Warrior (2011)
Directed by Gavin O'Connor
The youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament – a path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his estranged, older brother.
29 connections found
View:
29 films that influenced Warrior
What critics say influenced Warrior
But, this is a fantasy rags-to-riches, brothers-in-competition saga that bargains on its “Rocky” and “The Fighter” influences, but tries to be more intense, and less inspirational, than its predecessors.
…aking an unusually respectful approach to the new sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), "Warrior" refurbishes material we've seen in the "Rocky" films and a thousand other populist dramas about ordinary people making their mark.
As the film works its way toward the pivotal fight, unlike the Rocky movies, Warrior has two combatants to embrace and cheer for.
A double-barreled " Rocky " for the mixed martial arts generations, the practically epic fight film " Warrior " is one of the most exhilarating surprises of this summer movie season.
Like Rocky (1976), the patron saint of all gritty underdog sports movies, Warrior has its roots in the working class milieu of Philadelphia.
So the up-and-coming combat sport of Mixed Martial Arts finally has its “Rocky.”
And its fondest fans can point to exceptions — “Body and Soul,” “The Set-Up,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Raging Bull” and even the first “Rocky.”
It may not be MMA’s “Raging Bull,” but it’s good enough to compare to “Rocky” or “Body and Soul” and not embarrass itself or its sport.
But, this is a fantasy rags-to-riches, brothers-in-competition saga that bargains on its “Rocky” and “The Fighter” influences, but tries to be more intense, and less inspirational, than its predecessors.
Like last year's “The Fighter” (to which it will inevitably be compared), “Warrior” serves up a solid rebuttal to anyone who would argue that a “fight movie” can’t be intelligent, impressively acted and multi-faceted.
The easiest way to describe The Warrior is to imagine The Fighter with more kicking and less crack.
As with last year's Oscar-winner The Fighter , Warrior uses a very physical sport as a means to bring two brothers together.
But for all of its supposed realism and reflection of hard times in America, the movie plays out as complete fairy-tale nonsense—exactly the kind of thing that “The Fighter” was fighting to get away from (even as it partially embraced it).
Shamelessly ripping off “The Fighter,” “Warrior” is also about professional brawlers, inept parenting, overcoming substance abuse and sibling rivalry: Estranged years ago by an alcoholic father (Nick Nolte) now in recovery, the two Conlon brothers, Brendan ( Joel Edgerton ) and Tommy ( Tom Hardy ), will almost inevitably meet again in an Atlantic City mixed-martial-arts cage-match event called Sparta.
To which I can only say, name me one boxing film, besides " Raging Bull ," whose story line isn't somehow a welter of clichés.
It's as if "Raging Bull" suddenly morphed into "Rocky."
And its fondest fans can point to exceptions — “Body and Soul,” “The Set-Up,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Raging Bull” and even the first “Rocky.”
Still, Warrior is closer kin to Raging Bull , Million Dollar Baby , and The Fighter than to Rocky and its ilk.
It may not be MMA’s “Raging Bull,” but it’s good enough to compare to “Rocky” or “Body and Soul” and not embarrass itself or its sport.
The characters of Warrior don’t fight in a ring, but a cage, as the film is something of a Rocky/Raging Bull hybrid set within in the more distinctly current world of mixed martial arts.
Advertisement
His character is partial to an audiobook of Moby Dick, constantly chasing what he may never get, and nearly every scene with Nolte in it is akin to Mickey Rourkeâ??s turn in The Wrestler, tapping into a sense of shame so potent that the result is heartbreaking more often than not.
Nick Nolte’s turn in Warrior echoed the kind of career revitalising performance that Mickey Rourke delivered in The Wrestler.
One part “Rocky,” one part “The Wrestler,” “Warrior,” in the wrong hands, could be your average ESPN movie of the week.
Gavin O'Conner's Warrior is a working-class, kitchen-sink sports picture that will remind most young viewers of The Fighter and The Wrestler.
Earlier in the year, The Fighter brought the family-based boxing drama back to prominence, although that followed Darren Aronofsky’s subversion of the familiar formula, The Wrestler , which instead chose to focus on wrestling.
His character is partial to an audiobook of Moby Dick, constantly chasing what he may never get, and nearly every scene with Nolte in it is akin to Mickey Rourkeâ??s turn in The Wrestler, tapping into a sense of shame so potent that the result is heartbreaking more often than not.
He’s obsessed with righting old wrongs, which may be why he is absorbed by Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the elusive monster whale in “Moby Dick”; he listens to the audio version of the novel at every opportunity.
Warrior is narrated by the audiobook that Nolte’s character is constantly listening to, Moby Dick.
In classic narrative style, the patriarch, (Nick Nolte in a solid outing that begins with real promise—drinking coffee and reading John Steinbeck, quoting from Moby Dick no less—before he’s pushed back far beyond the ropes) is nearing his 1000th day of sobriety only to be offered a home-coming gift of scotch from his recently returned son, Tommy.
When “Warrior” begins with Nolte listening to the book-on-tape of “Moby Dick,” it is clear the kind of movie we’re in for.
The movie's script risks drawing its conflicts out too plainly: The brothers' contrasting training regimens (Brendan listens to Beethoven in a pristine gym, while Tommy is out in the muck) get a little too much emphasis, and viewers would understand the weight of Paddy's personal demons even if he weren't always listening to a "Moby Dick" audiobook.
Alas, although the acting's uniformly strong, and the film has kitchen-sink grit to spare, it errs more on the side of 1985's Rocky IV than John Avildsen's '76 original, what with its "unstoppable" Russian fighter (Kurt Angle) and a climax that's never in doubt.
When, late in the story, both brothers must defeat an inexpressive and nearly superhuman Russian fighter (pro wrestler Kurt Angle), it's impossible not to think of Dolph Lundgren as the Soviet near-automaton from the affectionately mocked "Rocky IV."
But because we know exactly which two characters will end up in the championship bout (despite the challenge of a hulking Russian straight out of Rocky IV), the home stretch occasionally becomes tedious, with the emphasis shifting from character development to repetitive slugfests.
In “Rocky IV” the same year, Stallone— draped in the flag—gets to pummel a Soviet Superman, giving America some sweet wish fulfillment during the Reagan Cold War.
But there is way, way too much of the TV commentators, who give us the same information ad nauseam (the bouts are almost comically over-explained), and none of the other fighters are given anything beyond a rudimentary sense of personality (O'Connor and co-writers Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorman even trot out a Rocky IV-style Russian killing machine, and the characterization is about as subtly drawn).
The resulting script contains kind of beautifully crafted plotting and dialogue that would make Paddy Chayefsky—the screenwriter of such classics as “Network” and “Altered States”—proud.
Advertisement
The resulting script contains kind of beautifully crafted plotting and dialogue that would make Paddy Chayefsky—the screenwriter of such classics as “Network” and “Altered States”—proud.
And its fondest fans can point to exceptions — “Body and Soul,” “The Set-Up,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Raging Bull” and even the first “Rocky.”
This territory has been traveled before in everything from Champion and The Set-Up to Rocky and The Cinderella Man , but in Gavin O’Connor’s direction and pungent screenplay the melodramatics are integral, the pace and timing never slow, and the big fight action in the cage contains some of the best staged combat sequences I’ve ever seen.