10. One &..

Lyrics

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame
You say...

One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's...

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One...

Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...life

One


This is a great song. I am not really a fan of U2 though. I like some of there songs, but they have also made a lot of songs that I don't find really interesting. But no matter what you think of their songs, it cannot be avoided that U2 currently is the biggest and more important band in the world. There is currently no other band that has such a big impact on popular culture and that so consistently fills stadiums and influences other artists. And while Bono seems a bit of a jerk, he currently is the biggest rock icon. In fact I would say that in rock/pop music history there are four bands that stand above all the rest when it comes to longevity, importance and influence. These are The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Queen and U2. They have been of great importance to a great many people and no matter what we think of their songs (I am no big fan of the Beatles either), these are the greatest bands of all time.
The song seems to be about a man trying to make amends with a close family member with whom he had a rather horrible past. This close family member is most probably a father. This is supported by the clip; the old man we see is apparently Bono's father with whom Bono used to have a bad relationship, until they reconciled sometime around the making of the song. Though it can also easily be interpreted that the close family member is a brother.
There are obviously a lot of movies about people who try to make amends with some family member with whom they shared a rather unpleasant past. The movie I chose is a new one that is neither the best film about strained family relationships, nor is that really it's most important subject. But I was very pleasantly surprised by it and wanted to write about it.

The Movie: Warrior (Gavin O'Connor, 2011)

Like all sports movies Warrior is rather predictable. After about 15 minutes we have a pretty pretty good idea of what will happen and indeed everything we thought would happen,eventually does happen. But the movie is so well made and has such wonderful characters that its predictability doesn't really matter. It is one of the best sports movies I've seen.

Warrior follows Tommy and Brendan Conlon. They are brothers, who became estranged from each other after Tommy and their mother left Brendan and their alcoholic, abusive father. Brendan didn't stay because of his father though, but because he fell in love with a girl that is now his wife. And now both he and Tommy are estranged from their father and their mother has passed away a long time ago. The scene where Tommy and Brendan confront each other about why one left and the another one stayed is the only scene in the movie with dumb cliche dialogue. But the look and cinematography of that scene is simply wonderful. Besides being brothers Brendan and Tommy are both MMA fighters who decide to fight in the biggest MMA tournament in the USA, both without knowing that the other brother will participate too. It's a winner takes all tournament with the prize money being 5 million dollars. You can guess which two fighters will be in the final.

On the road to the tournament we follow Tommy and Brendan independently from each other. The plot involving Tommy is nothing really special, but it is handled well. To train for the tournament Tommy returns to his father who was his trainer when he was young. Tommy makes clear to his father that their relationship only extends to training together. He doesn't want any reconciliation or anything. This does hurt his father who is recovering from his alcoholism and is on the brink of being alcohol free for 1000 days. Tommy's reasons for fighting in the tournament aren't clear from the start and the movie does a good job of keeping us curious about them. But it's the plot involving Brendan that's really great. In most movies about sports, especially those about sports involving fighting, the heroes aren't really interesting or intelligent people. As Rocky says himself, he is a bum. Brendan is a physics teacher who when he enters the ring is accompanied by music from Beethoven. He is an intelligent man loved by his students. (Though the movie itself doesn't know much about physics. There is no way in one lesson you would learn about Newton's laws and in the very next one about the law of conservation of energy.) He is retired from UFC fighting, but due to financial problems he decides to participate in the tournament. His wife isn't happy about this. After his last fight left him unconscious she made him promise that he would never fight again. In most movies there now would be a huge fight between husband and wife and the wife would threaten to leave the husband with her kids. Just to make a glorious return by the end. Not here. Brendan and his wife discuss his decision very normally. Both make good arguments. In the end his wife supports his decision, without necessarily being happy about it. And the movie never judges her for the fact that she finds it idiotic that her husband will go back to fight. The relationship between Brendan and his trainer is also presented wonderfully. Besides training together they are also just good friends. This friendship is represented very warmly and realistically in the film. These are both good people who want the best for each other and who respect their opponents.

In almost all American sports movies the hero is a huge underdog whose victory or near victory is presented as some sort of victory for the American norms and values. Not here. The movie doesn't pretend that the tournament is anything else but a great opportunity to see some great fighting. There is a big Russian, who has never fought in the USA before, but he is not presented as a villain. In fact he has a lot of fans who just find him awesome and would love to see him win and fight. When Brendan beats his brother, that's great for him. He'll now have 5 million dollars. But it is not presented as some kind of victory for some great American ideal. The audience in the tournament cheers for him after the match, mostly because they just saw an awesome match. Besides, Tommy and Brendan aren't even enormous underdogs. In one of the first scenes it is established that Tommy is incredibly strong when he beats up the world middleweight champion and in the tournament he goes very easily through the first rounds and while the movie doesn't say so, he would probably be considered the favorite to win the tournament after those rounds. Brendan may have been retired from fighting, but he is not a nobody. He was a UFC fighter and there is no reason why he couldn't win the tournament.

Lastly some other notes. The movie understands very well how the media in the 21st century works. When Tommy beats up the middleweight champion in the beginning we someone filming this with his mobile phone. This goes viral on YouTube and creates a hype for Tommy. And there also other examples which show that the movie knows that the internet has become of huge importance for the coverage of sports and news. I don't think that there is another sports movie which gives such a realistic depiction of sports coverage.
I am not a fan of fighting sports and in fact I sometimes have some unfair prejudices against both the participants and the spectators of such sports. But if you are going to watch two people fighting, it doesn't get more exciting then MMA fighting.
Nick Nolte, who plays the father, got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He is very good in it, but the whole cast is great, especially Joel Edgerton as Brendan.