Actually, I get why you may not have watched WARRIOR (2011).
It’s an MMA film. UFC for those who enjoy the commercialised version of the sport. And it’s simple one-worded title, Warrior, may have crawled under the radar because it doesn’t really SCREAM at you.
BUT IT SHOULD.
I have a suite of films in my memory-banks that I call “Definitive Sport Films“. Some, like American Football (Remember The Titans, We Are Marshall, The Blind Side, etc.), are overcrowded, but each sport has a few defining films.
ALI. The Wrestler. Invictus. Bend It Like Beckham. GOON. Space Jam.
Everyone has their own personal favorites, but Warrior is a film I believe everyone should watch—MMA fan or not. From the get-go, you can understand it’s an absolute POWERHOUSE, because you see this in its 2 leads;
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton.
With Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Kevin Dunn, Maximiliano Hernández, and the always-awesome Frank Grillo, the cast delivers with standout commitment.. And oh, Kurt Angle is in it too. Tied together by writer-director Gavin O’Connor (of The Accountant), the story hits you in the heart—then the face.
The story follows two brothers, Tommy (Hardy) and Brendan (Edgerton), at different life stages, as they rediscover themselves through THE FIGHT—though it’s much more complex than that. It’s about the struggles of the middle-class, and PTSD. That PTSD also comes in the form of growing up in a broken house and in war.
IT. IS. COMPLEX.
This is of course what the stellar cast is responsible for, and boy do they absolutely deliver. Hardy, known for transforming his physique, and Edgerton both undergo impressive metamorphoses throughout the film, with Hardy’s freakish BULK contrasting Edgerton’s cut form in the final submission scene. Honestly, the changes aren’t just mental, they’re physical too and it’s WILD.
The brutal, calculated fight scenes reflect the growing distance between the brothers, escalating the underlying conflict with their estranged father and Brendan’s wife, Tess. As this dichotomy perpetuates across the film, it concludes in a moment which threatens to drown out the cheering crowds through sheer emotion.
The sheer will of two men. Two brothers. Put to odds and having to break one another physically to understand the other emotionally is another sweet ribbon on a topic we continue to break through too. Slowly but surely, it’s all about;
TOXIC MASCULINITY.
Yeah, I f*cking went there, but so did the brothers. Each caught in their own worlds, separated by paths the other couldn’t forge or choose to see. It ends up making them lose sight of what they ultimately could gain from the having the other in their life.
And that’s what the sort of snap-ending represents. As the noise is dulled by their being with the other, they give in to this bond as the lights go down and they push everyone away. It’s there they find what they needed from the other.
Love.
And you’re goddamned right that I love that it was a hidden message amongst a tonne of people getting knocked the f*ck out. Cause that’s just isn’t it? You get knocked down, you get up. You get up and look to your family for help and you fight again.
Because you’re a WARRIOR.
