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I love David Mamet. As a writer, I find myself obsessing over this man’s works in much the way I imagine filmmakers obsess over the work of Coppola, Welles, Scorsese, and Spielberg. David Mamet writes dialogue like no other writer in the history of cinema or theater; brutal, compelling, and achingly realistic stuff. While the celebrated Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith force their characters to spout over-the-top geysers of verbal diarrhea fraught with each author’s own hipster artifice and pop-culture observations, Mamet’s characters tell it like it is. They tell it straight and easy; a hard-nosed attitude without the hard-boiled platitudes – Mickey Spillane meets Arthur Miller. Most often, Mamet's films are "guy" movies, but they're "thinking guy" movies, and for the best examples of that, one must look beyond the obvious choices of Glengarry Glenn Ross or The Spanish Prisoner, and delve into Mamet’s darker, grittier, and more personal works. Look to the vastly underrated Edmond, Spartan, or, perhaps most fascinating of alll, 2008’s compelling “fight movie”, Redbelt.
Chiwetal Ejiofor stars as Mike Terry, a Brazilian jujitsu instructor who puts his spiritual dedication to his craft above all else, even the financial situation of he and his exasperated wife, Sondra (I Am Legend’s Alice Braga). A series of events unfold that bring a collection of odd characters into Mike and Alice’s life, including a floundering action star (Tim Allen) and an emotionally unstable lawyer (Emily Mortimer), each of whom bring along their own sets of unique baggage, and inevitably lead Mike down a path of self-discovery and potential self-destruction.
Set against the backdrop of sleazy Hollywood politics and Mixed Martial Arts tournaments, Redbelt is, at its heart, a fight movie, but anyone familiar with Mamet obviously knows that this is much more than the writer/director’s version of The Karate Kid. While there are a few moments in which fighting takes center stage, the bouts of fisticuffs are very understated and shot in the same matter-of-fact manner in which Mamet films his dialogue exchanges. There are no quick cuts or action edits here; instead we are given deliberately paced fight sequences that truly showcase the brutal balletic beauty of Terry’s fighting style.
Redbelt is a gripping character study that just so happens to be set in the martial arts world, so those hoping for an action-packed chopsocky flick will most likely be disappointed, but fans of great writing and top-drawer acting will love this one.
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Sony offers Redbelt with a robust 2.40:1 1080p transfer that sports wonderful detail, but isn’t the sort of film that truly benefits from HD as it’s a movie carried by writing and performances rather than action set pieces and eye-popping visuals. For the most part, the transfer’s a little on the flat side, but the image definitely pops in the film’s third act, showcasing the spectacle of the MMA tournament in all of its gaudy glory.
Much like the video transfer, Redbelt’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack may be a little more than the film actually needs, but it does a heck of a good job with what’s here, delivering crystal clear, very naturally mixed dialogue that sounds as though the actor’s are right there in the room with you. It’s not something you’d use to show off your system
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Redbelt comes to Blu-ray with a fairly impressive assortment of HD and SD extras, highlighted by a refreshingly different sort of commentary track that features David Mamet and MMA star Randy Couture. The director and the fighter bounce off of each other quite nicely, but rather than just sit there and analyze the film, the two men engage in a deep discussion about each other’s professions, and it’s a lot like that great Sundance series, Iconoclasts, in which seemingly celebrities of seemingly disparate personalities and occupations interview one another. I just found it to be a novel approach and a welcome alternative to the standard analytical commentary track.
Featurettes include Behind the Scenes of Redbelt (HD), Inside Mixed Martial Arts (HD), Interviews with Mamet (SD) and UFC president, Dana White (HD), and more. Rounding out the extras is the films theatrical trailer (HD).
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