The Warrior tells the tale of rough, stoic, unsentimental men. These are men who have been bred to violence through necessity and instinct - in which a hostile, barren, impassioned world plays the landscape. One such unsentimental man, a warrior, becomes aware of this brutality and attempts to find redemption.
An impressive feature film debut from British-Indian co-writer and director Asif Kapadia - who was 29 when he made the film in 2001. The picture went on to win the “Best British Film” at the British Academy Awards and the film was chosen to represent the UK in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category at the 2003 Oscars but the AMPAA rejected the film because the film was in Hindi (“a language not indigenous to the U.K”) even though the film was directed by a Brit of Indian descent and financed by British companies. (Ehh, was does the AMPAA know? They thought Crash was the best film of last year…)
Certainly, when most people hear Indian cinema, their mind automatically jumps to Bollywood and big, lavish musical extravagances. This film could not be further from that genre. Director Asif Kapadia purposely applied his “western” sensibilities to the picture and the film seems to be more inspired by some of Sergei Leone or Sam Peckinpah’s less flashy work. It is a meditative tale puctuated by little bursts of violence surrounded by extraordinary visuals.
Irfan Khan, in a fascinating, mostly silent role (think Leone and Peckinpah regulars Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen, respectively) plays the hired warrior Lafcadia, a pillager and executioner, for a brutal, viscous fuedal Indian lord. Khan plays these early sequences with his eyes and you can see the inner anguish as he carries out some of these depiscable deeds. As one such deed commences, Lafcadia’s sword raised to a young girl’s neck which holds a necklace given to her earlier by the warrior’s son, conscience hits. The sword lowers. Years of pity, guilt and sorrow have taken its toll. But like our modern gangsters, getting out of this lifestyle can never be easy.
The fuedal Indian lord cannot let this abandonment stand and sends another warrior to track him down and to “bring me his head by dawn”, a claim the lord does not make lightly as this warror will a face a death sentence of his own if his mission is not carried out.
Lafcadia heads north from the desert landscapes of northern India to the Himalayas to avoid more violence and to possibly seek out the source of a snow-capped vision. Along his travels, he meets a young boy (Noor Mani), a thief by necessity, whose family was killed (hinting that it might have been Lafcadia himself who wiped out his family) and an old blind woman with a keen sense of understanding who is on pilgramage to the Holy Lake.
The plot takes you where you expect, but not necessarily how you expect. It is a slow, methodically paced fable set in a timeless world. The title is somewhat of a misnomer - while the film details the life of a warrior there is very little action in the film or as the back of the DVD promises “exciting samurai-style action.” There are only a few mere minutes of carnage, and this violence is intense and not meant to “excite.” I say this not to be duragatory, but as a warning to people who might pick this up expecting wall-to-wall epic action. This is mostly a quiet story about a man finding redemption who finds that he may not be able to escape his past.
The film might be too quiet and simplistic for some, and for the first 30 minutes I began to wonder if I might be one of them. But then something happens at the 30-minute mark, a sequence (that I will not discuss in any detail to remain spoiler-free) that completely entranced me. It was an extraordinary reaction shot by Irfan Khan that I found surprisingly moving - a lone shot that kept my attention for the rest of the film.
The film is a visual marvel with wide, open landscapes, vivid colors and great composition by cinematographer Roman Osin (who also shot last year’s luscious looking Pride & Prejudice) with a solid, complimentary score by Dario Marianelli. If the story doesn’t keep your attention, then the visuals and music should.
The film is in 2.35:1 widescreen and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Bonus Features include deleted scenes with optional commentary, a fairly extensive 44-minute making-of which includes the usual elements of on-set footage and interviews and an informative, articulate commentary by director Asif Kapadia.
Also not to be confused with a 2001 Korean action film released in the states as “The Warrior,” this film is not an action film as much as the dvd packaging protests. This is a well-made, well-told story about contemplation, redemption and humanity. A film more in vein with 1999’s Himalaya or 2001’s The Fast Runner than “Hero”.
The Warrior is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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