Director: Gavin O’Connor
Writers: Gavin O’Connor,
Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Tom
Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn, Maximiliano
Hernandez, Bryan Callen, Sam Sheridan, Kurt Angle
Watching “Warrior” I had to
ask myself, “Is this really a true story?” Upon the film’s release last fall,
it somehow got the reputation of being based on true events. Several critics
reported it as such in their reviews. However, the movie was not advertized as
a “true story,” and although some details were based on a U.S. Marine that one
of the screenwriters interviewed before he went back for his third tour in Afghanistan,
it would seem little in this movie is based on fact.
That does not diminish its
power, however. It was just something I had to know.
The movie follows two
estranged brothers. Their father is a recovering alcoholic, and the family
broke up years earlier due to his drinking. One brother went with the mother,
the other stayed with the father. Both are Mixed Martial Arts fighters. Both
have a chip on their shoulders when they each enter a World Championship MMA
title match unbeknownst to the other. The one who left has a bigger chip for
several reasons. The one who stayed is just trying to protect his family from bankruptcy
and the bad influence of the father.
It’s a pretty good sports
flick. It does a good job engaging the emotional aspects of these men’s lives
and working them into its classic sports film structure. It isn’t surprising
that this film comes from the same director as the movie “Miracle”, about the
miraculous Gold Medal U.S. Ice Hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics. With a
smaller, more concentrated cast of characters, “Warrior” does a better job than
that film of getting underneath the character’s skins. We care for these men,
and so we care about the outcome.
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