The true story of mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr, whose obsession with greatness drove him to be a legend, and he ehlped create what the sport became. He is also largely unknown, and this is an attempt to rectify that.
Let me start off by saying two things--I am not a fan of MMA and I did not like this movie. The two might be related, so I am putting that on the table up front.
That said, this is kind of the antithesis of a sports legend movie. It is gritty and it doesn't step away from the hard stuff. A couple of reviews that I read pointed out things that make it different. Whereas most films about sports icons reach for immersion, this film takes an observational approach. Notice that almost every fight scene in this film is shot from outside the ring, the ropes often breaking the image into chunks, or from above, giving us the POV of a camera instead of putting us into the action. The music is either pop/rock tunes or a non-stop jazzy score, both serving to remind you consistently that you’re watching a movie.
Dwayne Johnson plays Kerr with some heavy make-up—which both hides The Rock nd draws attention to its setting in the years 1997 to 2000. Fans of the currently robust sport will marvel at the lack of structure and profile it had in its early days, known more for its brutality than its athleticism. The UFC wasn’t popular, and there is what happened, which is that Kerr's coach became a figher again in order to pay the bills and they came close to fighting each other. The film also highlights the steroids, the recreational drugs, the risk of opiate addiction in a sport that invovles a lot of pain, and the chaos both in and out of the ring.
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