Streaming Sleepers: In REDBELT, Honor Above All
Some martial arts film fans measure their listicles of faves and bests by how much action there is, and how cool it all looks. Such spectacle has its rightful designation in the convos on the genre in its perpetuity, while it’s not often that films like Sony Pictures Classics’s Redbelt get the reception and ceremony they so deserve.
Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Mike, a former soldier-turned-BJJ instructor whose personal journey of purity takes a turn off the beaten path after saving the life of a troubled actor. Beleagured by financial debt, he and his businesswoman wife, Sondra (Alice Braga) find themselves upon new opportunities to pull themselves out of their rut, until tragedy strikes, forcing Mike to confront the prevalent auras of betrayal and greed in a world that’s constantly tried to pull him into competition, regardless of his steadfast adherence to his principles – rooted in the teachings of a beloved master known only as The Professor (Dan Inosanto).
It is that very North Star that keeps Mike on the straight-and-narrow, guiding his affirmations and instilling in him the belief that there is no outcome that is beyond our reach. That message gets tried and tested at nearly every turn for Mike, and after a brilliant first half, it’s not until midway into the movie that the stakes escalate even higher.
Ejiofor’s performance gives us precisely the kind of character we should all get behind in Mamet’s nailbiting morality drama. For me, it’s an ebullient essay that reverbs what it means to invest in people. I’m reminded of an opportunity I took upon not too long ago in the film industry, and what it’s like to get screwed over by people I thought were friends, and my own naiveté for that matter. You hold certain folks to a standard, and when they let you down, it tests you to a fault.
That’s Mike Terry to me, and it’s exactly why this protagonist speaks so well to me in its depiction of what it means to discover yourself in a millieu rife with temptation and opportunity – each of these a moment that puts you in Mike’s shoes, and dares you to remember who you are amidst an environment dominated by carpetbaggers who would rather see you forgotten about all the same if you didn’t play by their “rules”.
Redbelt, like any good martial arts movie – in my view, invokes the kind of ethos that is so incumbent with martial arts, generally. Its shared space in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and all sorts of MMA pomp-and-circumstance of professional sport fighting is what amplifies Redbelt is the timely medium that all fans of the genre and the craft should recognize.
It’s all message without the commercial hype and mind-numbing fanservice, wrapped in solid casting sprinkled with some cool cameos and smaller roles, and rigorous fight action that leaves you on edge of your seat with your heart racing; I actually got into a small tit-for-tat on social media a few years abo about how action gets filmed. I’ll say that while the topic wasn’t necessarily about Redbelt, I can earnestly argue that the kind of cinematography issued here is favorably what that one other film tried – but failed – to accomplish.
Coinciding with the action is the energy of the script and the drama. You often can’t help but see things through a more psychological lens, exploring moments of vulnerability and pain with each of the characters’ dimensions. Mamet’s impactful highlight of depression is perhaps the biggest focus of all, spotlighting primarily the underlying tale of Max Martini’s Joe, a troubled police officer whose own woes lend credibly to the struggles of our hero, contributing to a story that brews with intensity leading up to the film’s most crucial tipping point.
A cinematic essay that weighs integrity at nearly every turn, artful, concentrated iterations of fight-heavy drama like Redbelt are so seldom in this arena that you nary get the kind of “thinking man’s movie” that David Mamet’s 2008 drama proffers. It is, inarguably, one of the most moving and gripping pieces you’ll ever see, and while I do understand some critics who weren’t as fond as others, respectfully, it doesn’t make my reasoning for enjoying this film as much as I do factor any less.
In a world full of Donnies, Jackies and Boykas, Ejiofor’s luminous delivery in Redbelt marks a significant win in fanservice with a tale that takes the human spirit to task. An unyielding dramatic action noir from top to bottom, Redbelt anchors its gospel with a strong moral fiber in exactly the kind of martial arts hero that we need today, both on screen and off.
