Warrior stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as brothers who have been estranged from each other for many years. Tommy Conlon (Hardy) is an ex-Marine who has recently returned from Iraq and has a secret past from his time in Iraq which is slowly revealed to the audience over the course of the movie. Tommy was a superb amateur wrestler growing up, but his life was turned upside-down due to a broken household caused by his father's alcoholism. When his mom split and left their father, Tommy decided to go with her but her death left Tommy without a family. Tommy's brother, Brendan (Edgerton), decided to stay with their father, leaving the brothers relationship to be strained. As the movie opens, the father, Paddy (Nick Nolte), is 1000 days sober and regrets his past. He is surprised to arrive home one night to find Tommy waiting for him. Tommy is in town to start training for Sparta, a $5 million winner-take-all MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) tournament. Tommy earns a spot in the tournament by beating a local MMA tough guy at the gym during a sparring session. He turns to his father to train him, but makes it clear from the get-go that their relationship is strictly teacher-student because of trust issues that Tommy still has with his father. Paddy agrees to train him and while doing so, tries to prove himself to his son.
Brendan is an ex-fighter as well who has given up the sport to be a high school teacher. He is happily married to Tess (Jennifer Morrison) and is a loving father to his kids. He has nothing to do with his father or brother and the family hasn't seen Paddy in years. When financial problems threaten the foreclosure of his home, Brendan secretly fights at unsanctioned events that take place in a parking lot behind a strip club. Brendan easily wins a fight and collects a small payday, but this information makes its way to the school principal who has to dismiss Brendan from his job. With his family in a deep financial hole, he goes to Tess with the option of him returning to the ring to fight in the Sparta tournament. Tess remembers Brendan's past and how the sport almost killed him and will not give him her blessing. Brendan does what he must though and seeks out his former trainer, Frank Campana (Frank Grillo), to get Brendan back into fighting shape.
I'm not spoiling anything by saying this, you'd have to have never seen a movie before to realize that it's inevitable that these two brothers will end up face-to-face in the ring. But this movie has a lot of surprises up it's sleeve and the outcome may not necessarily be what you think it is. So let's see what Justin and I thought about the movie.
Justin's Take: **
If I had to recommend a feel-good movie that is right for the entire family, this would fit into that category. It has the age old American dream story written all over it. The acting wasn't that bad. But one of my pet peeves is that if an actor starts out having an accent, they should be able to maintain it throughout the entirety of the film. Hardy and Edgerton seem to have an Irish accent in one scene, and then an American accent in the next scene. Other than that, it's a movie that the entire family can sit down and enjoy as decent entertainment for one evening.
I am a huge MMA fan, which is primarily what this movie is about. So from that standpoint, I have some different views. I think overall it doesn't give MMA a bad image. Brendan is a teacher and as a lot of MMA fans know, Rich Franklin, a prominent fighter in the UFC, was a Math teacher himself. Tommy was in the military and this is another background which a lot of fighters tend to have. So there is some authenticity there. The problem I had is one that occurs in a lot of sports movies, the lack of realism. In most of the fights in this movie, one fighter usually takes a severe beating when in reality, almost all of these fights would have been stopped by the referee before getting to this level. The other negative I found was in the style of fights and the money awarded to the participants. The Sparta tournament in this movie takes place over a couple of days but in reality, fighters generally take several months to train for just one fight. The other thing was the portrayal of the money these fighters win. Most Middleweight fighters, the level depicted in this film, don't make anywhere near the millions of dollars awarded in this tournament. George St. Pierre, the most famous middleweight fighter and current UFC champion in that weight class, makes approximately $450,000 per fight and may only fight twice a year. But most fighters never approach even that level of money.
Overall, I would tell someone to watch the movie and accept it for what it is, a decent action film with decent acting and a decent storyline. I think Nick Nolte did a fair job thought I don't think he was as exceptional as some people are making him out to be in this role. I feel people sometimes are given extra credit just for playing a certain type of role, such as the alcoholic. I feel he was just fair in this movie. I give the movie 2 stars out of 5.
Mickster's Take: ****
Justin, Justin, Justin. I agree with a lot of the things you said in your review but as an overall movie experience, I got much more out of this than you did apparently. I saw a movie that has some flaws, some of which you pointed out, but I think there is a five star film here that is a few flaws away from being a classic film experience. I was sucked in by the story of these two brothers and their troubled father. The movie could have easily ventured over into a sappy category, but it avoids those pitfalls and when the movie ends I have seen a movie that has tugged at my emotions, but doesn't veer into tearjerker territory. I'm not sure what it is about boxing/fighting movies, but they just have a way of working more often than they miss. Rocky, The Fighter and Million Dollar Baby are all classic movies with a fighting theme that made my top 100 list of all time. Warrior isn't quite up to the level of these masterpieces, but it comes pretty darn close.
I agree with you on Nick Nolte, regarding his performance here. I think he is fine and he does have one great scene in a hotel room with Tom Hardy, but I don't get where all the Oscar talk is coming from for him as a possible Supporting Actor nominee. It's just not Oscar worthy in my opinion. Fine, but not great. I actually preferred Hardy as an actor in this movie, and he's the one I feel if anyone was a dark horse for an Oscar from this film, it would be him. I certainly don't think he will get one, but I did enjoy his performance here. Edgerton is fine as well, he pulls the role off, but when I think of this movie down the line it won't be because of his performance. But it's admirable nonetheless. I also agree with Justin on the realism of the fights. I do consider myself an MMA fan now, and though I haven't been following it as long as Justin, even I pointed out that most of these fights would have been stopped well before they actually are. But I agree that this is a good promotional movie for the sport as I don't feel it portrays it in the negative light that it sometimes receives. One issue that I had with the film that Justin didn't point out is that there are a couple of plot lines which are never fully satisfied when the movie ends. I won't go into detail because I don't want to spoil anything, but there are loose ends that just weren't tied up well enough for me and one of them in particular was kind of glaring. But these are minor quibbles and didn't mess with my enjoyment of the movie too much.
After seeing the film, I looked up the name of Gavin O'Connor, the director of this movie. I was surprised to see that while he doesn't have a lot of credits to his name, one of his few previous directing roles was for the Kurt Russell movie Miracle, a movie that made my top 100 list. I think with these two films on his resume, he's a director that I would like to see more of when it comes to making movies, especially sports-themed ones. I think he has a lot of talent. I really enjoyed this film and while it's flawed I felt satisfied at it's conclusion. I was refreshed to see that if you can look past the violence a little bit, there's actually a decent family movie here for people with kids who are a little older. Some of the fighting may be too intense for younger kids though. If this movie was on your radar and you missed it, go rent it the next time you are looking for something to watch. If it wasn't on your radar, it should be.
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