Watching the trailer for Warrior, the film appears to be a mixed martial arts twist on Rocky accompanied with just about every fighting cliché you could possibly think of.
As I entered the theatre, there was some small
hope on my part the movie would somehow upturn these clichés and deliver something spectacularly unexpected. Does Warrior challenge the foundational structure of its genre? Absolutely not, but what
the film sets out to do, it does extremely well.
The script adheres to a modest setup. Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) has just returned from Iraq to visit his alcoholic father who he hasn’t seen in 14 years. Not actually interested in rekindling their relationship, Tommy enlists his experienced father to
train him for a MMA tournament where the top prize is $5 million dollars. At the same time, Tommy’s brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton) is a struggling, high school physics teacher who decides to enter the same tournament to pay his bills. The result is a heartfelt and
powerful storyline that would have drowned in its own melodrama without the help of a competent cast.
Everyone plays their role well. Hardy portrays a haunted veteran with torment and Edgerton’s hard exterior shows cracks of compassion. Nick Nolte puts on a notable performance as the Conlon father, Paddy. Consumed by his past demons, he is constantly
hanging on the tense edge between self-control and unbridled rage.
Not to be unmentioned, the MMA sequences are the real standout. With each punch and kick giving a surge of brutish satisfaction, the fights make sure to appease its target audience. For the
remainder who write off this film as one overextended brawl, Warrior’s fighting spirit may surprise you.
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