The Warrior’s Way (Film Review)
Friday, July 29th, 2011
This week I was fortunate enough to watch a Sngmoo Lee film starring Dong-gun Jang as the troubled super swordsman (the best swordsman in the world EVER), Jeffrey Rush as a retired drunkard killer-by-trade and Kate Bosworth as the revenge-enabled heroine. This film was The Warrior’s Way.
If you’ve watched Quentin Tarantino in Sukiyaki Western Django you are likely to recognise the genre of surreal-kung-fu-western. Super saturated colour in the scenery, parts of the film that become almost cartoonesque in their overpowering artistic vision and a disregard for the physics of the real world. For example, in Sukiyaki Western Django one character mows down huge numbers of people with a hand held gattling gun. You won’t be too shocked to see the gattling gun in The Warrior’s Way.
But unlike Sukiyaki Western Django the script hasn’t been overtaken by an escalation of violence to the ridiculous. The script remains credible. The script provides a revelation of character and backstory in The Warrior’s Way that adds to the stream of ninja-kick-arse-mother-fuckers who find their unfortunate souls rheemed by Dong-gun Jang’s sword. While the computer graphics take over in these scenes it’s achieved in a spectacular way that made me regret not catching this on a big screen somewhere.
The cinematography in this film is jaw dropping and pays homage to the Chinese kung fu movie tradition from an endless stream of kung-fu movies that employ demons and monks and fantastic flying fight scenes for the highest stakes. All I can really say is nicely executed, mind the pun.
Meanwhile, The Warrior’s Way pays homage to the classic Trinity style western where a lone killer is all that really stands between good people and evil gunmen. And characters are never entirely how you expect them. The grungy style very much reminded me of Carnivale.
The beauty of this film in its execution is that it pulls both traditions together in a commercially amiable way that awes, impresses and embosses the viewer with brilliant performances. Particularly the endearing smiles of the baby at the centre of everything.
If you’re really looking for something special to watch this weekend you might want to pick this one up. It was awesome.
