His Bravery Just Might Get Him Killed!

Warrior.
PG-13. 140 minutes.
Directed by Gavin O’Connor.
Starring Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, and Joel Edgerton.
Action/Drama.

Sadly enough I feel that the movie Warrior came out too early to be of any serious contention for any of the major awards. Not that it could win best picture (although personally, I would put it in the top 5 movies of the year) but it could absolutely win acting awards. Nick Nolte especially. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Long Island’s own Gavin O’Connor is no hack when it comes to directing sports movies. He is the director who brought us the move Miracle, a movie so well executed that I know people who watched the actual Russia vs. USA hockey match live during the Olympics and were still on the edge of their seat during the whole movie, already knowing the outcome. Even the daughter of the goalie from the actual team USA, a friend of mine, was on pins and needles watching it all unfold. Anyone who can do that knows his way around a sports tale, and not many people do it better than (relative unknown) Gavin O’Connor.

What makes this movie great is a simple story with complex characters. That is the secret to most great movies. The story has been done time and time again. Underdog fight story, prodigal son, scared wife — by all means without looking too hard you’ll find a number of clichés in this film. But it’s not about making a brand new story; it’s about approaching it in a new way.

The story is simple. An estranged family; two brothers who haven’t seen each other in over a decade with only two things in common — they both hate their abusive alcoholic father. The second thing is they are both fighters in their core and they can’t let it go. When the movie starts we learn that the father (played incredibly by Nick Nolte) is 1,000 days sober and has found peace in religion and is trying to set his life in order. He comes home from an AA meeting to find his son Tommy (played by one of the most impressive actors out there today, Tom Hardy) — but the reunion isn’t a nice one. Shortly after this encounter we learn of a Mixed Martial Arts grand prix tournament with a purse of $5,000,000. Tommy wants in and wants his father to train him, which was about the only thing Tommy can recall his dad being useful for, growing up.

Then there is Brandon (played by Joel Edgerton), a high school physics teacher and family man. Between his wife and himself they work 3 jobs and are still barely able to stay afloat. Their house is weeks from being foreclosed and they have a pile of medical bills for his daughter’s faulty heart. This all leads him back into the ring, learning that in random pick-up fights he can make in two hours what would take him a month to make in an honest trade. Soon he too learns of this Grand Prix tournament and starts training.

Of course there are more details I’m leaving out, but as I’ve said before, I hate when reviews give away all the import reveals of the movie. What I love most about this movie is that it is a fight movie. And a movie about fighting. But has less to do with MMA and cage fighting than you think. It’s about fighting off demons; it’s about fighting for your family, fighting as to not move backwards, fighting to outrun the past, and fighting to keep a promise to a fallen friend. And it leaves the fight there.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the movie takes place in the ring, but even that isn’t told as a traditional fighting movie. Even in the fisticuffs and Armbars and black eyes, we see that they aren’t fighting their opponents at all, but for and with everything previously discussed. A movie where the older brother is the weaker and the underdog. The father who is just learning the full damage he’s done to his sons and family and learning that a simple sorry won’t cut it. Because he is battling against their actual hatred for him.

But also we are torn between loving the underdog story, and rooting for Tommy, who is by all means the favorite and strongest out there. His story is so moving and complex that you can’t find yourself rooting against him. It’s interesting, too, to watch the dynamics of Brandon, how ecstatic and appreciative he is of every victory, a good sport through and through — and Tommy who just came to fight and win, who has no time for press, or sportsmanship; he’s not a bad sport, he’s just no sport. The instant the fight is over, he leaves, and doesn’t even wait for the official to declare him the winner. His job is done and he just awaits his next fight.

And still, the driving force with the movie is the fight within; the madness within. This is echoed with the father’s obsession with Moby Dick, and in one scene we see him screaming out at Captain Ahab, calling him a coward because he won’t quit his obsession with the White Whale. Maybe it’s a common thought, but it was the first time I heard it — someone calling Ahab a coward for trying to hunt this beast. But that gives us an inside look into the character and the fight within him, that he would call that cowardice. In the same scene we see the mental toll that Tommy’s hatred has on both him and his father, how our actions have consequences, even if we can justify our hate it eats at us and at the others we hate. And as the movie goes on we see power of forgiveness. The strength in it. The love in it. The healing power in it.

We also see the damaging toll that bravery can take on a man. I am not saying at all that bravery is a bad thing, but that it comes with trials and a punishment. And in this movie it’s a physical, punishing trial. In such a way it makes us question how far we should go, the limit of our bravery. What would you go through to keep a roof over your family’s heads? How much pain will you go through to keep a promise? As Brandon’s trainer tells him at his weakest moment, “Why did we come here? Did we come here to win? Because if not, just say the word, and we’ll pack up and go home. But if you don’t win this, they will take your house.”

When someone says that and you see your wife out there and you love her so much it got you into this ring in the first place, at what point do you call it quits and go home? Do you go through all that just to lose your house anyway, just with more bruises? How deep does a promise to a friend go? Will your determination and bravery carry you through the trials and beatings? Is there a limit to it? Can pain get to a point, or oxygen get robbed from you to a point that you throw all that away? This movie certainly makes you feel like throwing it away at any cost would be empty and a waste and something you’d regret forever.

And when brother is pinned against brother, what will come to a head in the ring? Is it their hatred for each other or do they love each other enough deep down to get through it in one piece? Is one brother’s promise and one brother’s house enough to drive them to fight through to the end? Is each blow about a promise or a house or is it about their past and the pain of childhood and betrayal and a horrible father? Brother vs. Brother, Ghosts vs. Demons. What makes a warrior a warrior? After you watch this movie, you find that what makes a warrior a warrior has next to nothing to do with what happens in the octagon, nothing to do with the cage, but more what is in you, what drives you, the depths of your bravery. Your heart, your love, your forgiveness — that is what makes a warrior a warrior, and a fighter a Spartan.

Warrior is out now on Blu-Ray and DVD.