A tale of two brothers

Rating: 8/10 (22 September 2011)

In recent years we have seen a great deal of social realism in sports movies like in The Fighter and The Wrestler. Warrior also sets out to do that with Mixed Martial Arts with a little bit of the Rocky thrown in.
Warrior tells the story of two brothers, Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy) and Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton). Tommy is a ex-marine who returns home from Iraq after 14 years to Pittsburgh to his father's, Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte), doorstep. Paddy is a recovering alcoholic who use to beat his wife. Lost and angry Tommy turns to MMA, joining a gym and surprising beats a top middleweight contender. He asks his father to train him. Brendan lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with his wife Tess (Jennifer Morrison) and his two young daughters. He is a former UFC fighter turned High School physics teacher. The couple are struggling financially and with the bank about to take their house Brendan fights in street fights. In the world of MMA a new tournament has been created, Sparta, a 48 hour tournament where the winner can win $5 Million and both brothers enter it.
Warrior was directed by Gavin O'Connor and it was advertised that it was from the director of Miracle, another sports movie, but he also showed that he could do gritty urban set movies with Pride and Glory. He shows a lot of skill with this sports film and shows some style. When shooting in inner city the film uses a grey colour filter and in the suburbs it is lighter and brighter. One of my favourite moments was two training montages at the same time, shot using multiple screens like 24, showing action going on at the same time and showing two different training styles, Tommy taking a more basic, old-skool approach, whilst Brendan has a more modern, scientific method. Despite its long running time Warrior actually flew by. We get to know the know the characters in the build up and developed and the fights scenes show MMA to be a really tough, brutal sport. I liked the fact that rival fighters were not made out to be total dicks but simply as rival athletics and seeing how tough the sport is the writers didn't need to show much well.
Warrior also has a great cast, Hardy and Edgerton are both excellent, but it was Nolte was absolutely brilliant and he properly get a best supporting actor Oscar nod. He was so natural and believable as a man trying to be good, atone for his past sins and try to get close to his sons despite them not wanting anything to do with him. He was a tragic character and Nolte's performance and role reminded me a lot of Mickey Rourke's in The Wrestler, a character trying to make amends with his past sins. Hardy is of course a very talented actor as we have seen in Bronson and his character is a very angry, bitter man but because he is a war hero he is the public's choice to win. But there is depth and reason behind it because of his past both as a wrestling protégé and family background and his experience in Iraq. Brendan is the most sympathetic character because he is only doing MMA again because he needs the money for family. He is reluctant but is willing to do anything for his family and he is the typical film hero. There is strong believable chemistry between the three characters and really believe there is a past between them. There is also a strong supporting cast: Frank Grillo played Brendan's trainer and whilst he looked like a gym nut that could easily parodied by Family Guy he is made out to be a decent man who is a little like Mickey from Rocky. Morrison is a decent actress and Kevin Dunn was actually pretty ground and serious in his role.
Warrior is not perfect and there a few little problem. The first that Tommy is made out to be a really tough fighter, able to knock other men out with one punch but there is no establishing any fighting experience besides wrestling. The other is that Tommy is a complete unknown before the Youtube and he gets into Sparta without any previous bounds, but surely wouldn't he need to registered and have a ranking. Also there is a longer cut and I believe that it establishes other elements of the film through visuals like Brendan's daughter's heart condition.
Overall Warrior is a very well made film and I believed it happened its family drama much better then The Fighter which it is very similar to.