Best of 2011 #8 Warrior

Gavin O'Connor's Warrior could be a case study in bad movie marketing.  Here is a movie with huge potential for mass appeal and box office.  Its story is timely and well told and it's about mixed martial arts, a sport rapidly growing in popularity.

Yet, it never found an audience.  It's perplexing.

Part of that could probably be blamed on the trailer, which all but gave away the ending before anyone got a chance to see it.  But, really, I don't think that's it.  The studio just didn't make a strong enough push to promote the movie, and that's a shame.  Instead of highlighting what should have been star-making performances by the two leads and awards-bait acting in a supporting role, the few of us that saw it can only beg our friends and family to rent it on DVD.



And, that's what I've been doing.  More than almost any other movie on my list, I've been pushing people to see Warrior for months now.  I've done so because, unlike some of my other favorite movies of last year, this is a movie that should appeal to everyone. It's like the MMA version of Rocky, and, quite honestly, it's almost as good.

Few things are better than a good sports movie.  Who didn't like Miracle (also directed by O'Connor) and Hoosiers?  No one.

Fine...I'll say it.  If people don't someday embrace this movie on a large scale, the terrorists win.  Happy now?

Anyway, the movie stars Tom Hardy -- an actor who's about to blow up thanks to his upcoming role as the new Batman villain -- and Joel Edgerton -- who also has a couple high profile movies coming out this year (The Great Gatsby and the bin Laden movie) -- as two estranged brothers thrust into the MMA spotlight.

Edgerton plays Brendan Conlon, a high school physics teacher -- and a former MMA fighter -- who's fallen on hard times.  He's underwater in his mortgage and is about to lose his house. He returns to fighting, secretly at first, in order to fill some financial gaps.  But, it eventually costs him his job and he's forced to come fully out of retirement in order to feed his family.

Hardy plays Brendan's brother Tommy, a hardened marine who's returned home under mysterious circumstances.  He too decides to start fighting professionally.  While his reasons are eventually revealed, you get the sense that he's fighting only because he can't contain his rage.

Nick Nolte plays Paddy Conlon, their father, a recovering and lonely alcoholic whose only companion appears to be an audio version of Moby Dick that he's constantly listening to.  Neither brother wants anything to do with the old man.  Years of drunken abuse will do that to a family.  Tommy reaches out his dad, not for support, but to enlist his professional services as a trainer.

All three actors are superb in their roles.  As I mentioned, Hardy is about to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world and rightfully so.  He is a versatile, physically-imposing presence on screen and those traits are well displayed in this movie.  The character is a quiet, damaged man, with a rage that is visible, though constantly boiling just below the surface.  Tommy is not really at all likeable, but, thanks to Hardy's charisma, you can't help but root for him.

Edgerton's performance as Brendan is more traditionally sympathetic.  He instills the character with a grace and dignity that is unique to only the best movie underdogs.  I don't think there was a more likeable protagonist in any movie last year.

And, Nick Nolte is Nick Nolte, and I mean that in a good way.  He delivers the tired, guy-at-the-end-of-his-rope routine that has become his bread and butter in recent years.  Yet, Paddy is robbed of the anger and resentment that defines most of Nolte's character's and is left only with sorrow and false hope.  The result is a surprising twist on the patented Nolte schtick and, consequently, this is his best performance in years.

There's really no villain in this movie.  There's no Apollo Creed, no Russian hockey team (though there is a prominent Russian fighter in the tournament).  The other fighters in the movie are, while not exactly faceless and nameless, not really important.

Instead, this is a story about manhood; manhood lost, sought after, and hopefully regained. Our society tells men that family, work, and military service are honorable expressions of manhood.  Yet, for these characters, these accepted routes have been blocked.  Both fighters find themselves at the mercy of forces they can't control. And, their father has made choices that have foreclosed these options. While it's primal and self-destructive, their choice to find meaning and control in the ring is ultimately understandable.

Clearly, it's no coincidence that the primary forces that have stripped the characters of their manhood -- perhaps the real villains of the film -- are war and recession.  And, while a lesser filmmaker would beat you over the head with this plot choice, O'Connor's use of the backdrop is subtle and appropriate.  He's not making a commentary about contemporary America, he's using the fears and sorrows familiar to so many of us to reel us in.  And, it works.

Last year, The Fighter received heaps of acclaim and numerous awards, including two acting Oscars.  While I admired that film, it never really connected with me.  It felt like the the makers of The Fighter were deliberately and overtly trying to avoid all the cliches and trappings of typical boxing movies.  While the notion was admirable, the result was a movie that seemed to be lacking an emotional core.  Who wants to watch a boxing movie when you don't really care who wins?

With Warrior, O'Connor takes the opposite route, embracing the formula and all the expectations that come with it and executing it to virtual perfection. Even though I saw every plot turn coming, I found myself cheering and crying at all the right moments.  The ending to this movie is so insanely perfect, that I may just go watch it again right now.  What more can you ask for in a movie?