Tim Allen tops Mamet's 'Redbelt'

[GeneChing]

Forget Cung Le's new MMA movie (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46308). Tim Allen!


Tim Allen tops Mamet's 'Redbelt' (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117964894.html?categoryid=13&cs=1)
Ejiofor co-stars in Sony's martial arts drama
By MICHAEL FLEMING

Tim Allen will star in "Redbelt," the mixed martial arts drama David Mamet wrote and will direct for Sony Pictures Classics. Production starts next month in L.A.

Chiwetel Ejiofor co-stars.

Emily Mortimer, Alice Braga, Joe Mantegna, Rodrigo Santoro, Ricky Jay, David Paymer, Rebecca Pidgeon and Jose Pablo Cantillo will star, along with martial artists and fighters Randy Couture, John Machado, Danny Inosanto, Enson Inoue and Ray Mancini.

Ejiofor, who was the first actor Mamet set (Daily Variety, April 13), stars as a Jiu-jitsu master whose purity is compromised when he is drawn into the movie business and manipulated into brawling in ultimate fighting matches.

Allen plays a troubled action star with marital problems who meets the master when he is getting pummeled in a street fight.

Ejiofor has been training in London with members of the Gracie family, the renowned Brazilian fighting clan.

For Allen, the film marks a break from his usual comic and family fare. Allen last starred in "Wild Hogs" and is negotiating to reprise his role in a sequel, and was at the center of a Disney pitch deal for "Yosemite Three."

"Redbelt" is being fully financed and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics; Chrisann Verges is producing.

[SifuAbel]

As if it couldn't get any worse. :rolleyes:

[Nick Forrer]

David Mamet has written a film about mma it seems

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117964894.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

[BlueTravesty]

Actually, the idea of Tim Allen in a non-hokey-family fun for all ages! Movie somewhat intrigues me... who knows how it will turn out?

[5Animals1Path]

Didn't he already do this movie with Belushi?

[sanjuro_ronin]

Hollywood does love to make it clear that they view MA as nothing but a joke.

[cjurakpt]

David Mamet has written a film about mma it seems

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117964894.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

ok, let me get this straight: Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow, the Verdict...Redbelt?!?!

I am dismayed...

[SifuAbel]

Money makes slaves of us all.

[GeneChing]

If money makes slaves of us all,
and MMA makes money,
then MMA.... :rolleyes:

I'm wondering if Allen's MMA movie character will be the next Rex Kwon Do.

[cjurakpt]

I can imagine the dialogue:

Allen: I need the moves. I need them now. Or I'm gone, and you're going to miss me, I swear to you.
Mantegna: Look...
Allen: ...you talk to them...
Mantegna: I have. And my job is to teach you the moves...
Allen: Teach the moves...teach the moves? What the fu(k, what bus did you get off of, we're here to fu(king fight. Fu(k teaching the moves. What the fu(k talk is that? What the fu(k talk is that? Where did you learn that? In a McDojo?


and so it goes...

[banditshaw]

Hollywood has now jumped on the bandwagon............again.


http://imdb.com/title/tt1012804/



Maybe Knifefighter will be an extra.:p





(mods, I realize now this should be in the media section. My bad.)

[Mega-Foot]

So, does anyone know what tim Allen's MMA record is?

[SifuAbel]

If money makes slaves of us all,
and MMA makes money,
then MMA.... :rolleyes:


Prostitution makes money

so we must be slaves of........ :rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

I'll probably move this down to the media forum soon. There's a few MMA movies coming out that we've been following down there.


Chiwetel Ejiofor Does Martial Arts In 'Redbelt' (http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/02/26/chiwetel-ejiofor-does-martial-arts-in-redbelt/)
Posted Feb 26th 2008 12:35AM by Wilson Morales

Having just won an Independent Spirit Award for his supporting role in 'Talk To Me', Chiwetel Ejiofor's next film will have him in a leading role as he stars in David Mamet's Redbelt.

Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the chief instructor at the Southside Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Although a talented fighter, he refuses to compete in professional bouts: "Competition weakens the fighter." Instead he trains dedicated students in the art of self-defense: bodyguards, cops, soliders. At his brother-in-law's club one evening, Mike saves a famous action star, Chet Frank, (Tim Allen) from a severe beating. His defense of Frank leads to a job in the film industry, but other events conspire to force Mike to participate in a prize fight. An American samurai film set in the world of mixed martial arts, David Mamet's "Redbelt" is a story about the limits of a single man's integrity.

Opening up on April 25, the film also features Alice Braga, Tim Allen, Emily Mortimer, Rodrigo Santoro, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Randy Couture.

[Ben Gash]

Not looking good
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/redbelt/trailer/

[SifuAbel]

Its looking iffy. At least its not another "invincible hero" MA film.

I think they gave away too much in the trailer. You basically saw the cliff notes version of the whole film.

[MasterKiller]

The 'tieing the hand behind the back" gimmick is stupid.

This movie is bad for the sport.

[RAYNYSC]

Hey Guy's,

Anyone hear about this new MMA movie thats comming out call Redbelt?....

[jethro]

I think it's a David Mamet with BJJ. How weird does that sound?

[doug maverick]

Starring tim allen how weird is that

[MasterKiller]

STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID

But looks like the Godfather compared to "Never Back Down."

[GeneChing]

There's going to be two MMA/media crossover threads this year - this one for Red Belt and Never Back Down.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Kung fu panda is high brow thespianisim compared to these movies.

[GeneChing]

...it's not like martial arts cinema is that high brow to begin with. It can be high brow. I've spoken to two people who have seen it and endorsed it already. Both were surprised at their reactions. They wanted to hate it. I'm reserving my opinion until I see it (or at least hear a few more reviews). I think every martial arts film that's given a theatrical release is interesting, often more for the social commentary on how our community is perceived.

[sanjuro_ronin]

...it's not like martial arts cinema is that high brow to begin with. It can be high brow. I've spoken to two people who have seen it and endorsed it already. Both were surprised at their reactions. They wanted to hate it. I'm reserving my opinion until I see it (or at least hear a few more reviews). I think every martial arts film that's given a theatrical release is interesting, often more for the social commentary on how our community is perceived.

The issue I have is how the pretend to be about more than just the fights, at least with Animation you know its in good fun, and with straight off action you know its in good fun, movies that try to add a moral element to these things always come off pretencious.
This may not be the case, I mean, from the trailers it looks to be a "moral high road" movie, I just have my doubts.

Jaded and such.

[GeneChing]

Martial arts should teach morality first and foremost. Of course, most of the moral plays are like vengeance-over-organized-crime or don't-take-a-bribe-to-take-a-dive, which are only marginally applicable in the real day-to-day world.

I mean, if you just want to watch fights, watch MMA. A movie should entertain. A martial arts movie should teach some morals.

I have my doubts too. I hate Tim Allen. He just bugs me.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Martial arts should teach morality first and foremost. Of course, most of the moral plays are like vengeance-over-organized-crime or don't-take-a-bribe-to-take-a-dive, which are only marginally applicable in the real day-to-day world.




Exactly, like Lone wolf and Cub.
:D

[GeneChing]

Hallelujah! Now you're quoting from the gospel, bro. Lone wolf and cub was a great morality play. Baby cart from HELL! You know your going to get some morals with a title like that. Why can't Tim Allen star in that? ;)

[sanjuro_ronin]

Hallelujah! Now you're quoting from the gospel, bro. Lone wolf and cub was a great morality play. Baby cart from HELL! You know your oging to get some morals with a title like that. Why can't Tim Allen star in that? ;)

Any movie that would have Tim Allen getting decapitated, I would pay to see !

[GeneChing]

We have threads going on Foot Fist Way (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50402), Never Back Down (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47451) (including a review (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=750)) and Flashpoint (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46000) (nothing on Drillbit so far - I turned down a review offer on that one). I figured it was best placed here because it addresses MMA in film in general, which is why I've kept this thread here instead of on the media forum, at least for now.


