Starring the ever impressive Tom Hardy, Warrior is like the brutal step-brother of The Fighter, grappling and pummelling its way to our affection.
Is it as good as The Fighter? Well, no. But it’s a good effort all the same.
Tom Hardy is the obvious highlight in this movie, whereas The Fighter had several good characters, Warrior really only has two strong ones – Hardy, and his father.
The story centres around Tommy (Hardy) a former military man who turns up at his hometown and starts moving up the MMA ranks. Tommy’s formerly abusive father (Nick Nolte), the recovering alcoholic, is the best trainer in town apparently so he helps him rise to the top.
A lot of the story revolves around the relationship Tommy has with his father and brother. His father is a new man, reformed alcoholic, and repentant to his kids who don’t want to know. Tommy only wants him for his training and his brother, Brendan (Joel Edgerton), doesn’t want to see him at all.
I don’t really like MMA to be honest, it just appears to take all the discipline and art out of martial arts. Whenever I see it, it just looks like two blokes beating seven shades of awful out of each other. That being said I did quite enjoy Warrior, and maybe I’ve gained a little more respect for MMA. Maybe.
Tommy is by far the best character, a troubled soul with good intentions. He lost a his friend fighting in the Middle East and wants to get into a national MMA tournament in order to win a million dollars for his friend’s widowed wife and child. Very noble.
Now a look at his brother. The movie attempts to make his quest seem just as noble, and well, it just isn’t.
Basically the banks have shafted him just as much as everyone else, meaning he’s running low on money and may lose the house he lives in with his beautiful wife and kids. Aw diddums.
Admittedly this is a decent reason to fight, obviously trying to appeal to the average American banker haters, but compared to Tommy’s reasons it’s just utter trivial rubbish. Tommy is fighting for his dead friend’s wife and kid for God’s sake! I wouldn’t mind but Brendan’s house is massive! Huge drive, big garage, massive rooms, pretty little garden. Get a grip.
Because of this I didn’t find Brendan all that likable. Tommy on the other hand, really is. It’s a real credit to Tom Hardy that somehow Tommy becomes the best character in this movie with so little dialogue. Honestly, the script document he received must have been less than a 1KB in size.
During the tournament, Tommy has no entrance music, and has no regard for his opponent or the tournaments rules. He simply walks into the cage clatters his opponent and walks out. One of the best scenes in this movie is Tommy’s rematch against some overconfident moron named Mad Dog who he’s already beaten to a pulp in a training session.
At the start of the fight, Mad Dog starts with all the intimidating trash talk, how he’s going to kill Tommy with ease. The bell rings and Tommy floors him in one punch, pummels him out of consciousness and leaves the cage. Brilliant.
What’s Brendan up to in the meantime? Do you really care? I don’t know he’s fighting other dudes and beating the number one contender who’s stereotypically Russian.
You might want to skip to the end at this point to avoid any spoilers…
Tommy doesn’t talk with words, his actions are much louder. Demolishing any opponent who stands in his way, he quickly moves up the tournament ladder until the inevitable final against his brother.
And now we arrive at the worst part in the movie. Brendan wins. What the hell. Oh they become brothers again and their father is all forgiven, but in the end of the day, Tommy loses, all be it he does continue with a broken arm. Seriously this is how much Tommy wanted it! He breaks his arm and won’t surrender! But God forbid Brendan lose his precious house!
My God! Tommy went through so much crap in this movie! He left his abusive father with his mother, she died as he tried to care for her. Then he goes and fights for his country, saves loads of lives in his spare time, then attempts to provide for his dead friend’s wife and child by putting himself through rigorous training and a broken arm. Then Brendan comes along and wins because his bank account’s fallen on hard times! Are they serious!?
Anyway, despite that slight disappointment, Warrior is actually a really good movie that blends sport, if you can call it that, and family drama really well. If you’re anything like me, you’ll care little about Brendan but really get behind Tommy and his dad.
It’s as gritty as it is moving and isn’t just there to appease the bloodthirsty UFC fans who flocked to it. We watched it in a cinema full of white dudes in baggy clothing, American basketball tops and sideways baseball caps. You know the type; the kind who talk about being able to "throw down in the cage" because they watched a UFC fight. They got way too into the fight scenes; as good as they were, they’re not real guys, it was just a movie. It was pretty funny at the end though when they all got up and cracked their knuckles. I really love society.
Final Verdict: 4 Stars. If Tommy was in The Fighter we might have had the film of the year on our hands.
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