One of the year's best... (Spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2011)

A very poor year in the movie industry overall, but this one shines through! A very good drama film, which fails to draw major attention, because of it's theme. Just like "The Wrestler", this movie has a specific idea behind it and a delicate theme (Mixed Martial Arts). Movie critics and people who like meaningful films maybe have overlooked Warrior, exactly because of it's subject, which isn't very popular in this business.
Good sports movies have always drawn huge attention and have won numberous awards, but the so called "dirty sports" like Pro wrestling and MMA have received mixed feelings, when taken as a theme for a film... better yet a serious film! Nobody takes in consideration the fact, that in this line of work there are many significant and complex human beings that would become brilliant subjects for a movie character, like for example Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) a suffering soul that wonders alone, wanting someone to reach out and pull him away from the darkness. Tommy lives his life in the past, a dark past which is buried deep inside him and so he communicates most of the time by primitive ways like violence and rejection. Rejection towards his father, a former boxer and a drunk Paddy Conlon (Nolte) who has destroyed the family and now wants a forgiveness for his actions, his brother Brendan Conlon (Edgerton) and everyone around, who tries to reach out to him.
Brendan Conlon's (Edgerton) role is this of the tipical underdog, who had been underestimated his whole life by his father, brother, mother and friends. His responsibility towards his new family (his wife and two daughters) is the only pure, intact relationship in his life, which he wants to preserve by any means necessary, making him a very dangerous man when pushed to the wall!
A great script in my opinion, great story about a dysfunctional family that comes together by the only thing that had brought them close in the past... fighting! Don't miss Warrior, it's one of the year's best!