Hollywood catches up to mixed martial arts trend (http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/movies/story/538092.html)
By GLENN WHIPP
Los Angeles Daily News

When Danny McBride appeared on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” a couple of weeks ago as clueless tae kwan do instructor Fred Simmons, he managed the neat trick of enraging martial arts buffs and Will Ferrell fans who didn’t quite get that his whole amateur-hour, board-crunching routine was an elaborate joke.

“The next day, there were 10 pages of hate mail on our MySpace page,” says Jody Hill, the writer and director of the upcoming McBride comedy “The Foot Fist Way.” “He was so natural. People really bought that Fred Simmons was this arrogant idiot.”

These days it seems everybody wants to be kung-fu fighting. Even CBS is getting into the act, partnering with ProElite for a Saturday night prime-time lineup on mixed martial arts bouts coming later this spring.

The film fight card started last weekend with “Never Back Down,” a “Karate Kid” for the YouTube generation. On Friday Owen Wilson plays a low-rent, foot-kicking bodyguard in “Drillbit Taylor.” For those looking for authentic Hong Kong mixed martial arts action, there’s the import “Flash Point.”

“Mixed martial arts is growing so fast because ... hey ... we all loved ‘Karate Kid,’ but karate is boring,” says “Never Back Down” star Sean Faris. “Now all the fighting techniques have been combined and anything can happen. It’s instant gratification. And that’s our world today.”

Mixed martial arts is the biggest growth spectator sport in America today. It’s full-contact fighting, using both striking techniques (kicks, punches, knees) and grappling moves (sweeps, take-downs, submission holds).

“People have always loved classic martial arts, such as boxing,” says Renato Magno, the head instructor at Street Sports Brazilian Jiu-jitsu academy in Santa Monica, Calif. “But mixed martial art reflects the kinds of fighting the public can relate to. It’s dynamic and exciting.”

Magno has been teaching David Mamet jiu-jitsu for seven years. “Redbelt” is Mamet’s valentine to the sport, a discipline that he says offers “a vision of the possibility of correct, moral behavior in all circumstances.”

In the film, Mike Terry, a jiu-jitsu teacher played by Chewitel Ejiofor, declines to compete on the fight circuit, believing “competition weakens the fighter.” “Redbelt” features several prominent mixed martial arts figures, including jiu-jitsu masters John Machado and Magno and UFC champion Randy Couture. Magno choreographed the fights and trained the actors.

“What I’m trying to do throughout the movie is show, fight by fight, the different ways in which today in Hollywood these actual guys use jiu-jitsu,” Mamet says. “The cops use it, the bouncers use it, the special forces use it. So there are different fights about how it would be applied in each of these situations.”

Even with all the attention to detail that Mamet and the makers of “Never Back Down” used to scrupulously make their films’ fights feel real, it might be the comic “Foot Fist Way” that gets to the reality of the modern-day fight club with a greater truth.

“I wanted to show the martial arts world that you never see in movies,” says Hill, a third-degree black belt who opened his own tae kwon doe club when he was a teenager in North Carolina.

“Usually, what you get in movies is this peaceful, ‘take the pebble from my hand’ kind of instructors or wacky Jackie Chan types,” Hill says. “But, from my experience, a lot of these guys aren’t peaceful, Zen creatures but rednecks getting in brawls at bars and going through divorces.”

Hill takes the fighting seriously but still sees the humor in it.

“I think mixed martial arts is good for everybody,” Hill says. “But the imperfections can be pretty funny.”

[cjurakpt]

what I'd really like to see is a movie about a conflicted martial artist torn between the need to compete and be at his son's side after the boy has a serious accident; and with a sub-plot about how another fighter has to fight the guy who he watched kill his older brother in a bout years ago; and you could have them as part of a team of other oddball fighters (like a cowboy, a Buddhist and a greaser-type); boy, that would be, like, the best; I mean, the best of the best...
:rolleyes:

[cjurakpt]

LOL...

http://tv.popcrunch.com/fred-simmons-king-of-the-demo-on-february-26-conan-obrien-video/

[sanjuro_ronin]

LOL...

http://tv.popcrunch.com/fred-simmons-king-of-the-demo-on-february-26-conan-obrien-video/

I like the link to the top 50 most beautiful athletes :)

[GeneChing]

If you want to talk Foot Fist Way, click here. (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50402)..

sanjuro_ronin
If you want to talk hottie athletes, click here (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36640).

[GeneChing]

Release Date: 9 May 2008


Mamet brings mixed martial arts to the big screen (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=alipour/080423)
By Sam Alipour
Tribeca Film Festival: Redbelt

As the Tribeca ESPN Sports Film Festival approaches, Media Blitz columnist Sam Alipour will be checking in periodically and throughout the festival.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- As men tussle on the mats inside this storefront Brazilian jiu-jitsu academy, David Mamet stands just inside the doorway, one hand on his silver-stubbled chin, the other pointing to a framed black-and-white photo hanging on the wall.

"Isn't it gorgeous?" he wonders, not pausing to hear an answer.

In the photo from 1916, two practitioners of Chinese boxing square off in a ring before a packed house, maybe a thousand white men in fedoras, all staring directly at the camera. The film director and devoted jiu-jitsu student spotted it at the Hollywood American Legion Hall, one of the prominent early arenas on the West Coast, while on location for his latest movie, "Redbelt," a drama set in the world of mixed martial arts premiering at the Tribeca ESPN Sports Film Festival. The screenwriter asked for a copy, then handed it over to Street Sports, the academy where he fell head over heels for Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

"Every society has its institutionalized form of fighting. Ours is boxing," Mamet continues, still focused on the photo. "But this shows how far back our roots go, how interested we were, even back then, in investigating other forms of martial arts."

Eight of these so-called investigators are in this gym. Even in mid-grapple, they're keenly aware of the hullabaloo invading their sanctuary -- and they don't appear to mind one bit. In fact, it's possible that the training session is, at least in part, something of a performance put on for the outsider. Between takedowns, they come over to introduce themselves -- fighters as salesmen, answering questions and offering lessons.

Mostly, though, they're excited to see Mamet, the man one fighter refers to as "our fearless leader." After warm embraces, they pass around hot-off-the-press "Redbelt" posters and fight magazines with "Redbelt" blurbs, gleefully perusing photos from the set like preteens swapping Hannah Montana trading cards. In this setting, Mamet, 60, is less like the uber-intense, fiercely independent writer and director responsible for critically acclaimed tough-guy classics like "Glengarry Glen Ross" and more like a goofy kid on Christmas morning.

"Redbelt" is Mamet's love letter to this nondescript building along a sun-bleached slab of Ocean Park Boulevard, the men who sweat here and its purveyor, Renato Magno, a BJJ black belt and Mamet's teacher of six years. It's why the notoriously private Mamet, also a celebrated playwright, fire-breathing essayist and a purple belt, has agreed to guide me into his safe haven where, it seems, only two rules apply: Remove your shoes and leave the outside on the outside.

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in David Mamet's love letter to the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

His film is about BJJ master Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor of "Inside Man," "Children of Men" and "American Gangster"), who shuns the MMA circuit out of the belief that competition weakens the fighter, choosing instead to pursue an honorable life by operating a humble self-defense studio and spreading the gospel to West L.A.'s fight world, a subculture inhabited by actors, bouncers, cage fighters and cops. Terry's virtuous existence is threatened, though, when an accident at the studio involving an off-duty officer and a distraught lawyer (Emily Mortimer) puts the black belt in the crosshairs of a shady movie star (Tim Allen, in an effective and nuanced turn) and promoters of a televised MMA event. In the end, he must decide wither to sacrifice his code to protect his honor.

