Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 5-February-12
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Warrior (2011)

If someone had told me last summer about a new movie that stretched the Rocky genre by pitting brother against brother, throwing in an alcoholic father, and replacing boxing with mixed martial arts, where there is no "below the belt," I would have rolled my eyes at the absurdity. As it was, like most moviegoers I didn't pay enough attention when Warrior came out even to roll my eyes. How fortunate that Nick Nolte's Oscar nomination (for playing the father) and other recommendations prompted me to give it a look. While Warrior does tell a story that could only happen in the movies, superb acting and directing turn its excesses into gold.

The story takes place 14 years after Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) left Pittsburgh with his mother to escape the drunken abuses of his father. Tommy was just a kid back then, but now he is an angry ex-Marine who returns to his hometown to train as a fighter. At least that's one reason he returns; you get the sense that he also seeks some resolution with his father, who is now sober and repentant. Unbeknownst to Tommy, at the same time he begins dreaming of a major-league tournament with a five-million-dollar prize, his estranged brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton) is starting to fight again as well. Brendan's motives are more clear-cut: his job as a high school teacher isn't enough to support his beloved wife and daughters or keep them in their home. Although he lacks the youth and strutting-cock attitude required by professional fighting, he convinces an old friend to train him and put him back in the ring.

Brendan's trainer urges him to be calm and patient and to focus on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" before a match. Director Gavin O'Connor seems to have followed similar advice while making the movie. Although the fight scenes are plenty rough, Warrior is a classy picture which doesn't confuse noise with drama. As the camera moves back and forth between brothers you gain a rich understanding of the hurts that drive them and the history that divides them. You also see that their father earned their distrust and will have a hard time winning them back. The last act is devoted to the tournament, where Brendan's status as underdog transforms the sport into a realm of miracle, which is of course the hallmark of the genre. The fact that the warriors share a troubled past and hopeful present heightens the impact. Each fights for something beyond glory or money, and beyond himself.

Copyright © 2012 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.