Warrior

Year 13, Day 5 - 1/5/21 - Movie #3,705

BEFORE: Well, it was a bit of a struggle getting here - I became aware of this film several years ago, after watching so many boxing movies.  All of them, maybe.  But I somehow missed it the first time around on cable, and probably the second time, too - these things sort of go in cycles, only some films NEVER air on cable, I've noticed.  Or some air in one rotation and then never come back.  Maybe I just didn't the slots for this at the time, or maybe since there's also a TV series with the same title, I thought it was still airing and it wasn't, and I missed the expiration date.  Anyway, I keep track of movies I missed, because then they tend to turn up on streaming somewhere, all of them except "Breakfast of Champions", I guess. But then I caught this one on its third or fourth rotation on cable, and now it's available again on Cable on Demand, so I don't even have to put the DVD that I burned into the DVD player, I can just watch this on TV by pushing a few buttons.  Very handy - and a symbol that maybe it's the right time to watch it. 

I'm not sure what it says about me, that I've put so many restrictions on myself - when I allow myself to add a movie to my list, under what conditions I can or can't watch a particular movie - that even though I make progress every day, I also always feel like I'm missing out on things, and thus also failing every day, too.  

Frank Grillo carries over from "End of Watch", and after a few Tom Hardy movies, I'll be ready for Max von Sydow and Ingmar Bergman. That's a bit weird, that a film about MMA fighting gets me closer to the artsy Bergman films, but that's where I find myself today.  

THE PLOT: The youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament - a path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his estranged older brother. 

AFTER: I think this was probably a better choice than watching "Chips" or anything with Anna Kendrick, like "Trolls World Tour".  "Hellboy", I'm not really sure about - but that connects to "Black Widow" so I think I'm going to wait and see if Marvel movies start coming out on time, under the new revised schedule for 2021. That's all I can do, make the best possible choice each day and then see how it pans out.  Speaking of that, this is the second film this week - after "Wildlife" - that highlights a man undertaking a dangerous job, to earn money for his family.  It's not lost on me that I'm considering applying for a new job, and leaving the house at this point in time, working in a store, interacting with customers - that's all potential risk since the virus is spiking up again in NYC.  Are these movies telling me, in a subtle message, that I should go ahead, take that leap, assume a little more risk, and that things will all work out somehow?  I'm not sure.  I'm not talking about taking part in an MMA match, I realize - or fighting wildfires, but doing anything besides staying home right now is risky on some level.  

Anyway, today's film is a textbook example of parallel editing - that's when a film appears to be following two separate storylines, cutting between the two, and the implication is (usually) that the two storylines are going to link up later on, or at the very least, some connection between them will be revealed ("Wonderstruck" is another recent example of this technique, dealing with two timelines that eventually connect with each other in a fashion).  "Warrior" only bends the rules of space, not time, but that's fairly standard.  Within the first half hour, we're presented with all the characters and we've got a pretty good idea how they're all connected.  It takes a while to piece together the whole family history here - a family broke up years ago, due to the father's alcoholism and abuse, and one brother, Tommy, left for the West Coast with the mother, while the other brother, Brendan, stayed in Pittsburgh with the father and his new girlfriend, now his wife.  

Tommy comes back to Pittsburgh, after serving in the military and the death of his mother, and wants to train again with his father for boxing and/or this new MMA fighting competition.  At the same time, Brendan is now a high-school physics teacher who's participating in underground MMA fighting matches in order to win enough money to keep his house.  (There's some kind of mix-up at the bank, Brendan followed the advice of a loan officer and his mortgage is now "upside-down" somehow.)  The two brothers have different last names (this gets explained and becomes important later) but it all gets pieced together when the (now-sober) father of Tommy goes to visit Brendan's family, but is not invited in, due to some unexplained previous incidents.  Maybe it's better that we don't know.  I'm not sure if this just represents a typical, messed-up family or just really highlights all the possible negative stereotypes about people or Irish descent, from excessive drinking and fighting to being unable to express love for family members and bottling up all negative emotions until they get released in fits of rage.  

Anyway, both brothers see the upcoming Sparta round-robin single-elimination MMA competition as their ticket, since the event is held in Atlantic City ("The War By the Shore") and awards a purse of $5 million.  Brendan could win enough money to keep his house, though he's a thousand-to-one long shot, and Tommy could make a name for himself, prove his worth for his family, make up for his shame from almost deserting his military post, and also have a positive (?) outlet for all of his rage.  And there's apparently a lot of that.  

