There's a moment at the end of Gavin O'Connor's MMA drama Warrior in which two men who have been relentlessly beaten and pummeled in the octagon stand dripping with exhaustion, rivers of sweat mingling with the tears running down their faces. It doesn't matter that you can't tell the sweat from the tears; that's partly the point of Warrior anyway, which makes you feel every emotional wound just as acutely, if not more so, than the bruising, rib-crunching body blows. Yes, this is a mixed martial arts movie (distributed by genre specialists Lionsgate, no less). But it's also one of the most heart-wrenching and deeply felt films of the year.
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It's a curious version of the real pro wrestler Kurt Angle that you get from the ring persona he's projected over the years as a star of the WWE (née WWF) and now TNA Wrestling, where he's currently the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. The real-life former Olympic wrestler has played off his 1996 gold medal win as wrestling's bona fide "American Hero" since his 1998 WWF debut, juggling multiple wrestling companies and countless ring titles while a version of his own personal life, warped through the wrestling world's faux-realist backstage lens, is broadcast every week to millions of fans. But what Angle really wants to do -- what he wanted to do even before pro wrestling came calling -- is act. Seriously act.
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Warrior is serious. The Oscar-craving movie about mixed martial arts starring Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Joel Edgerton and a whole bunch of other fearsome types -- like real-life fighter Erik Apple and wrestling vet Kurt Angle -- is a full-throttle ride around the ropes. In this new clip, Hardy unseats a champ in just a few quick moves. Harsh as hell, and so good.
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In Gavin O'Connor's Sept. 9 MMA drama Warrior, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are estranged brothers who find themselves on competing paths towards the same mixed martial arts championship, both fighting desperately for something different. Find out more about what motivates one brother to risk it all in two new stills from Warrior, debuting exclusively on Movieline.
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