"Warrior"
Trailers and box office receipts can be misleading when determining the quality of a film. When Warrior opened in the middle of September last year it made a puny $5 million over its first weekend. This flick came and gone in matter of weeks making a grand total of $13 million. Surely the big wigs over at Lionsgate were scratching heads wondering what could have gone wrong. Let this be said about Warrior, this is not bad a film. If anything, it's the way this film was marketed which led to its financial failure. First impressions after watching the trailer are this is a film about MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) which is a big turn off for most and only appeals to a few.
Warrior is not about MMA. It is about two brothers who don't like each other, despise their father, and have their own personal problems. They also just happen to both participate in the sport of MMA. Older brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton) has a beautiful wife and two adorable daughters. His house is also about to be foreclosed on by the bank in a matter of weeks. Brendan and his wife are already working multiple jobs just trying to stay afloat. Younger brother Tommy (Tom Hardy) recently returned from Iraq as a war hero but is now lost with his thoughts about the past and future. Their father Paddy (Nick Nolte) is a recovering alcoholic and has now found God as his savior. Brendan and Tommy are having an extremely hard time dealing with these sudden changes in their father, especially considering what a monster used to be like them when they were growing up. Brendan and Tommy each have their own sets of debt that have to be paid. And the only way they can do it is to get back to doing what they did best as kids, fight.
Warrior plays on a number of clichés but never do they hinder the plot. Yes, this is another root for the underdog stories that has the classic training montage sequence, but that's okay. In the end we're still emotionally invested in both Brendan and Tommy. This is a film where there are no villains. The conflict lies within each of them. Times have changed since they were kids but old wounds reopen. Paddy wants to reconnect with his two sons only to get the cold shoulder from both of them. Do we blame Brendan and Tommy for their actions? No. But life always has to be moving forward and that's all Paddy wants.
This film is quite similar to 2010's The Fighter. The story hits some of the same beats. Again, there's nothing wrong with that. In films like these it's not about the plot it's about the characters. Edgerton, Hardy, and Nolte all give very compelling performances. We're not sure who to root for in all of this (although Brendan does have more on the line) because the conflicts that arise are realistic and fit the story. We are drawn to each of them because they all are trying to gain some sort of momentum for the future.
Heart pounding are the fight sequences, heartbreaking is Nolte's performance, basically this film has a lot of heart. Give Warrior a chance considering the film itself turned out to be an underdog in 2011. The subject matter may look like a turn off but it falls secondary to what the story is actually about. You will find yourself on the edge of your seat cheering right along with crowds. Warrior is a satisfying crowd pleasure that got released at a bad time of the year with a trailer that put an emphasis on the wrong element of the film. Don't brush this film aside because it will knock you out!
No comments:
Post a Comment