Consistent with Mamet's oeuvre, the film crackles with quick bursts of muscular dialogue (like, say, "Take the fight out of your face," and "Everything in life -- the money's in the rematch") spoken by colorful characters brought to life by respected if not marquee actors like Brits Ejiofor and Mortimer, and Mamet regulars Ricky Jay, Joe Mantegna, David Paymer and Rebecca Pidgeon.

Fight fans might care to know the movie's also populated with some of the biggest names in their beloved world, including Ultimate Fighting Championship legend Randy Couture, lightweight boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, and martial artists Dan Inosanto, Gene LeBell, Rico Chiapparelli, Enson Inoue, Frank Trigg and John Machado.

The training of the actors and choreography of the fights fell to Magno, who was among the first wave of Brazilians to hit the States and spread their art. Mamet's fellow Street Sports students who, like their fictional West Side counterparts, are stuntmen, police officers and aspiring actors, populated the fights themselves.

"All of the fighters are my friends or students, and that's because David is very loyal to the sport and to the gym," says Magno, in halting English. "We are lucky to have David, someone who loves the sport, respects and believes in the lessons. It's very much like a family here. He cares about the people at the gym and every movie or TV show he's doing, he brings some of these guys to work, for acting and stunts. And they love him for it."

"I didn't even know David was a director, he's such a humble guy," says brown belt Adam Treanor, a Culver City police officer and the inspiration for the film's cop character. "He's progressing very well. He was already a pretty tough guy, but now he can choke out people who don't listen to him on the set."

Mamet, a 5-foot-8 former high school wrestler and boxer, was introduced to the school six years ago by Ed O'Neill, a jiu-jitsu practitioner once known as Al Bundy, now a Mamet flick regular. Mamet trains here twice a week, sometimes in 90-minute private sessions with Magno. After sessions and even during off-days, the gym regulars will gather to discuss fight and philosophy in what Mamet calls "a luncheon club," which is probably not as cute as it sounds.

Mamet (left) uses real MMA fighters like former champ Randy Couture.

"Jiu-jitsu is a very, very different way of looking at conflict," Mamet explains. "The essence of jiu-jitsu is, Don't oppose force to force. Learn to conquer yourself. Do away with your anger, which can only hurt you in a confrontation. Don't take on the other guy's weight. Someone wants to call you names, so what? Somebody wants to hurt you? OK, so what? If you clear your mind, you can actually see what's being done to you, what the other person's intent is, and instead of opposing, you can end the confrontation by leaving or by subduing the other person. You don't have to expend your force but, nonetheless, by understanding, by gaining a superior position, you can prevail in a conflict. It really does help me everywhere."

When asked to recall his proudest moment during six years of training, Mamet takes a beat. Then: "My first instinct is to say when I got (the purple) belt. But I think my proudest moment was a time when I actually employed some of the philosophy that Renato teaches here outside the academy.

"And I'm not going to tell you where," he adds.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

told ya it was long...


Well, here's one guess: Hollywood.

Between the necessary fight scenes, Mamet weaves some of his favorite themes, like honor and betrayal, through a genre-blender that is parts sports film, fight film and samurai film, where an honorable warrior must battle the establishment. Like most Mamet flicks, though, "Redbelt" isn't big on action, star power or budget (a reported $7 million), so in this way, the film is also something of a parable about Hollywood, and the story of the making of this movie: The honorable (martial) artist grappling with Captains of Commerce.

Despite MMA's increasing popularity and appeal to the coveted 18-34 demographic, Hollywood has been reluctant to get in line with MMA-themed big-screen fare. "Everybody in Hollywood passed on it," Mamet says of his arduous journey to sell the project. "One of the things I talked about (in the pitch) was the demographics of UFC. Look at who goes to these fights. Look at how many follow on TV. It's huge among young males, exactly the demographic studios are trying to reach. You're wondering how you can get these people to see a film? Well, this is your answer. The reaction was baffling.

Tim Allen leaves his usual comedic roles in playing a shady movie star.

"The problem is, the bigger the battleship, the longer it takes to turn it around. But as David Belasco, a famous 19th-century stage producer, once said, 'Happy is the producer first on the ground with that which the public is clamoring for next.' You have to take some chances."

Eventually, Sony Pictures Classics signed on, but as loyal fight fans (and those of other pop-cultural trends) now know, getting your hip new thing to the screen is merely the first hurdle. Quality assurance is another matter. Historically, when Hollywood elects to exploit, er, address a pop-culture trend, it has stumbled out of the gate. It took roughly 20 years for "8 Mile" to raise the bar set by early hip-hop films from the likes of the Fat Boys and Kid 'n Play, roughly the same amount of time it took Stacy Peralta's "Dogtown and Z-Boys" to erase skateboarders' memories of "Gleaming the Cube."

Hollywood answered the bell last month with "Never Back Down," the first scripted feature about MMA, but the cliché-ridden flick about a bullied teen and his sage master from director Jeff Wadlow -- who previously had helmed "Cry Wolf," a thriller set at a boarding school -- played more like a music video, a "Fast and the Furious" meets "Karate Kid" for the brain-dead. To some die-hards, the film -- which earned $8 million its opening weekend and soon vacated movie houses -- was blasphemy, fuel to their fear that any big-screen incarnation of their sport would lose its essence, swallowed whole by studio suits who tend to digest flash and action and spit out the sweat, spirit and cauliflower ears.

In Mamet, though, fight fans have not only a Tony-nominated playwright (for "Speed-the-Plow" and "Glengarry," which also landed him the Pulitzer Prize in '84) and a two-time Oscar nominee ("The Verdict" and "Wag the Dog") but also a man who's been through the ground-and-pound. The dudes who've been kicked in the chins are best-suited to lead the sport from the octagon into our imagination. It's why UFC darling Chuck Liddell is now a best-selling author.

"Here's the difference -- this movie is not an attempt to capitalize on a phenomenon," says Mamet, when asked about "Never Back Down." "If it happens that, synergistically, there's a phenomenon out there that's going to help people get into the movie theaters, I'm happy for it. 'Wag the Dog,' my script about the president having an affair with an underage girl, came out exactly at the same time that the Clinton scandal broke. Nobody planned that. It worked out that way. The film must succeed on its merits."

And it must never, ever sell out. As the sport stampedes into theaters with at least three more MMA feature films expected in the next two years, the question must be asked: How much is too much, and too soon? When does the romantic notion of a sport discovered, defended, and disseminated by its dedicated fans become a full-fledged sellout?

"What would constitute selling out is dishonesty," Mamet says. "All drama is about lies -- lies that we tell each other, tell ourselves, give our lives to -- and coming to grips with those lies. Dishonesty is using a drama to tell a lie."

"'Redbelt' is an accurate portrayal and, I think, an attractive portrayal. It takes you inside a world you haven't seen before, which is good because everybody loves backstage movies. But what it really tries to do is show what I understand the essence of jiu-jitsu to be. To a certain extend, I think I succeeded."

Magno, for his part, says the film -- and the sport's move toward the spotlight -- has been good for business. His celebrity clientele, which also includes Val Kilmer, is growing and his Street Sports academy is expanding with a second location. And the raw violence and artistry of pro MMA fights is forcing Tinseltown to elevate the look of its on-screen fisticuffs, which explains why the likes of Couture, Liddell and Magno, who also works as a fight coordinator and occasional actor on Mamet's CBS series "The Unit" -- are finding more work on both sides of the camera.

Yet, even as Magno sells products and services like a nutrition program (his wife is the nutritionist), T-shirts and his own line of instructional videos out of his storefront shop like hotcakes, he can't help but feel that the sport's sudden growth isn't all good.

"It's become a big business very fast," he says, citing what's become the black-belt-mill mentality of some schools. "Academies here now sell black belts in two years. I hope the Brazilian community is staying strong, and not only thinking about the money, or 'I want to sell, make them buy, make a buck.' No, take your time, teach the technique, the approach, and improve the quality of the sport.

