"Warrior": A Movie Review

Sports and their subsequent storylines are less formulaic than movies would have you believe.

First there was “The Wrestler,” then “The Fighter,” and now “Warrior.”

Hollywood dabbled in an up-close look at the life of a washed up professional wrestler, followed by the life of a middling welterweight boxer and now two mixed martial artists.

Encompassing all three flicks is a noticeable existence bereft of some degree of a healthy familial relationship. At least “The Fighter” was biographical.

The movie “Warrior” follows the lives of two brothers related by blood, who couldn’t be further apart.

Afflicted by a dysfunctional upbringing and an alcoholic father (played by Nick Nolte), Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) and Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) each separately struggle through their lives.

To begin the movie, Tommy returns to his father’s house after serving with the Marine Corps in Iraq, though he shows no sign of forgiving the parent who altered his life path and led to his mother’s early death.

Brendan is shown to be a family man and physics teacher who has fallen on tough economic times.  

He doesn’t let his father, who sobered up, into his life and has not corresponded with Tommy since they were teenagers.  

As the movie develops, both begin training for admittance to an international MMA tournament, primarily drawn by the $5 million pot.

While Tommy uses physicality to pulverize opponents, Brendan relies on Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Of course, both brothers reach the tournament, and despite being nobodies on an international stage, you can imagine what happens from there. Typical Hollywood.

Tommy’s success is believable enough, but Brendan’s seems to be a journey through a Disney kid’s movie. He found little success in his first UFC go-round years back. At 1,000-to-1 odds, his Brett Favre-like comebacks from being “done” are more predictable than death and taxes.
Compounding the issue, why is it that in film hard-earned lessons are practically always learned when the most is at stake? 

Thankfully, the acting is terrific, especially by Hardy, who spent months training with professional fighters to make the action sequences look realistic. He succeeded. So did Edgerton. The camerawork was superb, capturing the emotions of spectators, commentators, managers and fighters alike with a poignant flair.

The movie also rightfully pays tribute to MMA, a sport which is gaining wild popularity with the continued success of UFC.

Despite director Gavin O’Connor running out of fresh ideas and sticking to Hollywood’s inside-the-box thinking, the movie will leave you believing that even the worst grudges and differences are worth forgiving.