Warrior is the film MMA fans have been waiting for and to be honest it just about delivers what they would have wanted. Tom Hardy is Tommy Reardon an ex marine who has returned home to Pittsburg from Iraq with ambitions of becoming an MMA fighter, he visits his father, Nick Nolte, an ex drunk who brutalised Tommy’s mother and forced her to flee with him to Tacoma. He relishes the chance to abuse the old man and he is clearly a very angry man with some very serious issues. He has an older brother Brendan Conlon, Joel Edgerton, who has moved to Philidelphia where he teaches physics in high school. He is also estranged from his father due to his drunken behaviour in his childhood and his wife and two daughters are his world. Brendan has money trouble and he takes on MMA bouts to earn some extra money, much to the chagrin of his wife, Brendan was once in the UFC and he ended his career with a serious beating so her reluctance to allow this is well founded.
Tommy joins the old gym he used to wrestle at when he was high school champion under his fathers tutelage, while there a local MMA legend needs a sparring partner to beat up and Tommy takes the chance to show his own credentials destroying the Mad Dog in minutes, this is filmed and ends up as a Youtube sensation amongst the MMA fans worldwide. In Iraq a young marine sees the footage and recognises Tommy as his saviour who disappeared after tearing the doors off a disabled tank that was filling with water.
Brendan gets suspended for his fighting and needs to get money to see them through, the house is due to be foreclosed even before he gets the suspension, reluctantly his wife agrees he can take fights at a local level so he rejoins his old coach to train, in the meantime at the same gym a fighter is in training for Sparta a winner takes all grand prix event for middleweight, the same event Tommy has his sights on.
As Tommy continues his training while abusing his father at every turn he is offered a place at the event on the strength of his internet fame, brendans gym mate suffers an injury and he begs for the chance to take his place, not aware that Tommy is involved, after some arm bending he gets his shot which sets him at odds with his wife who he promised he would only fight local wannabes. this portion of the film is pretty heavy on dialogue and Tom Hardy excels as the miserable and moody Tommy, you see a glimpse of the real man when he calls the family of a dead buddy he promised to provide for, this is why he wants to win Sparta, not for glory or anything else just to help his buddys widow out.
The second half os the film is based at Atlantic City at the war on the shore, as Sparta is billed. 16 of the best fighters are gathered with the legendary Koba attending which according to the experts means a forgone conclusion as to the winner. With Tommy being completely unknown and Brendan being a has been who never really was the brothers are not fancied to last long. The event is huge and the action is excellent, the physical Tommy smashes his way through the event while the technical Brendan takes punishment while using old school jujitsu to win over much fancied opponents. Tommys antucs in Iraq get public attention and although he is brash and uninterested in the crowd they love him , marine stunr out in force and serenade him in the place of entrance music which he forgoes.
There is an inevitability about events, which the previews have a lot to answer for. The father falls out with the son, Tommy is uninterested in reconciliation he just wants to punish the old man succeeds in hurting him deeply, then reaches out to him, very odd and out of context I felt. Tommys fame spreads to the rest of the military and he is identified as being Conlon a deserter who left Iraq after his whole squad were killed in a friendly fire incident, this also reveals to the world that the two men fighting for the money are in reality brothers, Tommy is to be incarcerated after the fight and the battle commences with their supporters watching all over the states.
The fight like all of them is great action with some great technical skills on show and the intensity never drops, I wont reveal the final result or the finale but there is some odd stuff going on, after he is outed as a deserter the marines and the crowd in general are as vociferous as ever which knowing my american cousins wouldnt happen, no one is lower than a deserter in their eyes. with this aside the film has some great performances and set piece action which lift it above any of the other MMA films which always have baddies and unreal events that usually end with a death or two, this shows the level of ability of these warriors and the technique they have ti use to overcome stronger more aggressive opponents.
I will watch this again and think it will be a bit of a cult hit, the mixture of quality actors in physical roles doing realistic fighting is hard to beat and will grow as word spreads about it.
bigsteveg 