"I hope the movie will give public respect for what people like Mike Terry do for the martial arts community," Magno continues. "He's a good guy who gives good quality training and cares for his students. And his students care about each other."

With that, Magno heads to the mat, where an entertainment news crew is waiting for another "Redbelt" interview. As he speaks directly into a camera perched on a tripod, his students break into a staged sparring session, demonstrating jiu-jitsu techniques in the backdrop. And so continues the lesson from a school that lifted a student and the student that now props up a school.

Though it's been a week since he trained, Mamet -- who is on course to receive his black belt in two years -- isn't sure if he'll be swapping sweat today. And if he does? Well, the outsider shouldn't expect an invitation to watch.

"The great thing about this place is nobody but the serious people are here," he said earlier, citing a scene from the movie. "One of my favorite moments is when Emily Mortimer's character has a life-changing experience, loses control and starts to cry, and the hero says, 'It's OK, there's nobody here but the fighters.' That's one of the aspects of the story that I wanted to tell about an academy like this.

"There's nobody here but the fighters. Nobody is going to lie to you about anything."

[sanjuro_ronin]

When I read this:


In the end, he must decide wither to sacrifice his code to protect his honor.

I worry...how does one chose between Code and Honour when they go hand-in-hand ??

[MasterKiller]

how does one chose between Code and Honour when they go hand-in-hand ??

To quote No Country for Old Men: "What good is your code if it brought you to this?"

[sanjuro_ronin]

To quote No Country for Old Men: "What good is your code if it brought you to this?"

Ok...your point?
LOL !

[MasterKiller]

Ok...your point?
LOL !

The point is that, by the time you have to decide, you have no choice. Too many dominoes have already fallen to get you where you are. You made the choice a long time ago when you decided on a code in the first place.

[sanjuro_ronin]

The point is that, by the time you have to decide, you have no choice. Too many dominoes have already fallen to get you where you are. You made the choice a long time ago when you decided on a code in the first place.

My point is that there is NO decision, code and honour can't be separated.

[MasterKiller]

My point is that there is NO decision, code and honour can't be separated.

Are you saying it's impossible to develop a personal moral code without the concept of honor? I disagree.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Are you saying it's impossible to develop a personal moral code without the concept of honor? I disagree.

What kind of code can you have and what difference does it make if you don't honour that code?
What kind of honour can you have if you have no code to follow that gives reason to your honour ?

[MasterKiller]

What kind of code can you have and what difference does it make if you don't honour that code?
What kind of honour can you have if you have no code to follow that gives reason to your honour ?

One man's honor is another man's felony aggrevated assault.

[sanjuro_ronin]

One man's honor is another man's felony aggrevated assault.

LOL !!
Too true !

[GeneChing]

The Mamet factor is huge for this film. I'm surprised no one here has commented on it. Perhaps if I move it to the media forum, we'll have more cinemaphiles who can speak to that.

My understanding now is that Redbelt will have a limited release on May 2 (LA & NY) and a national release on May 9.


Legendary Director Mamet Takes on Mixed Martial Arts in ‘Redbelt’ (http://www.hollywoodtoday.net/?p=4486)
Mixed martial arts a kick for Mamet
By Michelle Foody

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 4/24/08 — David Mamet is back. For his upcoming film, the legendary writer/director will tackle a brand new subject, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, using clichéd cinematic genres as his training ground: the classic under-dog fight movie, the samurai film, and the spaghetti western. Sure sounds different, and boy, is it. “Redbelt”, opening on May 2nd, follows an honor-bound Jiu-jitsu master sucked into the nasty worlds of Hollywood and mixed martial arts (MMA) prize fighting, simultaneously.

Mamet didn’t pick these fighting techniques merely because MMA happens to be the fastest growing sport, having eclipsed boxing and spreading like wildfire among the young, male demographic. No, Mamet himself has been practicing the art of jiu-jitsu, a philosophy as well as a fight style, for over 5 years. But the writer/director (“Wag the Dog”, “Heist”, “Spartan”, etc.) stressed that “Redbelt” “is not a martial arts movie”. Instead, he insists: “The movie is about a guy who doesn’t train fighters to compete, but he trains fighters to prevail… He is forced to participate in a competition and therefore he puts aside that ‘vow of poverty’, or higher calling.”

Curious to hear about being directed by the Pulitzer Prize winner and Oscar-nominee, using Mamet’s own screenplay, Hollywood Today sat down with five members of the film’s eclectic cast: English actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Emily Mortimer, Brazilians Alice Braga and Bruno Silva, and boxers-turned-actors Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini and Randy Couture.

Despite their varied backgrounds, from indie films to light weight knockouts, these actors all expressed a shared reason for tackling “Redbelt”: the opportunity to take on a Mamet movie.

“As soon as I knew that David was about to send me the script, I was pretty excited about it. I’m a huge fan of his work. I couldn’t imagine anything he’d send me that I’d turn down,” insisted Ejiofor, taking on the lead role, and all its physical demands, with gusto. And this is quite high praise, considering Ejiofor is no stranger to name directors, having worked on “Amistad” (Spielberg), “Inside Man” (Spike Lee) and “American Gangster” (Ridley Scott), to name a few.

His take on Mamet?

“He was much gentler than I’d thought he’d be, as a person”, laughed Ejiofor, himself a very charming and soft-spoken man.

Co-star Emily Mortimer compared Mamet to Woody Allen, her director for “Match Point” and also had only words of praise to share with Hollywood Today.

“I’ve found that working with these great directors, they have a confidence, which they bring to the set. You think it’ll be extremely exacting but it was actually quite easy-going”, the actress insisted. “David really created a part that was attractive to play as a woman actor, a woman who is both strong and who is also on the edge of sanity, almost having a nervous breakdown. You don’t often get to portray both of those in one part, especially as a woman.”

“Redbelt” features two complicated female characters, probably the most multi-faceted players in a film fixated on physical strength and masculinity. Besides Mortimer, there is also the protagonist’s wildcard wife, Sondra, played by Alice Braga. It’s extra unusual, as Mamet is not known for writing for, or about, women.

“I like the idea of portraying someone who you don’t know if they’re good or bad,” Braga told Hollywood Today. “She’s just struggling to live life. And to get what she wants.”

Rounding out this cast of characters are two real-life fighters, now duking it out for roles in Hollywood: Boom-Boom Mancini and Randy Couture.

“Dave Mamet is my Shakespeare. He read from the rhythm of the street, I’m a kid from the street, so I understand that. He’s a wonderful guy, he’s an “in your face” type of guy,” Mancini explained, his speech as fast as his jab. “When he said he was writing this particular character for me, I was very honored. Every actor wants to read David Mamet’s words.”

For his part, Mamet doesn’t make casting selections lightly.

“Casting’s more than really key, it’s the whole movie”, said Mamet. “If they can’t act or they’re the wrong person, you ain’t got nothing. It all comes down to casting”.

Brazilian actor Bruno Silva was shocked to find Mamet actually in the room when he auditioned: “Usually you read with a casting director, but David was doing the auditions himself. So I thought, well, at least I’ll get to meet him”.

So now only one question remains, for a movie dealing with both prizefights and Hollywood: What’s harder, fighting or movie-making?

“I tell people, I think fighting is easier. I get in that ring, lose or win, it’s in my hands. This [film] business, very little is in your hands. And there is something honest about fighting; I’m pitting myself against another man. Though the camera don’t punch back, the worse thing that can happen? Take 2. That ain’t so bad,” Boom Boom Mancini explained. “But acting is like fighting, when its good its good, when it stinks, it stinks.”

When “Redbelt” opens on May 2nd, we will find out if Mamet has another knockout up his sleeve.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Did MK and s_r kiss and make up or what?

