We are shown a stocky, shirtless man reclining on a folding chair in a children’s classroom. The blackboard is full of notes. There is a red and yellow plastic truck under the desk, and the walls are decorated with children’s drawings. Children who use the classroom during the day are just getting started in life. For Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a huge star in the ’80s and an old acquaintance in the ’00s, it’s almost the end.
As professional wrestling waned in popularity, Randy, now in his fifties, refused to adapt, displaying an all-too-common – and tragic – stubbornness in men. It is through this exploration that director Darren Aronofsky created one of his best films and his most powerful exploration of broken masculinity to date.
Captured by a brilliant Mickey Rourke, Randy’s lack of luck is now a distant memory. He lives in his van. His jacket is patched with electrician’s tape. Wear a hearing aid. Relies on pain relievers and steroids. In his youth he failed as a father and now his adult daughter wants nothing to do with him. In his spare time, he tells old war stories and shows his battle scars to Cassidy, an exotic dancer played by Marisa Tomei.
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Randy is a man who had his chance and then froze with time. While his biggest rival runs a chain of successful garages, Randy continues to tour the circuit, wrestle in schools and work for cheap men’s clubs. In the decline of his career, he feels that all he can do is continue. In the days of hair metal, Randy was king in skinny jeans and platinum hair, but now he works shifts in a warehouse: “Did they raise the price of leggings?”
He is a man who performs both in and out of the ring. Wrapped in Lycra, he pretends he still has the vitality of a 20-year-old, even when a 20-year-old sprays his eyes with insecticide or points at him with a nail gun. attacks from Randy can fight, but the bullets he needs to do so are slowly killing him.
Outside the ring, Randy pretends that he can find happiness, even as his own actions derail him at every turn. In his relationships with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and Cassidy, Randy has the chance to live a normal life, but most of the time his pride doesn’t allow it.
A heart attack puts things in perspective. Randy begins a journey of redemption and repair. But as things start to go to pieces, Randy can’t go back to his factory settings or adjust. He signs up for a 20th anniversary match with his most famous rival, and from that moment on, everything is scripted.
Despite its abrasive (and gory) subject matter, there’s a lot of beauty in it. warrior, Shot on 16mm, wintry New Jersey is suitably gloomy. And, for a film about the most fanfare sports, Aronofsky tells an incredibly vulnerable story. Wrestling scenes are forcefully interspersed among several intimate and human moments. For a director known for over-the-top films such as Maa! and drug addiction exacerbated reality Requiem for a Dream, warrior shows perhaps the most restrained direction to date whaleof this year.
That calmness extends to Rourke, who’s no stranger to taking a few hits; Between 1991 and 1994, he left Hollywood to pursue a career as a boxer. sin cityA few years back, released in 2005, was announced as her comeback to the big screen. warrior He was a different beast, with a poised, determined, rage-filled performance that earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. There’s more than a touch of Rocky Balboa to Randy, but Rourke leaves the cartoon for the best performance. To create something more realistic than Stallone though, Balboa never went to a tanning bed or dyed his roots. Marisa Tomei, equally terrific, counterbalances that with a vulnerable but commanding performance that earned her another well-deserved Oscar nomination.
This anger becomes Randy’s downfall. His daughter exclaims, “You wandering bastard!” Cassidy doesn’t want to be in a relationship, she has too much work at the deli. Unable to find other solutions, Randy falls into a trap and retaliates with a gut-wrenching act of self-mutilation at the supermarket. After that, he goes to the ring and has their now-restored 20-year-old reunion match, despite knowing that stepping into the ring again could result in his death.
It is the same toxic drive that drives men to commit large-scale violence in real life; The feeling that they have no place in society. “The world doesn’t give a shit about me,” he tells Cassidy, as if it’s a given. Disgusted by his attitude, she leaves him to his fate.
the end of warrior This can be interpreted as a person’s decision to die in their own way, even if it means the end. In another decade (for example, the ’80s), he might have been the manliest. Now, as Randy climbs the ropes to end the match with his signature move, “The Ram Jam,” all we can do is stare in horror.
