Warrior (2011)

Happy 10th Anniversary to what might be the greatest Rocky movie ever but….not actually featuring Rocky nor even in that universe.  

This film centers on the Conlon's, two estranged brothers played by Hardy and Edgerton, who are both competing to be the best in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) – yes this is a sports drama but it’s so much more!

It stars Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, and Nick Nolte who was nominated for an Oscar for his excellent raw performance.  It’s also directed by Gavin O’Connor who also gave us the terrific Miracle in 2004.

Host: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

WARRIOR - 2011

Directed by Gavin O’Connor (Audio clip)

Starring Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, and Frank Grillo

Genre: Sports Drama

Is it just hyperbole calling this THE greatest Rocky movie ever....not actually featuring Rocky nor even within that universe?? 🤔 This film has pretty much all of the necessary elements: the aging fighter in his '30's who's bruised and battered, a gruff and barely unintelligible father figure/trainer, blue-collar setting in Pennsylvania, training montages in those settings, and of course an unexpected chance at glory which comes through a crazy set of circumstances mainly resulting from being in the right place at the right time. Warrior does the Rocky formula even better though by being a story about TWO such fighters - two brothers actually...Tommy and Brendan Conlon, played by Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton respectively. 

There is literally nothing said or done by either of these guys within the 140 minute running time of this MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) epic directed by Gavin O'Connor that hasn't been said or done before in DOZENS of sports underdog stories before and yet...their heartfelt performances and the brilliant way the collision of their stories are written and structured by O'Connor (and co-writer Anthony Tambakis) results in something genuinely rousing and touching. 

Nick Nolte plays their father Paddy Conlon who is a recovering alcoholic recruited by Tommy to train him for an upcoming open MMA tournament. Paddy is pretty much the Mickey of this story except that he's really not - he's barely hanging on when Tommy finds him, desperately clinging to sobriety through religion. He was a horrible father to both brothers as he abused them and their mother - this leads to Tommy eventually running away with the mother...just as she was becoming fatally ill no less. BOTH brothers were supposed to go off with her but Brendan stayed back because he fell in love....with a woman he would eventually marry and have two children with. After their mother died (unbeknownst to Brendan), Tommy joined the Marines and served in the Iraq War, did some very heroic things before going AWOL while...Brendan became a school teacher who also moonlights as an amateur MMA fighter to help pay the bills since his home is about to be foreclosed. Neither brother has communicated with the other for many years and of course, Brendan ALSO finds out about this upcoming tournament called Sparta...and the plot just thickens from there...

Whew that's a lot of setup, isn't it?? Anyone would be forgiven for finding all of this melodramatic on paper at the very least - it's to the credit of efficient, straightforward storytelling from O'Connor that we pretty much learn all of this within the first 45 minutes. It's all presented organically through dialogue which never drifts too much into exposition and it feels authentic thanks to the cast. These are all interesting characters with their own unique traits....including Frank Grillo who eventually joins the story as Brendan's trainer and Jennifer Morrison who plays his supportive-yet-no-bullshit wife Tess. Everyone is allowed to just be living through their own personal story...which makes it all the more compelling when those stories intersect.

Tom Hardy is definitely going for SOMETHING here along the lines of old school Marlon Brando here apparently approximating an Eastern Pennsylvania accent...he doesn't say a lot though and that's why his performance works so well. His Tommy is clearly someone who's seen some shit, has a HUGE chip on his shoulder, and is on a single-minded mission to win that prize purse...for someone. Hardy has always just been one of those gifted physical actors who can say a lot with very little - it's why he's always thrived in roles like Bane or Mad Max even when we can't see his face for much of the runtime. It's also why we're drawn to him and want to see where his story goes.

Edgerton is just pitch-perfect as the everyman Brendan who dotes on his two young daughters - we're first introduced to him at one of their birthday parties as he's dressed as a princess while they're painting his face, it's positively adorable. :) He's endearing and relatable - Edgerton plays this palooka with such an aw-shucks quality, we can't help but root for him.

And Nolte...wow, he plays the desperate, gravelly-voiced sad-sack as well as anyone at this point - he has several scenes with just Hardy which are both awkward and kinda heartbreaking. His son hasn't forgiven him for anything and he makes that clear - it's completely understandable why Tommy would act so hostile to him but that doesn't make it any easier to watch as we see all of the pain and regret in Nolte's weather face. Nolte was justifiably nominated for an Oscar for this. 

But of course, the MAIN draw for the second half has to be the fighting - which I admit to knowing nothing about - and the training. Once we're inside that octagon, All of it looks exciting and dangerous and punishing. The geography of every fight is clearly laid out as is the strategy...at least for a layman like myself. :) The whole emphasis towards NOT "tapping out" becomes increasingly clear as we delve further into this tournament....which pretty much comprises the last hour of this film and that's plenty enough to go on! It just becomes a game of survival if nothing else - what could be more cinematic than that? 🤔

It's all shot with craft and minimal flash by DP Masanobu Takayagi whose clean but no-frills style has become increasingly familiar to me with several other recent gems he has done effective cinematography for including Spotlight, The Grey, Black Mass, and even the recent Stillwater which I have been hearing good things about. One thing each of these films apparently has in common is a feeling of AUTHENTICITY....everything is ground level and that authentic feel certainly helps to ground the story.