Grappling is all about harmony :D

[MasterKiller]

Grappling is all about harmony :D


Harmony ! (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/lowotis/52stathercule.jpg)

[sanjuro_ronin]

Harmony ! (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/lowotis/52stathercule.jpg)

ROTFLMAO !!!1

[GeneChing]

I guess they did more than kiss. :eek:

[Satori Science]

the tradition continues,
not that there's anything wrong with that,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzdT-kerHac

[AmanuJRY]

Just keep the eye contact to a minimum.;)

[GeneChing]

So we'd thought we'd get the jump on it all and post our exclusive e-zine review. Check out REDBELT – David Mamet's Passionate Fight Film Homage (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=766) by Dr. Craig Reid. Redbelt opens nationally next week, but we just might have another exclusive for a different film in the queue for then. ;)

[sanjuro_ronin]

Randy Couture, a world-class professional MMA fighter who has a sports commentator role in the film, was not originally sold on its underlying theme. "Mixed martial arts is a mixed sport," Couture says, "and no matter what sports background you come from or what martial art you practice, MMA showed us that there is no one style of martial arts that encompasses everything that could potentially happen in a fight. And it is about fighting.

Worth the whole article.

[sanjuro_ronin]

After reading that article I am actually going to see this movie.
It touches home to me on a few different levels.

[couch]

After reading that article I am actually going to see this movie.
It touches home to me on a few different levels.

I agree. I liked the Karate Kid...good moral lessons...good guy wins..yah know?

Going to check this one out.

[jethro]

Anyone seen the TV trailer for this? Looks average at best, but I saw Ropert and another guy review it on channel 3. They said it's quite good. Sounds like a real David Mamet movie. They don't even mention the action, but I will definitely check it out for myself.

[GeneChing]

It's going to have a tough go up against Speed Racer (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49394) this week. Mamet fans seem to balk at the notion of a martial arts film. MMA fans don't seem to know who Mamet is. I've got a pretty tight schedule over the next few weeks, so I probably won't be able to check it out for some time. :(


Intense actor finds right script in Mamet martial arts film (http://www.oregonlive.com/O/entertainment/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1209515109225600.xml&coll=7&thispage=1)
Chiwetel Ejiofor matches his disciplined acting to ju-jitsu movie "Redbelt"
Sunday, May 04, 2008
MIKE RUSSELL
Special to The Oregonian

Since his Hollywood debut (in 1997's "Amistad"), the only common thread in Chiwetel Ejiofor's performances has been that they're electrifying -- whether he's playing a Nigerian refugee ("Dirty Pretty Things"), a drag queen ("Kinky Boots"), a space-faring samurai ("Serenity") or (as he did recently on the London stage) Othello.

In "Redbelt," the latest offering from writer/director David Mamet, Ejiofor keeps up his habit of never assuming the same role twice. The British actor plays Mike Terry, an American master of Brazilian ju-jitsu. Mike is a quiet, principled self-defense instructor who refuses to sell out his martial art, testing the patience of his breadwinner wife (Alice Braga) -- until a series of misfortunes force him to compete in the world of professional mixed martial arts.

That's right: David Mamet just made a martial-arts movie.

"Redbelt," which opens Friday in Portland, is a strange blend. It mixes Mamet's vivid, specific dialogue (and his love of elaborate con games and male honor codes) with authentic-looking bouts of ju-jitsu. It's performed by an equally strange cast -- one that includes such Mamet regulars as Ricky Jay and Joe Mantegna, Tim Allen as a drunk action-movie star, and real, weather-faced fighters Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini and Portland's own MMA legend Randy Couture.

Ejiofor anchors it all with a quiet performance punctuated with moments of perfectly understated, graceful violence -- moments that look just brutal to learn and choreograph.

The Oregonian talked with Ejiofor about Mamet, martial arts and the chances that we'll see his glowingly reviewed Othello on these shores any time soon. An edited transcript follows.

When I heard Randy Couture was going to be in a David Mamet film, the world seemed like a very strange place.

I was thrilled he was part of the movie. When I was first looking at ju-jitsu and the fighting world for the film, his documentary ("Fighter -- A Documentary," from 2006) was one of the first things I looked at. It's a fascinating insight into the world of a fighter. He's a great ambassador for the sport.

But it is a strange mix. But I suppose, in a sense, as soon as one accepts that David's doing a movie about the ju-jitsu world, it sort of settles the mind to know that Randy's going to be in it, somehow.

I've heard that Mamet runs a really low-key set, but that he also has specific ideas on the cadence of lines and how they're said. Are both true? Neither?

I think they're both true -- the former more than the latter. The cast and crew are regular people he's worked with for a long time, so there's a real family there. That was a massive part of me being comfortable to explore the work as well as I could. And David was very supportive of that -- there wasn't any sense of being finger-wagged or being instructed to say lines in a certain way. I was glad of that.

He was a terrific director -- and a director who seemed completely unaware of the leanings and desires of the writer. He was alive to nuances and what would happen on the day.

How did you mix with the usual David Mamet ensemble?

Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, David Paymer -- when I'm watching them in movies, I can't take my eyes off them. They've worked the craft of screen acting to this extraordinary degree. I was able to sort of talk to them about performances of theirs without trying to embarrass them.

Mamet is fascinated by the art of the con. How does it relate to the art of acting?

I don't know if it does. Acting is, in some ways, an attempt to not be duplicitous at all. It's an attempt to tell the truth, through oneself and the character you're playing.

Obviously, there's an element of pretending. But it's not pretending in the sense that you're trying to fool somebody. You're trying to present something as well as you can in order to get someone to believe the narrative and the story.

You've worked with writer/directors with really specific writing voices, including Mamet and Joss Whedon. Are they in any way similar?

They're similar in the sense that they're able to tap into choices for an actor that aren't obvious. That is something that Joss does incredibly well, and David also: They produce moments that surprise the performer.

"Redbelt" seems fascinated by the price of purity. You've described your ju-jitsu training as "a world where every piece of food and every bit of exercise, every moment of the day, was designed to get the optimum performance out of my body." Have you retained any of that? Or are you just glad it's over?

Well, I'm not glad it's over -- but I'd be lying to say that I'm still in the middle of that particular war. It would have been nice to have taken away everything, but there are just traces left behind.

"Redbelt's" fight scenes feel authentic. There's not that pumped-up framing and choreography you might expect in a mixed-martial-arts film.

I only trained for a few months -- which in martial arts is a very, very short space of time. But I had the great fortune to train with some of the great practitioners in the world, in one-on-one contact every day. So I was able to learn quite a lot in a short period of time.

The first month, you were really learning the basics and getting the ground rules down as much as possible. The next month would be finding ways of formulating the language into the specific fights we were going to have in the movie. The third month -- which crossed into the beginning of filming -- was really finessing them, so they felt like ju-jitsu fights.

What does a Brazilian ju-jitsu master teach you besides how to fight?

It's a lifestyle thing, I suppose. It's like learning a language -- once you've learned the basic moves of ju-jitsu, then it's all about interpretation and creativity. It's like becoming a great orator -- there's alchemy involved. And there's a sense that if you apply your life to it, then it rewards you both inside and outside the ring. People who live the life find that they are able to speak the language both physically and emotionally. "Redbelt" opens May 9 in Portland.

[sanjuro_ronin]

In limited release, David Mamet's martial-arts drama "Redbelt" opened solidly with $68,646 in six theatres. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, "Redbelt" stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as an honourable instructor caught up in corruption in the world of mixed martial-arts competitions.

From Canoe.ca.

[GeneChing]

I read in the paper today that Mamet will be at tonight's showing at SFIFF. Too bad I'm busy tonight. :(



Mamet's new film, Redbelt, showing at the SF International Film Fest (http://www.sfweekly.com/2008-04-30/film/mamet-s-new-film-redbelt-showing-at-the-sf-international-film-fest/)
By J. Hoberman
Published: April 30, 2008

Details:
Rated R. Tue., May 6, at the Sundance Kabuki, as part of the S.F. International Film Festival; from Fri., May 9, at the Embarcadero.
Subject(s): J. Hoberman on Redbelt

David Mamet's Redbelt is a tricky bar brawl — call it Roundhouse of Games. The writer-director has scarcely abandoned his sense of the movies as an innately duplicitous medium, one best suited to stories that play out as conspiratorial chess matches. But with his 10th feature — an entertaining tale of high-stakes martial arts — Mamet has infused the sleight of hand with a measure of two-fisted action.

