When I went to see Warrior, I was very skeptical at first. A movie about cage fighting seemed a bit played out, and adding in sibling rivalry wouldn’t help much, but once the movie started I saw that this was not the case.
Warrior is actually a pretty well layered movie about two brothers who got into cage fighting for their own personal reasons. Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy) is a former marine who walked around with a chip on his shoulder, and begrudgingly begins to train with his father Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte). It’s easy to see that these two have a less than perfect past relationship, but the movie doesn’t go too in depth about it. On the other hand, you have Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) who seems to have a slightly more normal life: married with two kids and works as a high school physics teacher, moonlighting as a cage fighter at a local strip club to help pay the mortgage. But once he is put on suspension from teaching and the bank threatens to foreclose on his house and he decides to take fighting more seriously.
The movie seems a bit reminiscent of Rocky and The Fighter (and if you watch the movie you’ll know what I mean) but it still managed to retain its individuality. The overall theme was cage fighting, with no real moral to the story, other than ‘if you have a sibling, fight them, but make sure they’re OK afterward.’
What I didn’t like about this movie was the lack of family background between the brothers and their father. We learn about the father’s drinking and abusive past, but they don’t really go deep enough for me. With Hardy’s character they never really explain why he’s fighting other than to help out a fallen soldier’s wife. I hope the DVD will offer deleted scenes so that we can get a better picture of his life.
I was impressed, however, by how well the movie showed the daily life of both main characters and stayed true to the sport of mixed martial arts. The fight scenes were not overly dramatic – aside from one ridiculous suplex – and the acting was actually pretty believable.
I will not go into too much detail about the movie, but I will say it’s a great way to pass some time with your friends or a date.