i don't know why i don't like warrior that much. i think i may need a second viewing. i think i don't enjoy the movie because there was sound problem in the theatre at katy and i can't make what the people on screen were saying. this is bad because it gave me the impression that there is a lack of time spent on the background of the principal characters.
may be.
though i suspect that is the case. some reviewers pointed out - by giving us little clue of what really happened between during the boy's growing up years, audience are not insulted with the obvious. honestly i don't mind a bit more drama. hardy doesn't say much apart from growling and grunting (which is good, hey that's acting ok!), but when he starts throwing coins at his father and breaks the old man with his adamant refusal to try to be family again, that's the kind of drama that i want to see. there is a scene when he picks up the old man, drunk for the first time after a thousand days of sobriety - we see that this is a man who can only connect with pain.
at times i feel like watching vignettes of earlier fight movies despite knowing there is a moving plot and it is populated with intensely involved characters. if not for solid acting from nick nolte, tom hardy and joel edjerton (aussie men have the sexiest accent, amen!) i would have felt this movie is no better that last year's the fighter (2010) (which i don't enjoy that much either..i thought it was so-so). secondary characters in this movie, such as the principal and the movie parking lot scene makes the movie cartoonish.
perhaps all those can be forgiven if i see it the second time and appreciate the movie for what it is. i like tom hardy's wounded beast persona who fights because he has a lot of rage to burn, edjerton's mild mannered family man who is doing the best he could and nolte's the alcoholic father who is trying to make amends with his sons albeit a tad too late.
when they got in the cage to fight - these two have a lot to talk about. but there are not words for buried pain, and all that's left is anger.
brawl it out, and i hope you will heal.
there is another MMA fight movie worth checking out - red belt (2008), directed and written by david mamet, starring chiwetel ejiofor. it is not about toxic family legacy, and it's short of the intense fight scenes, but like one comment that i read - if you like emotions and objective correlatives, this can be hugely satisfying too.
I loved this movie ... not just because of Tom Hardy, but because it gave me a keen appreciation of how hard damaged men have to work to get beyond their trauma. They are not equipped to talk things out like women and the dysfunction of communication is gloriously exhibited in this film.
ReplyDeleteI think the only really honest and straightforward communication in this movie was the interaction between Joel Edgerton's character and his wife. They could reach common ground and they actually understand one another.
But the brothers and their father are horribly muddled and mired in old rage and disappointments. That is why their only real communication is with the fist.
i actually watched it for the second time..it was better and i especially enjoyed watching nolte, hardy and edjerton acting - you are right about the inability of men to verbalize their anger and pain, and that transpired very well in the film.
ReplyDelete