Film Analysis Essay on Creed

Name of Movie, Year of Release, Genre (Drama, Comedy, Etc.)

In this analysis, the name of the movie used is Creed starred by Michael B. Jordan. The movie's initial release was on November 19th 2015. The movie is listed as Drama but has several actions as well as comedy; therefore can be considered to fall under the categories of Drama, action and comedy.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The movie creed focuses on Adonis Johnson, the son of the former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. Creed begins with the young Johnson's past. In the movie, the first scene reveals Adonis Johnson's situation in the juvenile detention when he was visited by the former heavyweight champion's widow, Mary Anne. She offers the young orphan a place to stay and later adopted him; her haunting product of an affair her husband had just before he was killed in the ring by Drago. Even though Donnie resents being in the shadow of a famous man he never knew, he secretly engages in his sport.

Though secretly engaging in underground boxing sports, Donnie has a white-collar job, his interest in boxing championship, as well as a childhood filled with scrapes with the law, eventually makes him quit his successful white collar job for one who odds for success is greatly limited. Mary Anne, however, is against her foster's son's wishes and even pointed this out in her excellent speech where she described the untold aspects of being married to a boxer who puts his body into too much work and punishment that in the end could barely perform the simplest of tasks. Despite hearing this, Donnie still resigns from the Smith Boardley Financial Group to seek out his father's former rival Rocky Balboa.

Donnie's hopes of being trained by the Rocky fall apart when he realized that the ex-boxer boxer is not interested in training him. This reluctance is witnessed even after he revealed to him that is the Apollo Creed's son. However, after a while convincing the reluctant ex-boxer, Donnie wears him down, and he agrees to take Donnie's mentorship over the son of a coach at Rocky's late trainer Mickey's old gym. Consequently, with this new development, Donnie gets an offer to fight Pretty Ricky Conlan; the reigning Liverpudlian boxing champ.

Movie Plot Description & Themes

In the movie Creed, the four main characters are Adonis Creed, Bianca Taylor, "Pretty" Ricky Conlan and Victor Drago.

Demographic Description for Each Main Character

Adonis "Donnie" Creed: Adonis Johnson is an African American male who finds his happiness in the ring. Despite having a prestigious white-collar career and a loving adoptive mother, he quits his job to begin his boxing career with limited hopes of success. Just like most boxers, he exhibits his masculinity through fighting. Though he is unmarried, he is quite attached to her next-door neighbor Bianca who frequently advises him on his career. In addition, despite being on the lowest point of the social ladder, his boxing reputation, as well as his father's name, put him on another level as he manages to interact with champions and professional boxers. He does not really focus on the money but the fight itself.

Bianca Taylor: Bianca is a young Caucasian lady who loves composing music. She lives below Adonis' new apartment in the same apartment as Adonis meaning they are in the same level of economic status. Despite suffering from progressive hearing loss, she loves making music and tries to compose as much before she loses her hearing. She is single in the beginning but gets attracted to Donnie and later gets into a relationship with him.

"Pretty" Ricky Conlan: Conlan is a Caucasian male fighter from Liverpool. He is the undefeated champion in the ring and the main rival to Adonai in the ring. Having fought for a while, he is living a quite comfortable middle-class life. He is married and loves his family. Despite his attitude towards others, the sole purpose in his boxing career is to provide a better life for his family and spends most of his money on his kids. This is especially evident when he needs one more fight with Adonis to be able to take care of his family as he heads to jail.

Viktor Drago: Viktor Drago is a Caucasian male boxing fighter in the movie Creed. As a son of a former champion Ivan Drago, he lived a pretty comfortable life in, though he is a talented boxer in his own right.

Psychographic/Personality Description for Each Main Character

Adonis "Donnie" Creed: Adonis is a young African American who is slowly shaping himself to become one of the best boxing fighters despite his youth and lack of experience. He is determined to be the best just like his father Apollo and Rocky, his trainer and nothing would put him down in the final fight where he is described as a man possessed. Donnie is a composite character, and despite his admiration for both Rocky and Apollo he manages to shade both of them in the end not just in character but also in fighting styles. From the fight scene, he is able to tank blows and go to the body like Rocky, but his agility represents that of his father. The character can also be termed as genius bruiser as he gets adopted to his father's wife, Mary who raises him well. He gets promoted to a good position in his white collar job but later quits to become a professional boxer. He manages to train himself and becomes an excellent boxer who takes on Olympic-level boxers. His excellent vision also enables him to memorize the records and stats for all his opponents. Although he is a respectful character, his hair-trigger temper often gets him into fights as he easily loses his temper; a trait he obtained from his father Apollo. Additionally, in terms of technical skills, he is a fast fighter, and his accuracy exceeds that of his father. Moreover, he is a proud man and has issues with overconfidence which often turns him into a cocky fighter.