Understatement is not part of the mix. The rhythm of the rain mixes with the rhythm of the drill as honorable instructor Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an exponent of Brazilian jujitsu, teaches his prize pupil, a cop named Joe (Max Martini), how to fight with one hand bound: "There is no situation from which you cannot escape." This assertive credo makes Mike a promising Mamet-movie protagonist; that the instructor's pedagogical style is a nonstop torrent of hectoring advice mixed with color commentary suggests the filmmaker's own faith in the power of language. (One of the most truculent literary figures to strut the American stage, Mamet may lack Norman Mailer's intellectual brawn, but he suffers no deficiency of bluster.)

Still, as played by Ejiofor, Mike is open, straightforward, and almost sweet — a natural victim. His business is going broke, but he's the calmest guy in the room, if not the most honest person on the entire planet. His modest storefront academy, which also houses a fabric business belonging to wife Sondra (Alice Braga), is an outpost of Zen clarity illuminating a bleak stretch of asphalt somewhere in West Los Angeles. Reality intrudes when an apparent junkie, Laura (Emily Mortimer) — driving through a monsoon menace looking for a drugstore to fill her dubious prescription — dents Mike's parked car. Hysterically bursting into his dojo to apologize, she further freaks upon seeing the cop and, through some arcane form of movie magic, manages to fire his gun through the academy's plate-glass window.

As illogically as this incident plays, it encapsulates the bizarre laws of cause and effect or action and reaction that govern the movie's universe — everyone is at seeming cross-purposes until the final score-settling. Another bait-and-switch caper occurs when Mike visits his brother-in-law's bar to get a bouncer pal some owed back pay and finds himself intervening in a fight to protect a big-time movie star (Tim Allen) out for a night of carousing ... perhaps.

Mike and Sondra are subsequently invited to dine at the star's mansion. You need only a rudimentary familiarity with Mametian paranoia to sense that these suspiciously grateful swells are fitting them for some sort of noose. The Hollywood conspiracy is clinched the next day when Mike visits the set of the star's new movie, nothing less than a re-creation of Operation Desert Storm produced by the sinister Jerry Weiss (Mamet axiom Joe Mantegna). Somehow, they're thinking of bringing on Mike as an executive producer. But is it all a plot to force the honest samurai — who has hitherto been too pure to fight competitively — into the ring?

Cinema is a technology of deceit: No good deed goes unpunished; no bright idea remains unripped-off; no one can be trusted. The movie, however, wears its honesty on its sleeve. As a director, Mamet favors unambiguous close-ups and uncluttered interiors; baddies frequent sleek offices, and chaos comes from rainy nights. Neither oppressive nor subtle in its symmetries, Redbelt is a cleanly constructed piece of work. The climactic fight scenes are notable less for their competent orchestration and stolidly ritualized weirdness than for their principled opposition to the Hong Kong high-jinks of the past two decades.

In press notes so long, detailed, and repetitive they could only have been supervised by Mamet himself, the filmmaker is identified as a longtime student of, and purple belt in, jujitsu. Thus, Redbelt is a personal statement, as well as a sort of naturalized kung fu Western and revisionist Popular Front boxing drama. There's a hint of Golden Boy (the fighter's innate sensitivity), a few allusions to The Set-Up (his desperation, the tawdriness of his final bout), and a line ("Everybody dies") ostentatiously swiped from the quintessential John Garfield flick, Body and Soul — if here contemptuously given to the evil producer.

Like the left-wing, largely Jewish writers of the 1930s and '40s, Mamet identifies with the situation of a solitary fighter trapped by a corrupt system. In his case, however, the system isn't capitalism so much as show business. Therein lies a paradox — Mamet attacks showbiz while surrendering to it. The tenets of Brazilian jujitsu may argue that there's no trap that cannot be escaped, but the rules of American entertainment insist on it.

[GeneChing]

I generally like von Busack's reviews. They run in our Si Valley weekly. He has a certain acerbic quality I enjoy. I want to say that he's generally harsh on martial arts films, but I can't back up that statement with any evidence.

Fight Club (http://www.metroactive.com/metro/05.07.08/film-redbelt-0819.html)
David Mamet makes like Chuck Norris in 'Redbelt'
By Richard von Busack

THERE ARE some thwarted expectations in Redbelt, David Mamet's middling, slightly baffling drama of Men With Codes. Richard (David Paymer), a loan shark, learns that he's out $30,000. Instead of raging about it, he clutches his stomach in panic. It must be a variation of the proverb about how if you owe a large enough amount of money, you own the bank, the bank doesn't own you. With a defaulting customer, Richard is now in trouble with his higher-ups. This clutching of the belly may be the most sensible reaction by a, er, microfinancier onscreen since Travolta's Chili in Get Shorty noted that if you break your debtor's legs, how is he going to pay you off?Similar common sense prevails in a moment where a traumatized rape victim (Emily Mortimer) is given her first lesson in self-defense. We also note some craft in the hard-bitten lines for Ricky "Satan's Librarian" Jay, here playing a fight promoter. The key incident in Redbelt, the story of a valuable watch, sounds like a true anecdote. (It may be something Mamet spun off from Maupassant, but it sounds plausible, like a piece of Hollywood gossip you just ache to believe.) In Redbelt, Mamet appears to be reaching out to an action-movie crowd. The foreign-language-training-tape quality of some of his dialogue doesn't seem to echo off the plywood of the sets, as it does in some of his other films. The gears mesh; it's just that the machine as a whole doesn't work.

A thoroughly honorable West L.A. jujitsu teacher named Mike Terry is played by one of the very best actors around, Chiwetel Ejiofor. As in seeing Philip Marlowe, we can tell at a glance that Terry is honest: he lives in L.A. and yet he has no money. Through a chain of events, Terry encounters a powerful Hollywood star (Tim Allen). The star hires him as a consultant on an Iraq war movie he's shooting in the nearby desert. On the strength of this new job, Mike's wife, Sondra (Alice Braga), gets into debt. All of this pushes Mike in the one direction he doesn't want to go. This black-belt, whose motto is "There is always an escape," is being forced into a free-style prizefighting match he wants nothing to do with. The sinister gimmick: fighters have to draw lots, a black or a white marble, to see whether or not a limb will be immobilized before the fight.It seems that Mamet trained in martial arts for five years, and he has all due reverence for his teachers. He insists on the selflessness and the good hearts of such teachers. Fair enough. Even so, Redbelt is a Chuck Norris plot, no matter how much an intelligent director/writer refines it. Mamet would have thrived in the days when movies were 60 minutes long. Shorter running times would have let him glide by the weak spots, like the baffling behavior of a dumb but decent policeman who has fewer cops looking out for him when he's in trouble than any cop you've ever seen in a movie. A shorter running time might also make up for the almost translucent thinness of the female characters. As always in Mamet, the women here are men, second-class. They might be promoted to men someday if they keep up the good work.

[nospam]

This flick looks like it has potential. Although, I hope Couture isn't spending too much time lookin pretty cuz when he meets Fedor..it's gunna be for real, yo. Hope it goes down as an Xmas 08 Xtravaganza~

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/redbelt/


nospam
:cool:

[TaichiMantis]

"As always in Mamet, the women here are men, second-class. They might be promoted to men someday if they keep up the good work."

:eek:

[TaichiMantis]

see this thread (http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46439)...;)

[nospam]

..lol.

Oh well..from the trailer..it seemed s'ok to me.

