Warning: This article contains spoilers for Creed III.
Creed III marks the emotional capstone of the Creed trilogy, and its final fight is superior to the bouts between Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) throughout the Rocky franchise. Years after dominating Viktor Drago, the son of the man who killed his father in the ring, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has retired to oversee his own gym of boxers, cultivate a comfortable life for his family, and focus on his daughter. The plush life of full purses is threatened when Dame (Jonathan Majors), an old childhood friend is released from prison and wants to use the ring to settle old scores.
Donnie has endeavored to be worthy of the Creed name, and after he comes out of retirement to train for the fight of his career, nuance shapes a confrontation that's more than just the glory of winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Both because of Apollo's boxing history with Rocky and because his opponent-turned-friend ended up training his son after his death, Apollo's legacy looms large over the Creed movies and Donnie's personal journey. Even though the bouts between Apollo and Rocky are considered some of the best in the Rocky franchise, Creed III's explosive and highly personal final confrontation delivers them a knockout punch.
The Fight Between Adonis & Dame Is Personal
When Donnie and Dame step into the ring for the final fight, it's a culmination of a long road paved with trauma, loss, and injustice. Once as close as brothers after living in a group home together, a violent confrontation between Donnie and another resident became life-changing when Dame stepped in with a firearm, and while Donnie was able to escape, Dame was sent to prison. Not only has a lot changed for Donnie during Creed III's seven-year time jump, but after 18 years without contact from his best friend, Dame feels not only betrayed but that his gallant defense ensured that Donnie got the life intended for him.
The strong undercurrent of animosity felt throughout their fight is the kind only possible when the love felt so deeply between two people has soured. Despite Donnie giving Dame the chance to fight Feliz Chavez and get a shot at the title, and trying to make up for past mistakes, the anguish Dame feels as the disappointment his life has become cannot be expunged through charity alone. Praise must be given to the strong performances of Jordan and Majors, who sell the gut-wrenching desperation on each man's face and communicate the depths of their frustration with each other's decisions.
Michael B. Jordan's Direction
Creed III breaks one of Rocky's cardinal rules by removing the hypertrophied sensationalism around boxing and highlighting its ferocious brutality. It tempers some of the balletic aspects of the fights between Rocky and Apollo with authenticity and gut-wrenching realism between Donnie and Dame. Camera angles and prudent editing convey what the fighters are seeing and make clear the openings they take to determine weaknesses in their opponents, as well as what it feels like to take a punch.
While the narrative is incredibly important to the final fight, there has to be a sense of urgency and tension, which Jordan accomplishes in his directorial debut. The World Championship might be on the line, and the two men might have a personal history, but a flashy technique isn't employed at the expense of this sort of fight's raw and gritty reality. Beyond being better than the fights between Rocky and Apollo, this fight will be remembered as the best of the Creed movies because no matter who wins, there are no winners in this fight, simply two men taking their disappointments and aggressions to their logical conclusions.
The Use Of IMAX Cameras To Make The Fight More Visceral
Jordan's film has been touted as the first sports movie to be shot on IMAX cameras as opposed to filmed for an IMAX experience, and the incredibly expensive equipment, which includes a custom RED Komodo for his production company Outlier Society, Sony VENICE, and RED V-Raptor are used by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau to deliver imagery at a powerfully high resolution. In order to effectively communicate the blistering experience of being in the ring with Donnie and DAme, a custom rig was attached to a helmet, making every punch delivered look like it's flying directly at the viewer.
Creed III's use of IMAX cameras makes the final fight between Donnie and Dame far more visceral than Rocky and Apollo's matches, particularly for the level of detail they can capture. When combined with the soundscape capable in an IMAX theater, every heartbeat and intake of breath is audible and relentless. Rather than feeling like a ringside spectator watching the blood and sweat on Rocky and Apollo's faces, fans feel like they are inside Donnie and Dame's bodies, minds, and spirits.
Shutting Out The Crowd
After the first round, a certain transmogrification occurs that makes the final fight an almost surreal experience; the crowd is shut out, and the ropes become bars, and with each punch Dame delivers, Donnie is sent right into them. His blows convey the words he cannot say, and just how much Dame feels like Donnie's actions cost him his freedom. Dame was the celebrated boxer first, but Donnie got to live his dreams.
Of Creed III's nine fights, the symbolism inherent to this scene makes it stand out and channels the focus to just the two men in the ring without distraction. The personal conflict they have to settle transcends the crowd's roar and makes the fight less of a spectacle and more of a reckoning. While it removes some of the realism of the fight, it also helps to convey the mental state of each man as they narrow their aggression toward the other and project their own internal disappointments.
No Black & White Morality
As far as opponents go, Dame is not relegated to that of a typical one-dimensional villain but is seen as a victim of circumstance. Even as one of Creed III's new characters, it's easy to understand his resentment towards Donnie and even his need for revenge, which is against the typical rules of narrative structure in which the protagonist is upheld as the morally righteous standard to which all others compare. After the final fight between Donnie and Dame, there are understandably those who would be remiss to see Adonis win, that's how ambiguous the morality is between the two men.
Over the course of the Rocky Vs. Apollo bouts, there's always a sense that Rocky is the underdog who must overcome the odds and win - a People's Champion. Not even Adonis can claim that in the final fight of Creed III, knowing full well how his actions contributed to the ruination of Dame's life. Redemption does not come at the sound of the bell, and there is no absolution as part of the purse for either man, but there is a mutual understanding that no amount of punching each other will take away the pain, and the man who chooses to lead with his words and not his fist is the real winner.