Warrior

Warrior brings to the table the world of mixed martial arts, where punches, kicks, holds, and everything else goes. The inception of new international tournament "Sparta" puts on a collision course Paddy (Nick Nolte), Brendan (Joel Edgerton), and Tom Conlon (Tom Hardy), all part of an estranged family torn apart in the past by abuse, favoritism, and abandonment. What pulled me into the movie at first was the trailer. The trailer didn't have hardcore rock or scenes of "You're not the best around here you can't beat me" shenanigans. It had the sense of two brothers trying to solve their own problems while trying to deal with each other and their former alcoholic father through the use of a huge MMA tournament named Sparta. In which revealed in the trailer they eventually have to face each other. The fantastic thing here is two protagonists entering the same tournament. Each brother has his own respectable reasons for fighting, a fact that is sure to divide the audience when it comes time to choose which one to root for.

Tom Hardy in the role of Tom Conlon is amazingly perfect. He brings a great moving and emotional performance of a man who has suffered greatly from the ones he loves, from the things he has seen on the field of battle, which is an all to reality for today. The interesting aspect for him as being one of the lead roles is truly how minimal the dialogue he has through the entire movie. With so few lines the power of his performance relies strictly on the emotion he is able to portray. Hardy's character uses his straight up outright power and strength to make his way through the tournament. While the younger brother Tommy suffered seeing the loss of his mom firsthand, Brendan still has his own demons that he struggles through life as the bank is threatening to take away his home. He has put together the life every man dreams of with his family and a home, but it is still his past that seems to resurface in his life. To contrast his brother Tom, Brendan is the complete underdog that throughout the entire tournament has to dig deep and rely on his never quit attitude to keep him striving to survive with his family. Nick Nolte as the estranged father delivers a great strong performance of a man that is completely broken by his past and his desire to try to make right with his sons. It is amazing the anguish that we feel from all three of these characters and wanting those things that are troubling them to find a way to work out.

The story truly is gut-wrenching powerful and presented in an engaging fashion. Little by little through the film's dialogue, we are allowed a glimpse into the past hardships of the Conlon family, and the characters' motivations for retaining such hatred are revealed gradually. The fighting in the movie is almost an after thought. What the movie is really about is a broken family trying to get on with their lives. You have a recently sober father trying to earn the forgiveness of his sons for destroying his family years earlier, one son trying to provide for his wife and children, and the other son trying to earn money for the family of his friend and fellow Marine who died overseas. All of it comes together seamlessly and provides for a truly gripping movie. While many may say this storyline has been used in the past, I found it to be a new look onto it with having two protagonists that were on a collision course to meet and not knowing who to root for.

While there have been other movies that have dealt with the MMA fighting style, this go around is the first time I have seen in which the movie doe not deal with the over the top moves throughout the entire film. Warrior gives a great action choreography that makes us actually feel like it is an actual true MMA fight we are watching. Also I loved how the fights brought you right into the feeling of being actually their ringside watching the tournament. The great aspect that helped this work even better is the simple fact of using Nate Marquardt (UFC), Anthony Johnson (UFC), Erik Apple (Strikeforce) and Kurt Angle (TNA). The use of these real fighters, they were able to use their athletic abilities and ring know-how to take the fighting sequence to the next level. The fighting, though it is very well acted and shot, is not about fighting. It is the physical representation of the struggle between the three men, the struggle to forget and forgive and to move on. The demons that possess all three of these men are of such great proportion, the only way they can be relinquished is for them to come together.

Warrior was a great movie watching experience for me. Tom Hardy showed the great power that he has and I think he has truly moved to superstar status, while Edgerton and Nolte brought amazing performances that the chemistry between the three really made the movie work. While there are those that will contrast this movie against Rocky, I feel like while they are both fighting movies they are both vastly different in so many ways. The only complaint I had about the movie was the ending was a little underwhelming as it ended fairly abruptly and after investing the time into caring about the characters we want to know how things turn out for them. While I would have liked to see more of a stronger conclusion, the last line of dialogue really in a way sums up the entire struggle the family is going through and the resolution they were able to come to through the fighting in this tournament. I am giving Warrior three and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. This is one movie that we have added to our movie collection and this is a movie that I would recommend just about anyone to watch.
-The Movie Man