It's all good.

nospam
:cool:

[Shaolinlueb]

i hear redbelt is decent. dude scotty ferrel from sirius satelite radio is in it. :thumbup:

[jethro]

Finally it's in the right forum! I hope to see it soon. I heard if you only watch it for the fights you will be disappointed, but it's a good movie.

[Jimbo]

I saw it today and it's a well-made movie, IMO. I did not expect the fights to be great, so I was not disappointed. The acting is very good, however. I did notice at least a couple of characters in the film had an odd habit of saying something, then repeating it another 1 to 2 times quickly in a robotic manner, besides the guy giving pre-fight info to the fighters.

[GeneChing]

I still haven't seen Redbelt. I really must. I never got a screener. :(

I haven't seen Never Back Down (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=750) either. I was going to skip it, but to hear it described as 'an MMA version of "High School Musical"' kind of makes me want to see it.

I was expecting this review to go into Fighting (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50719). That's the next one on the horizon.


When Mixed Martial Arts Meet the Movies (http://www.ifc.com/news/2008/04/kickin-it-with-mamets-mixed-ma.php)
By R. Emmet Sweeney

Mixed martial arts (MMA) have come a bloody long way since John McCain legendarily dubbed the sport "human ****fighting" in 1996. Its flagship organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), aired eight of the top 15 pay-per-view programs in 2007 (boxing had four), while two smaller outfits (Strikeforce and EliteXC) have recently inked deals to air events on NBC and CBS. With major media outlets slowly offering more coverage and the sport's popularity continuing to crest, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood got its opportunistic hands on those tantalizing cauliflower ears... right?

Uncharacteristic of the movie business, producers are showing restraint in capitalizing on the fad, perhaps still haunted by McCain's "****" slam. David Mamet encountered fierce resistance to his new MMA influenced film, "Redbelt," as he tells Sam Alipour of ESPN.com: "Everybody in Hollywood passed on it. One of the things I talked about (in the pitch) was the demographics of UFC. Look at who goes to these fights. Look at how many follow on TV. It's huge among young males, exactly the demographic studios are trying to reach. You're wondering how you can get these people to see a film? Well, this is your answer. The reaction was baffling."

Much of the reason still lies in the sport's "barbaric" reputation, a holdover from the early days of the UFC, when they advertised, "There are no rules!" and trumpeted supposed mismatches between heavyweights and lightweights. Editorials are regularly churned out about the "bestial" nature of the sport (shockingly, Don King and Bill O'Reilly have joined the chorus), despite the UFC's relatively clean bill of health (no life-threatening injuries to date), at least in comparison to pro boxing's spotty history. After McCain virtually bankrupted the business by encouraging governors to outlaw the fights (which 36 states obliged), the UFC was bought out in 2001 by the marketing-savvy company Zuffa. Although the UFC had already instituted a series of new regulations (no blows to the back of the head, etc.) that cleared them to hold an event in New Jersey in 2000, the new owners claimed to be innovators of the sport, and started to convince regulatory commissions, state by state, that they were safe enough to be allowed into their fair cities. In other words, they were no longer barbarians, but could still get fans to pay at the gate. Now even McCain says that "the sport has grown up," and most states have legalized it.

Another reason for Hollywood's reluctant embrace of MMA is the question of whether these fighting styles can even translate effectively to the screen. Mamet brings this up in a 2006 Playboy piece he wrote about the sport — how do you film the jiu-jitsu fights themselves? He claims that the form never broke into national consciousness like kung fu or karate because it is inherently uncinematic: "A fight, to be dramatic, must allow the viewer to see the combatants now coming together, now separating... Jiu-jitsu involves tying up — that is, closing the distance and keeping it closed...It is not dramatic. It is just effective." Fights that employ this style tend to look like especially sweaty make-out sessions that go on for three rounds. "Never Back Down," an MMA version of "High School Musical" released earlier this year, dealt with this issue by literally skipping over the foreplay, utilizing MTV-style montage to jump to the submissions, eliding the minutes of groping and intricate body contortions it takes to get there. On "Redbelt," Mamet and cinematographer Robert Elswit (hot off of "There Will Be Blood") take a more intimate route, employing very tight handheld framing to capture the technical skill involved in these grappling battles. These fights are not about thrills, but as the main character Mike Terry says, "I train to prevail, not to fight." They are merely the most efficient means to an end. The main visual interest in the film, as Mamet noted in the New York Times, are the faces, which Elswit tends to shoot in profile on extreme edges of the widescreen frame, their bruised faces as purple as Mamet's prose is lean.

The film continues Mamet's obsession with secretive male societies on the edge of the law (gamblers in "House of Games," security officers in "Spartan," thieves in "Heist"). "Redbelt" follows the moral path of Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an ascetic jiu-jitsu instructor who intones that "competition weakens the fighter." Mamet, a jiu-jitsu student for over five years, treats the martial art more as a philosophy than a physical skill, a conduit for self-discipline and moral purity. Terry is like a masterless samurai planted into modern day L.A, his codes of honor ridiculous to the more practical-minded citizens (and viewers) around him. Terry's refusal to compromise on the ethics of fighting leads him on a collision course with the market economy that's dying to exploit both his mind and body. Mamet's Manichean setup can be overwrought at times, but it's the necessary backdrop for his passionate defense of martial values. It ends in an improbable PPV fantasy, an alternate floodlit universe where the old samurai ways triumph for a night and momentarily silence the bloodthirsty bleatings of the marketplace.

In other words, not good tie-in material for the UFC, which is still too busy trying to land a cable deal with HBO or Showtime to concern themselves with the movie business yet. But at this point it seems inevitable that an MMA movie genre will shortly work itself out, likely plotting a middle road between the populist street fights of "Never Back Down" and the angsty existential battles of "Redbelt." The visual grammar of MMA is in its infancy, but I hope the Mamet film provides the template: an economic, unobtrusive style seems appropriate for such brutally efficient fighting — a science more salty than sweet.

[Jimbo]

Though there is an MMA contest in it, I wouldn't necessarily consider Red Belt an MMA movie. It's a BJJ movie, which isn't necessarily the same thing.

IMO probably still the best onscreen representation of MMA is Donnie Yen in Flashpoint. It was incorporated into the story without the entire focus being on it, and best of all, it was NOT a 'tournament movie' like most American MA films tend to be.

[GeneChing]

...and I'm not 100% sure why I didn't. I'm a great supporter of any martial arts film that breaks the iron-clad stereotypes of martial arts. Redbelt just reinforced them.

It felt over-written. The plot was painfully complex and excessive in its duplicity. I hate 'reluctant fighter' films. I've met so many fighters - real fighters - both champions in the ring and bangers in the street - and reluctance is not one of their personality traits. It's more of a weird defensiveness expressed by writers about fighters - writers who dream of being able to fight but lack that talent and determination for it - so they create this absurd device of a reluctant fighter that is somehow more noble than someone who just fights.

I'm also tired of the old 'corrupt fight game' plot. Sure, there's corruption in any sport and probably more so in the fight game because of gambling, but come on. Show us something new here if your going to go there. There was such implausibility with some of the plot twists and some fundamental misinterpretations of the 'warrior code' that made the whole experience rather painful. Mamet claims to have studied BJJ but he's a nibbler when it comes to understanding any warrior code. There were some major contradictions there. Ejiofor's fortune cookie wisdom was trite and couldn't hold a candle to Master Po or Yoda.

The acting performances were good. All the actors turned in decent work for what they were given. It's Allen's best performance since Santa Clause. And I'm a huge fan of Ricky Jay. His book Cards as Weapons was brilliant and held a prize position in my martial library until it was borrowed and never returned.

