Further Thoughts on Creed

One thing I really love about Creed is the obvious care and consideration that goes into its basic link between the old (Rocky) and new (Donnie) parts of the franchise:  Donnie as the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed.  It would have been simple to just establish that connection, using it as a shortcut to audience goodwill without making it have any bearing on the story.  Creed, though, doesn’t remotely take the shortcut.  Rather, Donnie’s background and parentage is hugely important to his character, as well as to his ardently-desired boxing career (some spoilers.)

To start things off, what is Donnie’s origin story?  Like I said, he’s Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son.  Donnie’s working-class mom never told him about his famous father, who died before Donnie was born.  After losing her as well, Donnie was put in the foster system and bounced between group homes and juvie until Mary Anne, Creed’s affluent widow, tracked him down.  She told him the truth about his father and took him to live with her in her very upscale home.

There’s so much to unpack here.  On a socio-economic level, Donnie’s upbringing with Mary Anne makes him an outsider in the boxing world.  He’s regarded as a poser, a soft rich boy who was born with a “silver spoon” and who doesn’t have the hunger or the rough ‘n’ tumble background needed to be a “real” boxer.  These attitudes infuriate Donnie because, while he obviously loves Mary Anne and knows how he’s benefited from the advantages her wealth has provided him, he doesn’t feel soft or privileged.  He still feels like that angry, unwanted kid scrapping in juvie with something to prove. 

Then there’s the baggage with Creed, the dad Donnie never met.  His feelings are complicated, to say the least.  Of course, he knows what a legendary boxer Creed was, and he looks up to his father for that – although the drive to fight was in Donnie long before he knew where he came from, boxing is still, at least in part, a way of connecting with Creed.  At the same time, however, he knows that his mom and Creed were never together, that Creed never knew about him, and that, even if he had, he never would’ve planned on being Donnie’s father.  He obsessively watches Creed’s old fights on YouTube, but when he gets up to shadowbox the screen, but he doesn’t step into his dad’s shoes.  Instead, he becomes Rocky, Creed’s challenger.

These conflicting emotions influence his career decisions as well.  Donnie boxes under his mom’s surname, not wanting to trade in on his dad’s fame to get ahead.  He doesn’t want to cut corners and get handed something he hasn’t earned, nor does he want any credit he does earn to be given to his name instead of his talent – he doesn’t want to be accused of coasting to the top.  And yet, when he gets serious about training, it’s Rocky that he seeks out, forging his future by making ties to his dad’s past, and he has no problem invoking the Creed name when Rocky initially rebuffs him.  Donnie’s illegitimate status also factors into his reluctance to box under his father’s name.  He doesn’t want Creed’s reputation posthumously tarnished by his very existence, and he can’t bear being looked at as Creed’s “mistake.”  Finally, Donnie’s most personal reason for eschewing his father’s mantle is his fear of “taking on the name and losing.”  Even though Creed is long dead, Donnie still wants to do right by him, still wants to be “worthy” and do something his dad would have been proud of.  I just love that there’s so much here; it’s such a rich film with beautifully sophisticated themes, none of which are more expertly explored than Donnie’s fraught relationship with his deceased father.