And once that Sparta tournament in Atlantic City kicks in, the film just builds and builds towards that final fight - no need to explicitly spoil what happens though unfortunately many of the trailers and posters did. :( Let's just say that it takes on levels of emotion that you don't completely see coming...rewatching this again, I still find myself completely torn as to where I would have liked to see it go. It doesn't matter though because the last ten minutes of this film - helped in no small part by a VERY stirring needle-drop by rock band The National - takes on a power which is undeniable, it remains one of THE great endings. If you let this film take you, it becomes quite the ride!

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout the runtime of the film): 

I had never heard of the Ohio-based rock band The National before seeing this movie but apparently, I should have because they produced QUITE a stirring anthem for the conclusion of this film that pretty much knocks me on my ass every time I see it and hear it. – I wouldn’t dream of spoiling how this film ends but needless to say it’s QUITE emotional! And even though much of the credit for how well this ending works is actually due to the raw performances of both of our main stars – along with just the right notes from their co-stars as well including Morrison and Nolte with just a few key glances on both of their faces.  No, but what REALLY nails this scene is the slow-building percussion of this song from drummer Bryan Devendorf, the strumming acoustic guitars from Aaron Dessner, and the calm baritone of lead singer Matt Berninger as we see this final fight finally end and then….the song just builds and builds and builds it’s the only thing we really hear for the rest of the movie, no more dialogue and the song just takes over as it becomes this cathartic wall of sound that takes us right to a final image of both brothers and then…roll credits.  The song….is called…“About Today.” (Audio clip 04:40…)   

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

Sigh….I remember seeing this on opening weekend in a mostly empty theater with a friend and wondering at the end, “Why the hell aren’t there more people in this theater??” Seriously when you think of the expression, “crowd-pleaser” THIS is that movie!  Yeah sadly this film really underperformed at the box office despite a lot of critical acclaim at the time of release – it ended up making $23 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, just sad.  It DID have some unusually strong competition for a film coming out in early September to be fair….one of those films happened to be the star-studded virus thriller Contagion from Steven Soderbergh which is not only a great movie itself but ended up being WAY too prescient about recent events.  Yeah, I love that film but after the past 18 months, I just really don’t have the stomach to revisit it anytime soon.  And the next weekend came the 3D re-release of the original animated The Lion King which destroyed the competition….oh well.  Warrior has developed somewhat of a cult following over the past ten years through streaming and cable but still, this is a film MADE for the big screen and the real waste here is that more folks haven’t seen it that way.

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie): 

Needless to say, both brothers end up in the Sparta tournament in Atlantic City, and probably about 60% of the way through, we finally see them meet for the first time in years and talk – it’s all pretty dramatic as they walk over to each other in the middle of the night on a dark beach….as written, this scene is ALL cliché and I have to admit that I chuckled JUST a bit hearing some of the things coming out of Hardy/Tommy’s mouth.  It’s creeps EVER so closely into melodrama but…both actors still really sell it and what really makes this scene work is just how brief it is because O’Connor the director is smart enough to end it at just the right spot.  Seeing these two brothers finally encounter each other and airing their grievances, pretty much sets the rest of the story in motion and that’s your trailer moment!   (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film): 

The MVP has to be Gavin O’Connor who in my opinion has directed one of the best sports dramas of the 21st century – like I said above, this is pretty much a Rocky movie without Rocky, and part of what makes it work SO well is to have basically TWO underdog stories diverge into one in a very seamless way that leaves you satisfied with the journeys that both underdogs have undergone.  To achieve that, you need acting, writing, cinematography, canny editing, etc…..and you need a strong director to pull it all together and what he has done is craft a compelling drama that also respects the sport that it’s portraying, no small feat.  O’Connor had actually done this several years prior as well, directing 2004’s Miracle which was an account of the inspiring true-life rise of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team which features what is in my opinion the greatest career performance of Kurt Russell.  Russell’s performance as Coach Herb Brooks in that film was an extremely tricky one which like the performances of the two main leads in Warrior seemed to be a balancing act between subverting cliches while also occasionally relishing in them.  In all three cases, we watch as these characters hit the inspiring notes we have come to expect from an underdog sports drama but when it happens, it STILL feels earned and unexpected.  Just like that beach scene between Tommy and Brendan in Warrior….O’Connor helped make those moments feel fresh, he’s clearly an actor’s director and that’s how he was able to direct a film which I find very compelling despite portraying a sport I could care less about.  

2011 was a mixed year for movies overall – just that summer, we, unfortunately, saw the trend kick in of having a glut of comic book adaptations which have come to dominate the marketplace since then.  But there were some real gems for sure including 50/50, Contagion, Shame, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo….in my opinion, Warrior just tops all of them.  Happy tenth anniversary to a modern classic!!!

Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Streaming on Peacock TV