he tore the door off a tank!
Oct. 2nd, 2011 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ariadnes_stringJust back from my book club where we discussed Wolf Hall -- but more about that tomorrow, for now....
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frackin_sweet and linaerys , I blame you!
I had one of my boy-free weekends, and my friend K. bailed on our plan to see Moneyball. So, I decided take myself to see Warrior at its single showing at the one theater where it was still playing (no, I was not the only person there—there were five of us!)
And you ladies were quite right: I found it a very satisfying experience—especially the naked tattooed torsos and the surprising success of Brendan’s epic masochism (his let-them-wail-on-me-until-I-can-get-them-in-an-unbreakable-thigh-hold style was a real button pusher, as you might imagine).
The fights were fabulously staged, and more than that, I really loved how the fights really staged the issues of the moviequite a bit better than the rest of the movie did, imo. The brothers’ opposing styles: sit tight and endure until, by sheer force of will and superior technique, you can turn things your way vs. knock ‘em out in one punch then walk away; the strength that comes from having the support of loving family and friends vs. the strength that comes from sheer, bloody-minded self-sufficiency and independence.
Also loved that song by the National. Which apparently I can’t get without buying the whole soundtrack (I am tempted). Can someone point me to a download?
But now, ladies, and all y’all, I feel you owe me some fic. Because I wanted like 110x more emotional context for the angst of the Conlon family. What was it like when they were teenagers? Was Brendan the “smart one” and Tommy the “super jock”? Did they fight as kids, or is it only my boys who see every day as a MMA Grand Prix? Weren’t they having epic flashbacks to all the times they’d scrapped and hurt each other during that final showdown? If Brendan didn’t wrestle in high school, how did he take up fighting? What was it like for Tommy, alone with his dying mom?
I just wanted more of a sense of what they’d been to each other when they had been brothers, y’know? What they missed about that and needed from each other now. I wanted one of those clichéd scenes where one guy says “Remember that time when--, and then you--, and I couldn’t believe how we--?” and the other guys says, “yeah,” and the first guy says “that’s the brother I miss; there’s been a hole in my life since I lost that; I want that brother back.” Or words to that effect.
And ladies? I have seen your plans for Frank/Tommy (or even Frank-Tommy). What do I have to do to get it? Money? Cookies? Yuletide prompts?
Because Frank! Until the very end, Brendan-Frank was the relationship with most emotional depth in the movie, imo. When he got so close their foreheads were touching and said “Knock him out or you lose your home”? GUH. I could have watched a whole movie made up entirely of Brendan sitting in the ring chair and Frank coaching him with his whole goddamn body.
Me being me, of course, I fretted over things that weren’t exactly plot holes, just information no one was interested in until the end of the movie. Who was the older/younger brother? What kind of woman doesn’t try to make contact with her first-born son when she’s dying? I mean, I could understand Tommy cutting out his brother and his father—I had a harder time buying that Mrs. Conlon totally cut ties with Brendan even if he didn’t come with them. Paddy, I wanted to shout, I know you’re missing some brain cells, but shouldn’t you ask what Tommy’s doing out of the Marines? Don’t just wait to see it on TV, dude.
Yeah, I know, nobody worries about this stuff but me.
Nb: this might all be influenced by the fact that I’ve been reading Townie which is nothing if not a sustained exploration of what it feels like to want to hit someone—even someone you love—in the face. And then doing it.
Also, I saw a preview for a movie in which Matt Bomer and Justin Timberlake inhabit the same screen. 0_0
frackin_sweet and linaerys , I blame you!I had one of my boy-free weekends, and my friend K. bailed on our plan to see Moneyball. So, I decided take myself to see Warrior at its single showing at the one theater where it was still playing (no, I was not the only person there—there were five of us!)
And you ladies were quite right: I found it a very satisfying experience—especially the naked tattooed torsos and the surprising success of Brendan’s epic masochism (his let-them-wail-on-me-until-I-can-get-them-in-an-unbreakable-thigh-hold style was a real button pusher, as you might imagine).
The fights were fabulously staged, and more than that, I really loved how the fights really staged the issues of the movie
Also loved that song by the National. Which apparently I can’t get without buying the whole soundtrack (I am tempted). Can someone point me to a download?
But now, ladies, and all y’all, I feel you owe me some fic. Because I wanted like 110x more emotional context for the angst of the Conlon family. What was it like when they were teenagers? Was Brendan the “smart one” and Tommy the “super jock”? Did they fight as kids, or is it only my boys who see every day as a MMA Grand Prix? Weren’t they having epic flashbacks to all the times they’d scrapped and hurt each other during that final showdown? If Brendan didn’t wrestle in high school, how did he take up fighting? What was it like for Tommy, alone with his dying mom?
I just wanted more of a sense of what they’d been to each other when they had been brothers, y’know? What they missed about that and needed from each other now. I wanted one of those clichéd scenes where one guy says “Remember that time when--, and then you--, and I couldn’t believe how we--?” and the other guys says, “yeah,” and the first guy says “that’s the brother I miss; there’s been a hole in my life since I lost that; I want that brother back.” Or words to that effect.
And ladies? I have seen your plans for Frank/Tommy (or even Frank-Tommy). What do I have to do to get it? Money? Cookies? Yuletide prompts?
Because Frank! Until the very end, Brendan-Frank was the relationship with most emotional depth in the movie, imo. When he got so close their foreheads were touching and said “Knock him out or you lose your home”? GUH. I could have watched a whole movie made up entirely of Brendan sitting in the ring chair and Frank coaching him with his whole goddamn body.
Me being me, of course, I fretted over things that weren’t exactly plot holes, just information no one was interested in until the end of the movie. Who was the older/younger brother? What kind of woman doesn’t try to make contact with her first-born son when she’s dying? I mean, I could understand Tommy cutting out his brother and his father—I had a harder time buying that Mrs. Conlon totally cut ties with Brendan even if he didn’t come with them. Paddy, I wanted to shout, I know you’re missing some brain cells, but shouldn’t you ask what Tommy’s doing out of the Marines? Don’t just wait to see it on TV, dude.
Yeah, I know, nobody worries about this stuff but me.
Nb: this might all be influenced by the fact that I’ve been reading Townie which is nothing if not a sustained exploration of what it feels like to want to hit someone—even someone you love—in the face. And then doing it.
Also, I saw a preview for a movie in which Matt Bomer and Justin Timberlake inhabit the same screen. 0_0
