Image via MGM
When Jonathan Majors wore a feathery overcoat in front of a floral background for a Valentine’s Day-inspired Ebony photoshoot, some said it was “too feminine” and stripped him of his masculinity. Earlier this week, Michael B. Jordan went viral when he confronted a reporter on a red carpet who he believed called him “corny” in the past for being a “nice guy” in his relationships (she didn’t, but she did say she made fun of him in high school). But in Creed III, in theaters Friday, the two actors come together to star in a boxing film that lets us examine the way we, as a society, view masculinity.
Concealing hurt or displaying it through violence and aggression have been the two predominant ways men appear to express their emotions, and both Adonis Creed (Jordan) and Damian Anderson (Majors) display those two so well. But hiding from your past, not dealing with your trauma, and not allowing yourself to be vulnerable can poison you from within. The first two Creed movies used the brewing friendship between Adonis and an ailing Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), as well as his relationship with Bianca (Tessa Thompson) as their emotional hinge, but Adonis has also carried a scarcely hidden hurt from his childhood.
Image via MGM
He was Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son, and before his wife Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad) took him in after Apollo died, Adonis was in and out of trouble and spent time in the foster care system. Creed III forces him to face that pain head-on when an old friend, Damian, comes back into the picture after spending 18 years in prison and carries with him all the old memories that Adonis had relentlessly tried to evade.
Dame was a promising boxer as a teenager, and he introduced a young Adonis to the sport, so Dame felt like the life and the titles that were meant to be his were usurped by his friend. Adonis’ guilt is palpable throughout the film; he was able to make it out and overcome his upbringing while his friend spent his youth—and peak boxing years—behind bars.
Now that Adonis is retired, Bianca urges him to find another outlet outside of boxing to deal with his feelings and suggests “talking to somebody,” since he’s even unable to let his partner in on his pain. But Adonis puts himself and his legacy in danger in an attempt to rid himself of the regret he feels for abandoning Dame when they were kids.
The Creed films are all considered sports films, and this one, in particular, is the first of its kind to be filmed using IMAX cameras during the striking boxing scenes. While the training sequences and boxing matches that have made these films exciting and explosive from the start are still there (and heavily influenced by Jordan’s love for anime), this installment at its core is about two men battling each other in order to make peace with the past that shaped them. Although the grit and action of a sports film are still at the forefront, Jordan and the previous two directors—Ryan Coogler and Steven Caple Jr.—have made it a point to add an emotional element that enriches the characters and makes viewers root even harder for the protagonist.
The toxic masculinity Adonis and Dame have adopted through years of suppressed emotions has manifested in different ways in their adulthood. While Dame harbors resentment and anger for spending 18 years in prison as he watched Adonis live out his dream of being a world champion in boxing, Adonis’ trauma has made him incredibly reserved, guilt-ridden, and ashamed to express his emotions or to process his experiences.
Jordan didn’t shy away from including deeply moving scenes where both men cry openly and finally talk about their truths and frustrations. (And in those moments, Jordan also delivers some of his best acting to date.) We get to experience a more evolved version of Adonis, who is now a father and is learning how to teach his own daughter how to process her emotions without resorting to violence. Sometimes facing and forgiving the past allows us to shed away the weight that has been holding us back.
The film reveals that its two stars’ trauma and the mark it left on them is their true opponent—not each other. Creed III shows two strong Black men coming to terms with their own grief and deep-seated sorrow as they sit in the discomfort of their vulnerability. It allows them to realize that despite the circumstances that pulled them apart, they are still the two friends that we met at the start of the film who survived hell together. There is no one way to define what a “real man” is, but Majors and Jordan are a strong place to start.