Bianca Taylor: Bianca is an excellent musician but has adult fear and wears a hearing aid as she fears her progressive hearing loss might one day become permanent. Additionally, she is a moral individual who values family ties as she manages to convince Donnie to take after his father as well as his name. Bianca is also an honest individual, and despite being Donnie's friend, she points out to him that he is doomed to fail if he keeps training alone. She advises him to seek out Rocky as a trainer. She is determined and often tries to compose as much music as she could before her progressive hearing loss turns permanent. Despite her inconsistency in hearing, she is a loveable person, and Adonis feels like he has been with her his whole life. She is the rock of his life.

"Pretty" Ricky Conlan: Ricky is temperamental and is infamously known for his frequent outbursts. His temper is so extreme that he manages to piss off the commentators who started calling him in-universe. He is also Jerkass who is so rude to his opponents especially Adonis and in one instance, he broke an opponent's jaw during their weigh-in. His continuous bad behaviors make him seem like a man-child despite looking to be in his mid-thirties. He treats everyone badly including his children and is often against sensible advice. However, he is a real ace of the game, and even though he ended his career early due to imprisonment out of bad behavior, his resume surpasses everyone in the series retiring as the only undefeated champion. He is a tall, strong and ambitious man with a rough childhood whose professional career as a boxer was partly for the sake of his kids. Moreover, he a true champion and a worthy opponent as he displays much respect to Adonis throughout their fight.

Victor Drago: Victor has the Stamina of a real champion and fights with vigor. He is also a wrecking fighter who spends no time with an opponent in the ring; ends fights quickly and sometimes hard. Despite decency in taking instructions especially from his father, he is constantly rolling with anger and aggression and sometimes lacks discipline. He is a determined character and knows what he wants; he wants to win so bad that he continues to get back on his feet in the last fight and disregards his exhausted body. He is protective and has a tendency of hero-worshipping his father. He clearly admires and looks up to his old man. He gets outraged for his father against the ill-treatment from Russia. Moreover, Victor is a composed fighter who is able to soak up as many punches and hits hard when he decides to.

Music’s Relationship to Characters and Actions

Anyone who has ever watched Creed would say that it is a good movie, perhaps for many reasons; however, the movie gained a score most movies do not because of its beautiful soundtracks. Ideally, unlike most movies, every soundtrack in Creed is a crucial reflection of the ideas and themes the movie itself is exploring, and it portrays these ideas in a concrete and a remarkable way. Creed, a movie from the six Rocky movie series is burdened by the weight of expectation established by the previous movies. These previous movies were played to represent their language and expectations, Creed also embraces this and even though it does not indulge in the narrative, it provides a story that is unique on its own but familiar in the faces of the audience. Indeed, the creativity in the movie Creed, as well as the music, played in the scenes is in the ways it amplifies all this. In the opening scene, for example, audiences are introduced to a piano which ends slowly on the two five-note phrases. This sets the atmosphere of a juvenile setting. The same tune is used earlier in the movie as Donnie shadowboxes alongside the footage of Apollo Creed when he was in the ring with Rocky Balboa. Music is also used late in the movie to portray the romantic scene as well as action scenes. The music used in the scenes of Adonis and Bianca are often slow and soft creating a romantic atmosphere of two lovebirds. This not only entertains the audience but keeps them guessing what is to come. Music has also been used to portray sad and anger emotions without which, the message cannot be clearly relayed. As an example, one could hear Rocky's familiar six-note theme desists as a soft ending to the music that plays in the background during Donnie's first casual date with his flatmate Bianca Thomson. In this scenario, the idea is to make an old familiar tune feel different and at the same time keeping the audience in unending suspense as they wonder what other familiar sounds would come along in the movie.

The movie Creed also integrates rap music in certain scenes especially in actions scenes in an innate manner reminding the audience of the previous Rocky movies and why boxing movies are interesting. Particularly, since many rap records are more of building one's own legend, it indicates as great mix since Creed as well is all about Legacy. The movie focuses on Adonis and other characters who are trying step out of their fathers' huge legacies to form their own before embracing the family name. Additionally, the fusion of rap in its soundtrack portrays that it is about unknown individuals stepping up to challenge their mentors without fearing their backs being on the wall and swinging back with menace if possible. In the end, as Adonis trains for his final fight, audiences are introduced to emotional instances through music playing on the background especially when Rocky begins treatment for lymphoma. At this time, the music them that was played in the opening scene at the juvenile penitentiary has now fully formed and begins to boom as soon as Adonis starts his training, and on another end showing how Rocky is dealing with the side effects from chemotherapy. This is also reinforced by different music about flying higher above one's troubles and getting stronger.

Products & Services Purchased, Used, or Disposed of

Adonis "Donnie" Johnson-Creed: Donni...