Creed, his wife Bianca and Amara in the building. Amara dances around, throwing punches, ducking and weaving.
It’s hardly subtle – one day in the future we will be seeing Adonis Creed training his daughter as she tries to win a world title. The film will be called Amara Creed. It will be a monster success. Michael B Jordan will grow old in front of our eyes, up high on a silver screen, just as Sylvester Stallone has done.
After the credits and the music, the cinema lights come back on. It’s hard to get out of the seat and walk through the foyer back out into the air.
It’s now rush-hour in Dublin city centre. The light is too bright. There are cars bumper-to-bumper and people flying along the path. It provokes a sort of melancholy for the not yet finished afternoon. But that is fading too.
The three teenagers head off on their own, laughing.
