Warrior

Warrior, directed by Gavin O'Connor, is an example of a film that, though an absolute cliche-fest from beginning to end, is so well done that one almost embraces the cliches, as if they were long-lost friends. Not only that, but since this film has two protagonists, the cliches are doubled, and since the film is about brothers, we not only get sports-movie cliches, but the thing gets Biblical on us.

I resisted this film when it was in theaters, despite good reviews, because I can't stand the notion that something like mixed martial arts exists. I was a boxing fan when I was a kid, but that sport, savage as it can be, seems like afternoon tea compared to MMA, which seems to have few rules, and puts its competitors in cages, like animals. You would think human civilization would have advanced since the gladiatorial days, but you'd be wrong.

So, my personal distaste for the sport aside, one can't deny that it's popular now, certainly more popular than boxing (try and find someone who can name any of the heavyweight boxing champions, I dare you). Of course, years ago, maybe even only ten years ago, this would have been a boxing film.

The core of the film is two brothers and their father. First we meet Tom (Tom Hardy), mysteriously appearing on his father's (Nick Nolte) doorstep. Nolte was an abusive drunk, but is now sober and churchgoing. Hardy had left with his mother as a teen, and now carries her name. He is not there to forgive, but wants his father to train him, as he did in his high school wrestling days. He wants to enter a competition called "Sparta," which will pit, in a bracket-style tournament, the best MMA fighter in the world.

The other, elder brother is Brendan (Joel Edgerton), who stayed with his father, mostly because he had a serious girlfriend (Jennifer Morrison), who he married and had two little girls with. He has left behind fighting and become a high school physics teacher, but financial trouble has him fight in a match in a strip-club parking lot. This gets him suspended from school, so he seeks out his old trainer to earn money. Through a series of fortuitous events, Edgerton finds himself in Sparta, as well.

Of course the two will end up fighting for the championship--that was in the trailer. But of course each will have an obstacle or two to overcome--there's the undefeated Russian, and the grudge match between Hardy and the guy he pummeled in a sparring match. And of course each will deal with their father, whom neither can forgive, though Nolte wants that so desperately. Of course Hardy's reasons for entering the contest and earning the five million dollar prize are selfless, and are uncovered in layers.

But if this film is as predictable as Mussolini's trains, it does keep you guessing as to what will happen in the final match. As a putative screenwriter, I had my own thoughts on who must win, and was right, though how the script takes us there is poignant. There's also some interesting subtlety that I'm sure many won't pick up on--after the match (I'm not telling who wins), there are fierce whispers between the promoters, indicating, at least to me, that the prize money will be split.

Of course, when you pile up the cliches, things are bound to get soggy. The film overreaches in some of its cultural pretensions, such as Nolte listening to Moby-Dick on audiotape, or the use of Beethoven's Ode to Joy in the score. And is it really popular in such a sport that a guy who was mediocre as a professional, then returns to fighting years later, could just waltz into a championship that has only 16 participants? Are the pickings that slim?

But these thoughts are easily banished with the sheer enjoyability of the project. Warrior may not be Rocky, but it's close.