Warrior Review: A Literal Blood, Sweat And Tears Story

One of the best things about watching a movie like Warrior for the first time in a local movie theater is experiencing it with a live crowd. The light chuckles at small scripted jokes are expected but the cheering and rooting for the onscreen heroes played by Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy exceeded my typical movie expectations. Warrior, the story of a Pennsylvanian family whose strained relationships are amplified further in the world of mixed martial arts, had most of the movie goers in my theater believing they were watching an actual pay per view fight. I always say that I love when a film, any type of film, can suck you in and make you feel its reality and maybe forget where you are for a moment, which Warrior admittedly helped me do.

Nick Nolte plays Paddy Conlon, the recovering alcoholic father to Brendan (Edgerton) and Tommy (Hardy) and whose connection with his children were never even close to perfect and has basically been shunned by his sons.  The Conlon brothers themselves weren’t on speaking terms with each other as well following the death of their mother, so all in all you could say it was one big, unhappy family situation. When the boys decided independently to pursue big money to better their living situations by stepping into the fighting ring, that’s when things started to get tricky. With five million dollars at stake, the drive to win was high and the fight scenes, which were really well choreographed by the way, were literally giving me anxiety at some points, anticipating what was going to happen.

Let’s talk about the actors, though, because without a proper cast Warrior would have just been labeled another fight film. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know much about Joel Edgerton’s acting history, although from what I’ve found he sure has a lot under his belt. The Australian actor showed off what he could do with Warrior, playing the multiple roles of father, husband, son and fighter, all while keeping up that infamous east coast accent. Casting Nick Nolte as the broken down father trying to restore his fatherly duties was great because, honestly, we all know what Nolte is capable of and poor Paddy was so sad and wounded I couldn’t help but feel horrible for him now and again. Also, considering one of Nolte’s last movie roles was a talking gorilla from Zookeeper, it was good to see him back in a well written film where he belongs. While Edgerton’s character was ever so slightly more the focus of the story, Tom Hardy was not to be ignored. I’m so thrilled to see him showing up in more American movies now as the British film industry has been keeping him to themselves for far too long. Warrior was the perfect opportunity for those unfamiliar to get acquainted with the type of characters he’s so very good at playing. Everyone wants to associate Hardy with Inception but frankly he didn’t have a big enough role in that for my taste. If you like to go off the beaten movie path and you’re not easily weirded out, watch Tom Hardy in Bronson and you’ll see why I can go on and on about him.

I will not forget to mention Frank Grillo and Jennifer Morrison also because they both played excellent supporting roles and deserve the recognition, for sure. Warrior was a group effort that, again, could have been a train wreck of a film without superior actors (and a stellar script, can’t forget that!) A lot of raw emotion was shown amongst the bloodstained backdrop making the combat scenes that much more intense. Warrior has the capability to make even the manliest man in the theater feel even just a shred of compassion for the characters. At the end of the movie, hearing the crowd clap and actually listening to people around me as they stood up from their seats say that Warrior was one of the best movies they had seen in a long time was great to hear. It kind of restores your faith in an otherwise asinine industry currently being dominated by Smurfs and vampires, wouldn’t you say?

Images courtesy of Chuck Zlotnick and Lionsgate Films.