Warrior

Saw Warrior, a boxing film that swapped out MMA for boxing, but of course it makes very little difference what the precise mode of combat is. The central story is about two brothers, both sons of an abusive alcoholic father who is now in AA and trying to make amends. The two brothers are fighting in the biggest MMA tourney in the woooooorld. They are both not on speaking terms with each other, and are both on barely-speaking terms with their father, who is one of the brothers' coach. They both have backgrounds that they're fighting for, one to keep his house from being foreclosed upon, and the other for reasons which are explained but are sort of mysterious. Leave it to say they're very noble. And then, on the night of the great fight, as everyone watches, one of the brothers is hit by a mac truck and dies. Nah, just joking, they totally beat the cathartic shit out of each other.

This is a very masculine movie. Being a not particularly masculine dude, I found it silly and kind of insulting. The one brother is almost constantly glowering and silent. This is supposed to come off as strong and brooding, but there are other adjectives one could use, such as petulant or sulky. The other brother is more open and is kind of more of the hero of the film, but he doesn't exactly treat his wife very well (as long as I'm picking nits.) The few speaking female characters are fairly one-dimensional. The wife who is not treated well begs her husband not to gamble his health for money. I completely sympathize with this argument because it could be very expensive if he's paralyzed from the neck down or something but her husband wrinkles his brow and I guess this dismisses this complaint. The brothers and father are uber-butch Men who can only connect by means of pain and self-destruction. The film kind of knows this (the father listens constantly to Moby Dick, in a sort of hat-tip) but if you're not paying close attention, you could easily miss these notes of sanity in a sea of awesome scissor locks and smackdowns.

All of that said, this is a very moving film. It's filled with nationalism, chest-pounding, apple-cheeked children, blond skinny wives, and weeping violins scattered liberally across the whole soundtrack. I felt fairly hostile toward it for the duration of the film, and even I was moved by it. The film is like eating a greasy burger. It's not refined, it's probably bad for you, but it activates the sensors in your lizard brain and feels great. If you ever do want to hate-watch it though, then I recommend you imagine that the father raped his sons and that that's why they hate him.