Parallel editing comes back into play during the separate training montages (sort of reminiscent of "Rocky III" here - with Rocky training in the Russian woods and Ivan Drago in that computer-heavy lab) since Brendan's trainer focuses on keeping him relaxed in the ring, running with other fighters and listening to Beethoven for some reason, and Tommy trains alone, runs alone and focuses on taking opponents down with one punch.  Which strategy will ultimately prove more successful?  A video of Tommy knocking out "Mad Dog" Grimes goes viral, and then another one surfaces of members of his old military unit praising his heroism under pressure, rescuing several military men from an overturned tank.  Heroism is subjective in this case, however, because apparently he also deserted his unit, so while this gains Tommy new fans among the Marines, some of those same Marines are interested in arresting him once the tournament is over. 

Parallel editing continues during the tournament - though by now, the storylines have converged, and the technique becomes important in contrasting the two fighters, their methods and their attitudes.  Tommy faces off against his old rival, "Mad Dog" Grimes, while Brendan is forced to fight the top-ranked Russian entry, Koba (perhaps another nod to "Rocky IV").  I won't say any more about how these fights turn out, but it doesn't take too much effort to figure out who's going to make it to the all-important finals.  There are no real details here about whether the non-winning entrants win any money for their efforts, or if only the top finisher gets the $5 million, and everyone else gets squat.   

For that matter, I'm a little unsure how to regard a film that uses SO MANY contrivances and stereotypical boxing movie clichés in order to get where it's going - does it therefore become just another competitive sports film like so many others before it, or does it somehow become the ultimate version of a sports film, distilling all the typical sports-film elements into their most concentrated form, a super-charged boxing film that only breaks new ground by putting together pieces and parts of every other boxing film before it?  I'm willing to discuss both viewpoints.  

I realized from the tournament's establishing shots that I really miss Atlantic City - my wife and I made a habit of driving down there two or three times a year, pre-pandemic, and we haven't been there since, for safety reasons.  This film was released in 2011, which was only a couple years before we started our travels there. When we started we regularly stayed at Resorts (where Tommy and his father stayed) and avoided the nearby Trump Taj Mahal (which is now the Hard Rock Casino), but I liked the buffet at the Showboat next door (now closed).  I think on our second or third trip we found the Boardwalk Hall (where the Sparta tournament was held, and also the annual Miss America pageant) and saw a laser light show projected on it.  

As things stand now, we haven't been back to Atlantic City since June 2019 - partially that's because we took a trip to Vegas instead in October 2019, and then after that we didn't go on any road trips because of COVID.  But between 2014 and 2019 we managed to visit every buffet and steakhouse in town, plus every casino that didn't have "Trump" in its name (Donald was no longer affiliated with any of them, but we stayed away on principle.)  I don't know what shape Atlantic City is in these days - probably bad, because everything outside the casinos always looked sketchy to begin with - but I'm hoping things get better soon so we can visit again.  On our most recent trip we stayed at the Ocean Casino (formerly Revel), ate BBQ at the appropriately-named "Pit Boss" restaurant, saw Pentatonix perform at the Hard Rock, and discovered a little shop called Rocket Fizz that sold a wide variety of nostalgic candy and oddly-flavored sodas (pickle soda, carrot cake soda, buffalo wing soda, etc.).  Good times. 

Also starring Joel Edgerton (last seen in "Smokin' Aces"), Tom Hardy (last seen in "Dunkirk"), Nick Nolte (last seen in "Breakfast of Champions"), Jennifer Morrison (last seen in "The Report"), Kevin Dunn (last seen in "Captive State"), Vanessa Martinez, Noah Emmerich (last seen in "The Wilde Wedding"), Denzel Whitaker (last seen in "Black Panther"), Carlos Miranda, Maximiliano Hernandez (last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), Fernando Chien (last seen in "The Accountant"), Kurt Angle, Erik Apple, Nate Marquardt, Anthony Johnson, Roan Carmiero, Gavin O'Connor, Dan Caldwell, Timothy Katz, Bryan Callen (last seen in "Joker"), Sam Sheridan, Josh Rosenthal, Jake McLaughlin (last seen in "Savages"), Nick Lehane, Laura Chinn, Daniel Stevens, Hans Marrero, with a cameo from Don Lemon (last seen in "Whitney"). 

RATING: 6 out of 10 choke holds