Warrior (2011 film): The Brutality of Reconcoliation

So, this is about the 2011 film "Warrior" with Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Nick Nolte. I thought this film was amazing and had this idea from the first and, so, have wanted to post it for a while, but I also thought it particularly appropriate to have a positive review of a drama film after giving such a heavy critique of modern drama in my post on Tolkien versus Shakespeare.

I am going to assume that the reader has seen the film because there would be too much to describe even if I were not trying to keep it short because I know I can tend to over-write.

(But before I continue, I just want to mention that maybe my single favorite moment in the whole film was Brandon's [Edgerton's] wife's full-body cheering alone in the living room when she gives in a bit and watches his second fight on TV ... that was completely endearing ... the scene is what, maybe thirty second total if that, but they managed to convey so much with it, building on the interaction between them leading up to it ... amazingly well done and so simple yet so engaging on the emotional level.)

A first, not so much mis-interpretation, but incomplete interpretation would be to liken the film too much to Rocky. Rocky IV is probably the one that would most elicit the comparison because of fights with Russians in both films. But I would argue that the fight with the Russian in "Warrior" is analogous only to foreign policy (since we're coming off such a shit-storm election cycle as I am writing this, in December of 2016). There are many reasons to take care of foreign policy, but the main one is so that you have the space and peace from without in order to take care of domestic policy, and in this film, that is the finale fight between the brothers. The fight with the Russian is only the lead-up.

So, the fight between the brothers ... is absolutely brutal. And the question is "why?" The answer is that Brandon has to see certain things about Tommy if they are really going to reconcile: he has to see exactly how desperate he is ... beat to shit, dragging a broken shoulder (or at least dislocated), and no way he could ever hope to win this fight, but he keeps coming. Why?

He keeps coming because this is the only thing he can conceive of that can redeem any meaning in his life. It's not the fight purse for himself. It's the purse to be able to give to his fallen Marine buddy's struggling wife and child. Even though he is the hero of the camcorder tape, he is a deserter. He sees no hope in resolution with his father or brother ... the past that you see revealed left too many scars (the alcoholic abuse from the father, the painful death of the mother with only him to take care of her after she leaves the father). Providing for his fallen buddy's wife and child is the only thing that he can see providing any redemption. The military awaits to take him into custody ... this tournament and winning it for the purse to give the widow and her son is the only opportunity. And so he keeps coming. He can't not. That's how desperate he is.

Brandon is desperate too. The house that he is about to lose in foreclosure is symbolic for him not primarily of earthly goods, but of a place to provide stability for his wife and children, a stability he did not have growing up with an alcoholic father. For him, the fight is also do or die. But he needs to see exactly how desperate Tommy is. He needs to see that he is desperate in a way that mere greed for a fight purse for one's own being rich or even having fame could inspire.

The past has been brutal, and that means that the reconciliation can be no less brutal, which is why the MMA setting works so well for the film's themes. The reconciliation can be more loving, but at least it's first step cannot be less brutal if they are to see exactly what they are up against in trying to reconcile. The first "I love you" has to come in a submission hold.

On the level of the artistry of imagery, my brother had an awesome observation that I totally missed. Brandon is the more technical fighter: he usually goes for the submission hold and usually gets it (hence Tommy's broken/dislocated shoulder). Tommy is the brawler ... he walks in, no walk-in music, knocks the guy out with one punch, and leaves without ceremony. But in the scene in the hotel room with Nick Nolte (Paddy, the father) being totally wasted in the morning after falling off the wagon following the bad interchange with Tommy at the slot machines the night before, also desperately stumbling around the room, ranting the despair of Ahab because he can't seem to make any headway in reconciling with his sons, we see something different. When Tommy cradles Paddy on the bed to settle him down and comfort him, the physical phrasing is that of a submission hold. He obviously doesn't close the legs around him, but the folding of the hands on the chest and the wrapping of his own arms around them is the physical phrasing of a submission hold. Reconciling with the father is also going to be brutal on the emotional level, and maybe Tommy has to see exactly how desperate Paddy is too.