So I was watching Redbelt and was really liking it, but then the movie just stopped. At first I thought there was a problem, but then the credits started rolling.
I liked the characters, but there didn’t seem to be any resolution. I’m not sure why the other fighter gave him his belt, but I liked that the ‘Professor’ did. I’m ok with the Hollywood-types having their way with him and getting away with it, but I was hoping his wife would get a good talking-to. And the slap in the garage? Was that the lawyer? I assumed it was, but then I wasn’t sure when she was back in the stands so quickly.
I really liked the cop character (from The Unit, right?). And his wife…wow can Mrs. Ryan only do crying-crazy woman? I think she does it well, but I’d like to see a little happy-adjusted woman from her.
I think this is a good renter movie, but wouldn’t discourage anyone from seeing it in the theater.
Interesting! From IMDB I gather that (aside from a bit part in 1989) this is his first non-comedic role. I’m always a sucker for “against type” performances.
I just saw it last night, and I didn’t mind the ending. I was puzzled by the fact that we skipped his speech into the ring mike, but then I realized that everyone knows what he’s going to say, and a monologue there would have broken the five-or-ten minutes at the end with no dialogue. I really enjoyed some of the visceral tension, especially in the following scenes:
“Did he hold the knife to your throat like this?” (Terry and the attorney)
“Ask him for the money.” (Terry and his wife)
“You KNOW the ESCAPE. […] Oh, Officer Down. Does that make you mad?” (Terry and the cop, training)
The long walk from the garage back to the ring
The bar fight, especially the two cops watching the tape afterwards with Terry: “I never threw a punch. I’m a stone-cold victim.”
…but I felt like the tension in the last fight was ruined by poor camera-work. Every other fight in the film – especially the bar fight – was fantastically shot and paced, and felt much more real.
Murasaki gave Terry the heirloom belt because he had promised to give it to the winner. Murasaki was going to throw the match anyway, and what Terry did was simultaneously win a fair fight and stand on principle for the honor of the form, in front of the master (I suspect the master understood that this was fixed, and had his regrets already). Also, Murasaki watched the fight and studied every move – I think it’s strongly implied that Terry could have beaten Murasaki as well. When Murasaki gives Terry the belt, he is admitting that Terry is the better fighter, showing respect for Terry’s integrity, and atoning for his dishonorable actions.
I can’t figure out how the timid attorney – who was drunk as a skunk – managed to land a slap on Terry, or what he did to deserve a slap from her. Was the subtext “don’t you dare quit”? I didn’t get that either, except that it galvanized him into returning. I may have to watch it again, because I felt that the foreshadowing was set up to make me distrust her, especially since we don’t know who was on the other end of her cell phone conversation.
Tim Allen turned in a fine performance; I’d like to see him take some more roles like this and get away from the Tool-Time schtick.
Last but not least, the one coincidence I found a little too much was that Tim Allen’s wife just happens to be a great networking connection for Mike Terry’s wife, and that Tim just happens to be working on a movie that Terry could be a producer and adviser on. I also didn’t quite get how Tim’s handler (who leaked the black-and-white stones bit) got in touch with the fight promoter – was he the same guy who was asking Terry for a pick in the fight? I feel like Mamet had to make the three big wheels all mesh, and could only get two of them to mesh at a time, and so he just sort of fudged the last connection.
Your last paragraph brings to light some interesting mechanics of storytelling I missed. I’ll have to piece together what happened too.
But for the fight, I think Silva was supposed to throw it, “You’re going to throw the fight in front of The Professor?”
I’m still not sure why Murasaki gave up the belt, even if what you say is true, you don’t give up a title without being beaten. It’s like giving the title to the winner of the undercard. Maybe he knew the fight was going to be thrown and wasn’t comfortable with it, and Terry’s breaking it up was more honorable and deserving. Not that we were given any indication of that. (Or any that I caught)
Also here’s an interesting Time.com article about Mamet at his dojo in Santa Monica.
It’s part of the whole honorable samurai thing. Maybe Murasaki didn’t give a crap about bushido most of the time, but seeing Terry make a stand on principles made him realize he shouldn’t be giving away family heirlooms for the sake of something so low as a rigged fight and some money. Plus, I think he realized that Terry would totally own him if it came to a fight.
Allen is a patsy (he presumably owes money to someone) and it is no coincidence that Terry and his wife get drawn into schemes that cause him to provide his training method and her to borrow money from a loan shark; the entire setup is a scheme to get Terry to fight on the undercard. (Why anybody cares is an unanswered question.)
I’m normally a fan of Mamet with his distinctive, often anachronistic , repetitive dialogue, and am willing to overlook the occasional contrivance and the flat affect that he directs his actors to demonstrate. I enjoyed Heist and am apparently the only person in North America that even saw Spartan, but I found Redbelt to be kind of disconnected and overly contrived.
“You wanted to go through the looking glass. How was it? Was it more fun than miniature golf?”
Well, I’m glad somebody else saw it. Between this and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I think Warner Bros. has a grudge against any script with intelligent dialogue.
One thing I really didn’t get was, how can Terry deduce that the fight is fixed just because the masked magician guy is the one administering the white/black marbles? The fighters themselves pick the marbles out of the bowl and then hold them up to the crowd for all to see - the magician doesn’t get a chance to touch them after they are put in the bowl. The fighters themselves aren’t magicians, presumably, and anyway, they’re wearing gloves.
The magician could, of course, alter the balls before they are put in the bowl, but what would be the point of that, you still can’t dictate which one a fighter will pick.
The point is that the fighters can’t see the marbles until after they pick them out of the bowl. The magician manipulates this by appearing to place marbles of each color in the bowl but secretly only placing one color.
