Release Date: 9
September 2011 (USA) Runtime: 140 min
Genres: Action |
Drama | Sport
Official Sites: http://www.warriorfilm.com/
Taglines: Family is
worth fighting for
Director: Gavin
O'Connor
Writers: Gavin O'Connor |
Anthony Tambakis
CASTS
Joel Edgerton |
Tom Hardy | Nick Nolte |Jennifer Morrison | Frank Grillo |
Kevin Dunn | Maximiliano | Hernández | Bryan Callen | Sam
Sheridan | Fernando Chien | Jake McLaughlin | Vanessa Martinez |
Denzel
Whitaker | Carlos Miranda |Nick Lehane
Filming Locations: Boardwalk
Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
Budget: $30,000,000
(estimated)
Production Co: Mimran
Schur Pictures | Lionsgate, Solaris
SUMMARY
Two brothers face
the fight of a lifetime - and the wreckage of their broken family - within the
brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting in Lionsgate's
action/drama, WARRIOR. An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan returns
to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and
his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse
in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title
prize, his brother, Brendan, a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a
public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family.
Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Brendan
bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father. But when Brendan's unlikely
rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers
must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the
most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.
REVIEW
The picture flirts
with contrivance and cliché (it at times feels like a smoothie
composed of the best bits and pieces of the Rocky
pictures and The Fighter), but comes out the other side due to a refusal to
pander or insult our intelligence. There are no 'big speeches' and plenty
is left unsaid. I appreciated the fact that we never get any details
about just what horrors Paddy committed against his family back in the day,
only offhand implications. I appreciated that the film takes it for
granted that Brendan loves his wife and his children and doesn't feel the need
to add gratuitous displays of 'emotion' (i.e. no overacted playtime
with kids, no flashes to happy moments during a climactic moment of struggle,
etc). And, without going into details, I love that the film doesn't
resolve its deep family hurts by the end of the picture, but rather puts its
characters in a place where at least some of these characters have a chance to
repair the long term damage if they so choose.
Warrior is, above all, an emotionally engaging
and uncommonly thoughtful family drama. It rises above most in its genre
by refusing to pit 'good' against 'evil' and by refusing to pander to our
lowest emotional denominator. It features moments of genuine insight
and recognizable human interaction that feel so 'right' that you almost want to
cheer. Like the best of its genre, it is less about who wins or loses as
opposed to who is in your corner when the game ends. It does have several
crowd-pleasing moments, and few of them are the sort that you'd expect in this
genre. It features wonderful performances across the board, and I could
easily see this film's cast dominating the year-end awards race if the film
hits it big at the box office. Aside from too much 'on the nose'
play-by-play announcing during and between the fight scenes, the film has
dialogue that rivals anything you're likely to hear this year in terms of
authenticity. Warrior is a
wonderful movie and a pretty great film.
