Warrior (****)
Directed by: Gavin O’Connor
Starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison,
Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn
Seen: October 7th 2011
**** Out of ****
Who would have thought the vehicle of Mixed Martial Arts could produce
such an engrossing and wholly entertaining movie as Warrior? This is
storytelling within an unexpected environment at its absolute apex, with
multiple strong characters navigating each other and events affecting their
lives with varying levels of success. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are the lead
characters, brothers Tommy Riordon (later Conlon) and Brendan Conlon, alienated
since adolescence when separated by the divorce of their parents. Tommy went
with his mother, and after watching her die joined the army, while Brendan
stayed with his father for a while before abandoning him because of abusive
alcoholism.
The one thing the brothers seem to have in common is their ability to
fight, with Tommy adapting a brutally efficient and confrontational approach
while Brendan is more reactive and mostly goes for the tap-out of the other
fighter, slowly forcing him into submission. Tommy joins a gym where, within seconds,
he completely humiliates their prize fighter, Mad Dog Grimes, a serious
contender for SPARTA, a Mixed Martial Arts competition for the 16 best fighters
in the world with a prize pocket of $5 million. Because of this he manages to enter
the competition, for which he reels his father, Paddy (Nolte), in to train him.
Only training though, as he is stubbornly disinterested in anything else on
offer from Paddy.
Brendan is a high school physics teacher and is married with two young
daughters. His wife Tess (Morrison) is initially against him fighting, but slowly
accepts it as their financial situation and the money he manages to win in
amateur bouts keep them afloat. He is suspended without pay when his school
finds out about his fighting, even though the school principal, Joe Zito
(Dunn), supports Brendan enthusiastically. Brendan joins an old friend of him,
Frank Campana (Grillo) who is an expert trainer, and when Frank’s prize fighter
is injured, Brendan replaces him at SPARTA, much to Tess’ chagrin, as he will
now be going up against serious competition, not simply parking area amateurs.
As the competition starts the two brothers’ anonymity has the
presenters baffled as to their entry, as the contestants are famous professional
fighters and even include the much feared Koba (WWE’s Kurt Angle), a very tough
Russian, undefeated in all forms of MMA. As the brothers progress through the
rounds though, their support grows, with Tommy’s war heroism coming into play
while Brendan’s extreme underdog status gets the crowds (and the kids from his
school) on his side. If you saw the previews or know anything about this kind
of story, you’ll know that the brothers eventually face off against each other,
which makes for a magnificent fight, but the real showstopper for Warrior is
the emotional interaction between the brothers and their father.
There is real power in Warrior, with the incessantly stubborn Tommy
squaring off against his calm and collected but desperate older brother Brendan
while both have to deal with the presence of their father who had a massively
negative impact on their lives as teenagers, but is doing his utmost to win
back some respect and love. Warrior is a colossus of a movie, with giant
performances from a sensational Tom Hardy; a brilliantly subdued Joel Edgerton;
and in particular Nick Nolte (his delivery of the line from Moby Dick: “Turn
this ship around”, and what follows is, on its own, worth the price of
admission). I haven’t been this entertained in a movie in quite some time, and I
recommend it to anyone who reads this review…
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