The Nick Nolte relapse scene in Warrior

I definitely think his entire performance is one of the most underrated performances of the last decade or so

I LITERALLY saw this movie last night. Very terrific movie. Heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.

Now it's hard to say greatest performance of all time, or even greatest scene of all time, but that was one of the better ones I've seen in a long time. Made me feel really bad for the guy watching him go off the deep end like that.

I honestly thought the scene right before that where Tom Hardy went off on him was just as good, if not better. Those two scenes were just so powerful and good to me.

Friend,

I rewatched this film two nights ago and thought the exact same thing.

His son holding him after not so much as looking him in the eye until that moment is one of the most beautiful moments on film. It is reminiscent of the Prodigal Son, but I guess you could call this the Prodigal Father.








I wrote the following review of the film in 2011 found in TulaneLSU's 2011-2012 movie reviews thread:

Warrior

Last month, and not by my choosing, I had a meal at Stella! in the French Quarter. It was a meal of highs and lows. One course would soar. The next would flat-line. I couldn't help but to think of this meal as I watched Warrior. Warrior is a movie of flashes of brilliance, but meanders through confused, sentimental story telling.

The director's main fault is trying to make a movie about the brokenness of a family of emotionally constipated individuals into a movie about ring fighting. Ring fighting may have been the vehicle through which the family is remedied, but in a movie as short as Warrior, there wasn't room enough for the two masters to be served with due time. So while one could argue that both parts of the movie were necessary, I don't think any reasonable person would deny that the story suffered from the fight scenes, which are long, riveting, and well-made. The fight scenes will please a certain subset looking only for entertainment from movies, but those who want a broader experience will find those scenes cumbersome.

What I would have liked to have seen more of was Nick Nolte's and Tom Hardy's characters. There were great moments of chemistry between the two of them, the type that wins critical awards, but the director would shift too quickly from the depth of their shared anger, tergiversation, regret, and love. The metaphor used throughout the story is that of Ahab, the inveterate symbol of obsession and hate conquering a life. Warrior would have been laudable had it stuck to this theme, but what we are left with are two commendable, if short, scenes where Ahab is constructed and repudiated. Nolte especially is fantastic in these scenes. The rest of the two hours is not much more than sappy, cheesy Hollywood underdog fluff. Those whose emotions are easily twisted by those saccharine, homogenous pre-game inspirational stories that are so common in sports today will probably enjoy the movie, but serious movie-goers will walk away yearning for more realism and character. Less starch and more Japanese Mero Sea Bass, please. 5/10


2020 TulaneLSU enjoyed the rewatch much more than the first movie, perhaps for personal reasons. I was quite moved by the scene you are discussing. It should be a scene discussed more often.

Truly,
TulaneLSU