The fight scenes were mediocre, but we weren't expecting much. There was a scene that sort of showed off some BJJ techniques, but the transitions were so forced and staged that it wasn't in the least way exciting. The finale move, a Jackie Chan-esque escape from an RNC was absurd. It was an obvious tip of the cap to the fortune cookie wisdom that had been pounded into us from the very first scene. But to go Jackie for the end not only belittled the BJJ theme, anyone who knows the slightest thing about an RNC knows that it was a sure way to snap your own neck. If I've got my RNC locked in, there's no way that would work, even if you were Randy Couture. Of course, Couture could peel me off like a banana skin in so many other ways. They should have gone with something like that. The highlight of that fight was that the villain was flying the colors of our newsstand competitor.

Ultimately I was very disappointed in Redbelt. On reflection, I think it was because I was really hoping it would transcend of the genre. It's probably a decent film if you don't have that expectation.

[sanjuro_ronin]

...and I'm not 100% sure why I didn't. I'm a great supporter of any martial arts film that breaks the iron-clad stereotypes of martial arts. Redbelt just reinforced them.

It felt over-written. The plot was painfully complex and excessive in its duplicity. I hate 'reluctant fighter' films. I've met so many fighters - real fighters - both champions in the ring and bangers in the street - and reluctance is not one of their personality traits. It's more of a weird defensiveness expressed by writers about fighters - writers who dream of being able to fight but lack that talent and determination for it - so they create this absurd device of a reluctant fighter that is somehow more noble than someone who just fights.

I'm also tired of the old 'corrupt fight game' plot. Sure, there's corruption in any sport and probably more so in the fight game because of gambling, but come on. Show us something new here if your going to go there. There was such implausibility with some of the plot twists and some fundamental misinterpretations of the 'warrior code' that made the whole experience rather painful. Mamet claims to have studied BJJ but he's a nibbler when it comes to understanding any warrior code. There were some major contradictions there. Ejiofor's fortune cookie wisdom was trite and couldn't hold a candle to Master Po or Yoda.

The acting performances were good. All the actors turned in decent work for what they were given. It's Allen's best performance since Santa Clause. And I'm a huge fan of Ricky Jay. His book Cards as Weapons was brilliant and held a prize position in my martial library until it was borrowed and never returned.

The fight scenes were mediocre, but we weren't expecting much. There was a scene that sort of showed off some BJJ techniques, but the transitions were so forced and staged that it wasn't in the least way exciting. The finale move, a Jackie Chan-esque escape from an RNC was absurd. It was an obvious tip of the cap to the fortune cookie wisdom that had been pounded into us from the very first scene. But to go Jackie for the end not only belittled the BJJ theme, anyone who knows the slightest thing about an RNC knows that it was a sure way to snap your own neck. If I've got my RNC locked in, there's no way that would work, even if you were Randy Couture. Of course, Couture could peel me off like a banana skin in so many other ways. They should have gone with something like that. The highlight of that fight was that the villain was flying the colors of our newsstand competitor.

Ultimately I was very disappointed in Redbelt. On reflection, I think it was because I was really hoping it would transcend of the genre. It's probably a decent film if you don't have that expectation.

I haven't seen redbelt yet, had mixed feelings about it because of most of the stuff you just mentioned.
I did order BlackBelt ( Kuro-Obi) and am looking forward to it.

[Jimbo]

...and I'm not 100% sure why I didn't. I'm a great supporter of any martial arts film that breaks the iron-clad stereotypes of martial arts. Redbelt just reinforced them.

It felt over-written. The plot was painfully complex and excessive in its duplicity. I hate 'reluctant fighter' films. I've met so many fighters - real fighters - both champions in the ring and bangers in the street - and reluctance is not one of their personality traits. It's more of a weird defensiveness expressed by writers about fighters - writers who dream of being able to fight but lack that talent and determination for it - so they create this absurd device of a reluctant fighter that is somehow more noble than someone who just fights.

I'm also tired of the old 'corrupt fight game' plot. Sure, there's corruption in any sport and probably more so in the fight game because of gambling, but come on. Show us something new here if your going to go there. There was such implausibility with some of the plot twists and some fundamental misinterpretations of the 'warrior code' that made the whole experience rather painful. Mamet claims to have studied BJJ but he's a nibbler when it comes to understanding any warrior code. There were some major contradictions there. Ejiofor's fortune cookie wisdom was trite and couldn't hold a candle to Master Po or Yoda.

The acting performances were good. All the actors turned in decent work for what they were given. It's Allen's best performance since Santa Clause. And I'm a huge fan of Ricky Jay. His book Cards as Weapons was brilliant and held a prize position in my martial library until it was borrowed and never returned.

The fight scenes were mediocre, but we weren't expecting much. There was a scene that sort of showed off some BJJ techniques, but the transitions were so forced and staged that it wasn't in the least way exciting. The finale move, a Jackie Chan-esque escape from an RNC was absurd. It was an obvious tip of the cap to the fortune cookie wisdom that had been pounded into us from the very first scene. But to go Jackie for the end not only belittled the BJJ theme, anyone who knows the slightest thing about an RNC knows that it was a sure way to snap your own neck. If I've got my RNC locked in, there's no way that would work, even if you were Randy Couture. Of course, Couture could peel me off like a banana skin in so many other ways. They should have gone with something like that. The highlight of that fight was that the villain was flying the colors of our newsstand competitor.

Ultimately I was very disappointed in Redbelt. On reflection, I think it was because I was really hoping it would transcend of the genre. It's probably a decent film if you don't have that expectation.

Gene:
Though I liked the film, I agree with you on a number of points.

It felt a bit odd to me that the main guy, a BJJ master, was using an odd "samurai" philosophy and eschewed competition, when competitive matches and actual fights are what it developed on. Not to mention...I'm a bit dubious about a "samurai" or traditional philosophy about avoidance of contests. In most instances (there are exceptions of course), in fairly recent history (late 1800s to present), martial arts in Japan often place a heavy emphasis on competitive fighting. In fact, Maeda, whose jiu-jitsu became the characteristic "BJJ", was obviously one who was cut from that cloth.

And I did feel that the walk-up backflip on the wall was out of place and dangerous. Then when everyone was holding him in awe because of it as if he were a god seemed out of place in the film.

[GeneChing]

The samurai/jiu-jitsu/no competition thing is exactly what I'm talking about. Japanese martial arts hold the duel in high esteem. Whether that's a duel on the field of battle or in a sumo ring or a baseball diamond, no where does it say that a samurai should not compete because it's not honorable. Quite the opposite.

And the end was just plain weird. The Jackie-flip-RNC break and the whole belt thing. That was another thing that really bothered me. If Ejiofor's character was so honorable, passing someone their black belt in a locker room was pretty lame.

What an odd role for Inosanto tho. I kept looking at him and thinking "that's not Inosanto, is it? No. Wait. It IS him!"

[yutyeesam]

My question is why did it last in the theaters for such a short time, borderline a direct to DVD movie.

I wonder why it didn't connect with an audience? I mean surely, all the BJJ/MMA practitioners would have gone to see it, no?

[David Jamieson]

My question is why did it last in the theaters for such a short time, borderline a direct to DVD movie.

I wonder why it didn't connect with an audience? I mean surely, all the BJJ/MMA practitioners would have gone to see it, no?

because it wasn't looking for a bjj/mma audience, it was looking for all the people who watched karate kid.

It wasn't really that good of a movie. really a stretch with the plausability in a few places.

fairly formulaic and kinda tired in it's storytelling.

[Lucas]

just got around to seeing this, via instant stream netflix, glad i didnt really pay for it.

the best this movie has to offer is decent acting.

the thing that irks me most, is why does he get the gold belt, then he also gets the red belt. wtf :confused::confused: the japanese fighter was going to give the belt to the gaijin if he could possibly defeat him, meaning he didnt think he could lose (whether he was in on the fix or not, im assuming not since he gave it up) then some other gaijin beats that gaijin he didnt think would beat him so he gives him his $250k family heirloom...makes no sense what so ever. i cant stand writers that dont look past their own nose.

so many holes in the plot its like a moth riddled closet full of 1970s corduroy and denim....

:(