A Movie For Anybody with a Beating Heart

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2012)

If you only like to watch movies that have a dazzling twist at the end or where you really do not know what will happen next, then Warrior might not be for you. Warrior is Cliché in movie terms, but cliché in real life terms too which is not cliché but is. Make sense? Warrior is a movie where you know the direction it's heading in, but at the same time, it's a movie with some very real, disturbing and painful issues going on. The MMA fighting is what's going on on the surface, but beneath the surface, that's where the movie really lies, and that's what makes Warrior a truly great film and above most(if not all)films in this genre.
So if a moviegoer only likes movies that dazzle them with a Sixth Sense twist or where they don't know what is going to happen next in the film, then again, that moviegoer may or may not like Warrior and that would be a shame, and quite myopic in my opinion(Although you don't fully know what will happen in Warrior thanks to Tom Hardy's performance as Tommy).
Warrior is extremely well acted, it's extremely well edited, the director Gavin O'Connor knows how to time reaction shots exactly where they need to be, because a lot of rooting for the Main Character's is going to be through those precise, calculated reaction shots on the ones that are cheering in the film and because of those perfect reaction shots on the ones cheering in the film, there will be a lot of cheering for us, the ones watching the film. Also, The movie has a great score, every great movie needs a great score or at least one that flows organically well with the movie.
The story and some of the lines/dialogue are heartbreaking, and anybody who has ever gone through any rough spots in their life, will be affected in some way by this movie, and you may need a box of tissues because this movie runs through the very highs and the very low's of pretty much every emotion that a human being can feel, and you as the movie watcher will probably be going through all the emotions that this movie evokes out of you, so you may catch yourself getting tears in your eyes here and there, as I did.
There are no false moments in this movie, it is what it is, it's merciless and there is no easy way out for these characters. As in life, sometimes things have to come to a head whether we like it or not, sometimes they have to come to a head in order for there to be change, forgiveness, and rebirth which in turn usually makes it all for the better in our lives.
The real shame is this movie did not do well at the box office. It had a great trailer that made me want to see it, but unfortunately there are no box office Superstars in it(yet), which is what the masses usually seem to want. The irony is, on AFI's 100 best film list of all time, 42 out of the 100 movies were not box office successes in their time that they came out at, but only as time went by, did they become regarded as 'great films' and 'Historically and/or Cinematically Significant'. Citizen Kane was a box office dud at it's time, I forget, what number is Citizen Kane on AFI's List? ;)..
Unfortunately for Warrior, it was a box office dud, and it also hasn't had the campaigning that a lot of these other movies have, that aren't as good as Warrior, that are heavily campaigning for Media Buzz, Golden Globe, Oscar, Award buzz, etc. So again, Warrior got completely gypped out of any Golden Globe Nods, then it got one nomination for the SAG awards, so I can only imagine that it might get one Oscar Nom for Nolte in the best supporting actor category.
However, if there was any justice, and if the academy awards wanted to make it up to Warrior with the string of bad luck it's had, they would make it up to this movie for nominating it for the nominations it deserves. It deserves a best film editing nomination, a best supporting actor nomination(either Nolte or Hardy), and a best film nomination.
And if the Academy really wanted to do Warrior a full justice, it would give both Nolte and Hardy a nomination for best supporting actor and Gavin O'Connor a best director nomination and finally Jennifer Morrison a best supporting actress nomination as she is highly underrated in this film. To make amends with this film would be to give it 6 Academy Award Nominations.
I'm just saying. But with how things go with the campaigning, Warrior might be lucky to get 1 or 2 Oscar Noms, but I hope I'm wrong about that.