Purity
Chiwetel plays Mike Terry, a former soldier turned Los Angeles based Jiu-Jitsu instructor. He’s much more than your average instructor; he’s a very pure and sincere martial artist, one who strongly believes in himself and core values of the martial arts, including courtesy, integrity, self control, and perseverance. I loved Chiwetel’s performance of his character; his acting was simply top notch. So one night at his studio, after a class, his best and most loyal student, a police officer named Joe, inadvertently gets into an encounter with a frazzled lawyer. Played by Mortimer, this lawyer steps into the dojo to inform someone there that she’s accidentally hit their car on this dark and rainy night. Through bad chance or luck, and well, a shot in the dark if you can forgive the pun, the officer’s pistol is fired by her and it shatters one of the windows of the dojo. This simple, quick accident sets of a chain of events that alters Mike Terry’s life dramatically, and not, at least at first, for the best.
As Mike Terry’s troubles rise, he gets mixed up with some Hollywood-types, including Tim Allen who plays movie star Chet Frank, Joe Mantegna, a slippery producer, and Ricky Jay, a fight promoter. One evening while at a bar to talk to his brother in law, Mike saves Chet’s butt from a beating. In return, Chet and the aforementioned Hollywood-types seemingly set out to help Mike Terry and wife, Sondra, played by Alice Braga. Instead, these men betray him and further distress Mike’s life. However, Mike stays focused and maintains his indomitable spirit, never losing control and never acting out in violence. As his debts both financially and morally weigh deeper on him, he decides to enter professional fighting to earn some money, and at this point, like many other points in the film, you think you know where the story is going, but you’d be surprised. It’s hard to say a whole lot about Redbelt’s plot because it takes some very interesting turns that surprised and entertained me, and I think they will strike you in the same way. At this point, I have to be frank and just say ‘watch the movie.’ – sorry, but you’ll thank me later.
In sum, the plot is essentially that of a pure, honest man, strong with the martial arts, versus a whole lot of people that are all about money. They’ll do whatever it takes to get it, and this clashing of character types is part of what makes Redbelt so good. The stellar acting and rest of the script help too, of course.
Redbelt In Blu
I watched the Blu-ray release of this film and was impressed by the consistent visual quality presented. With the exception of a few dark scenes having that compressed look around edges and in the background, I didn’t find anything really bad about the video quality. The set and costume designers did a nice job of adding colors where they could to balance the low key, subdued look (i.e. as far as direction goes, not technical quality) and feel of Redbelt. For audio, expect a well put together Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track with optional French and Portuguese available. I had no complaints about the audio, with the very rare exception of dialogue sounding a bit too distance, but this was a rare occurrence.
The Blu-ray release features several extras, including a BD Live feature that will activate on the street date of the film, August 26th, so at this time I was not able to look into it. As far as other features, they include:
-Audio Commentary track with Director David Mamet and former UFC Champion Randy Couture.
-Behind the Scenes – A nearly thirty minute, HD, look at the making of the film, broken into small chunks including casting, sets, costumes, and so forth. Mamet and the actors, as well as lots of the crew, bring their thoughts, but it’s mostly your standard fare of everyone patting everyone else on the back.
-Inside Mixed Martial Arts – Also in HD, this nearly twenty minute piece again includes much of the cast, which does include several ‘real’ fighters / martial artists like Insanito, Couture, and John Machado. President of the UFC, Dana White also chimes in as everyone talks about the rise in popularity of MMA and about its brief history.
-Q&A with David Mamet – This feature is about twenty-six minutes long, presented in SD, and is literally a Q&A session with the director filmed this past April. He answers various questions about the film and his thoughts on the movie industry and the actors, etc.
-An Interview with Dana White – A sixteen minute, HD, feature that includes the complete presentation of Dana White’s thoughts (i.e. you’ll have seen some of this material already in other features).
-Fighter Profiles – This is an HD, four minute long feature that basically shows clips from the film and a two page graphic about each of the ‘real’ fighters in the film, like Couture and Insanito.
-The Magic of Cyril Takayama – This four minute HD extra features Cyril talking about his brief, but important role in the film and a bit about his childhood and fascination with magic.
Redbelt is one of those films that you probably never heard of, but should definitely make an effort to see. It’s well worth a rental, and I strongly recommend it to martial arts movie fans that don’t mind a bit less action for a lot more substance.
