a festival of clichés ...

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2012)

I haven't written any review till now (and probably I won't do it from now on) but this movie intrigued me enough to make me write this.
First of all, a definition:
cliché: a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.
Second, my claim: this movie is a festival of clichés. I will argue in support of this claim:
1) the broken family cliché: common man! I saw this one over and over again!
2) the beautiful family cliché: nice smart husband (he's a teacher), good looking wife, two cute kids
3) the evil system cliché: a) banks are bad guys, b) the scene where Tommy and his friend signaled their presence but the American army did nothing to save them - soldiers are good, armies are bad, c) Brendan is suspended till the end of the semester.
4) the good cause cliché: fighters are not just violent and vain ... they need to fight for something bigger than them. Brendan for his family, Tommy for his friend's widow. this is so much as those TV shows where lots of social cases are presented to the public and they sing, dance or whatever ... and they all represent a good cause and everybody cries and so on.
5) the bad guy cliché: this was actually the trigger for my review. After more than 20 years since the ending of the Cold War, the director thought that the bad guy must be a Russian (with no Russian traits whatsoever). This is not all! :)) Koba has a red communist T-short! common man! this is hilarious! and the Russian patriotic song!? :)) (lukilly it wasn't Katiusha) the second bad guy is the gym guy. (he beats a spare partner)
6) the spiritual training cliché: this is a variation of the fast-food yoga cliché (many martial arts movies present this cliché) yeah Beethoven is nice but really ... conlons are fighters not dalai lamas!
7) the lucky coincidence cliché: Marco Santos broke his leg and Brendan is there to replace him. I saw this move so many times ...
8) the slow hard working turtle cliché: your lack of skills is not important! you only need to work hard and have a moral purpose. You will beat anybody! :)) this is related here with the underdog cliché and to the age in sport is like age in wines-the older, the better. I mean if Stalone/Rocky did it and they were like 60 years old ... Brendan could do it too!
9) the gangsta education cliché: this has two parts: first, American high-school students are usually pictured (in American movies) like not that smart (but cool) punks. Second, the teacher is also cool but smart enough to teach a gangsta version of physics (Newton in this case). I don't know much about US education system .. but physics implies math and in senior classes you can't teach stuff that easy! anyway this is a cliché because I saw it in lots of American movies.
10) the resenting wife cliché: this is about every wife in any boxing/martial arts movie .. first she is frightened then she become a supporter ...
11) the danger of death cliché: these movies grossly exaggerate the danger of practicing a sport. I mean OK is not chess, they usually get hurt but really, it is a sport, there are rules and actually driving is statistically more dangerous than practicing MMA.
12) the brothers cliché: way too many brothers in boxing/martial arts movies. you can't be a boxer if you are the only child!:)) the final scene is ... (I won't describe it here) sooooo much like Latin American soap operas. I MEAN .. REALLY!
so from these 12 points ... yes, I think that the movie is a festival of clichés and that's not a coincidence. (can't prove this but I have a feeling). If you want to sell something ... there are at least two ways: you can sale the future in the present (mainly Apple's strategy) or you can sell emotional clichés. This movie (I think) is on the second class. It sells emotions that ordinary people usually experience. everything is simple and focused on the viewer's emotion not on his/her reason. we are all brothers, sons, we all have wifes, kids, we all have problems with the system ... the only difference is that in movies we can actually win:)) and that's why we buy this movie. We win here.
in itself, the movie is not as pathetic as I described it (Nolte actually did a decent job and the Moby Dick stuff might be a nice idea). The pathetic part is the huge amount of stars it received. the only thing that's missing from this picture is an Oscar for Tom Hardy or for his more pathetic brother-character, Brendan/Joel!