# Red Belt movie by David Mamet *WARNING!!! spoilers inside*



## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (May 18, 2008)

Saw it recently in a limited release. It was cool to finally see BJJ in a film, but the acting, story, and character development left something to be desired. Particularly considering it's meant to be a character study, near as I can tell.

Some non-sequiter stuff at the end. No idea why either the Japanese guy OR the actor who was supposed to represent an Helio/Carlos archetype would give the hero their belts. Well, shoot dude, maybe. GM, no. Flimsily, but not really.

Characters were pretty one dimensional, making it hard to relate to their actions. Even when we're supposed to feel the weight of a widows loss, all we see is some nasty woman being unpleasant; ill temper, but not loss. Not even a normal human reaction to the gore in the other room. Nor do we ever get to connect with why one guy feels so strongly about his connection to the honor of a 3rd entity, that he's willing to check out for it. But lacks enough commitment to honor to stick around and find another life track that allows him to support his wife, or stick up for the due process and truth about which he feels so strongly, he would die for it. It would have been more real if they all just went to the feds and testified, while calling press conferences with their local congressmen. THEN had some climactic jujittie brawl.

And we are never given a sense as to the history between the lead character and his final fight at the end (which necessarily had a lot of stand up...BJJ battles can be underwhelming to watch, as guys at that level -- without timers on them -- can spend just as much energy squirming and counter-squirming as brawling...lots of bitterness aimed his way, no reasons given why. I felt Mamet painted Brazilians and their clan loyalties as petty, shallow, small, and always up for sale...mercenary loyalties, prone to sell out. Having known a few, even when they feud, family is still king. Even extended family (in laws). So...lotsa stuff I just didn't get. Unconnected and outta place. Seemed like a random string of flat affect events that happens without connection, until the credits roll.

Stupid stuff in some places. Knife instructor for stunt crew asks, "you haven't told him what you did?" (reference to apparent prior service in military). "No." And they never tell us either. We just get to see that he knows what some of the action-movie script service jargon is. Too many unassociated non-sequiters, even for Mamet.

Glad I saw it for the "BJJ on the Big Screen" thing, but I should've waited for it to come out on DVD; pretty much free on my Blockbuster account. This is the first time I have not liked a Mamet film.

Regards,

Dave

PS -- when he's in the underground garage talking to a woman standing out there smoking who slaps him, who was that supposed to be?


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## Errant108 (May 18, 2008)

Kembudo-Kai Kempoka said:


> No idea why either the Japanese guy OR the actor who was supposed to represent an Helio/Carlos archetype would give the hero their belts. Well, shoot dude, maybe. GM, no. Flimsily, but not really.



Japanese Guy?!?

That was Dan Inosanto!


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## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (May 18, 2008)

Errant108 said:


> Japanese Guy?!?
> 
> That was Dan Inosanto!


 
Inosanto was the dude who was supposed to be Carlos/Helio. The shootfighter who never got to fight because Machado met the protagonist outside the ring, and gave up his Samurai belt was not Inosanto.


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## JadecloudAlchemist (May 19, 2008)

How was Tim Allens performace in the movie?
He looked like he put on some muscle for the role.


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## mtabone (May 21, 2008)

I for one, thought Red Belt was awesome...

I saw the movie twice, with two different groups of friends. The major focus of the movie was in not selling out the ideals of Budo. Simple. I thought the acting was good to great, I thought that David did an excellent job on the whole movie. He writes very gritty real life stories, Edmond one of his plays is a perfect example of this.

The reason that Japanese character in the film gave him the belt, (the belt worth the 250,000 dollars) was out of pure respectrespect for reminding him again what all this training, this real training-not the sport, is really about. If you recall he talks about the ideals of the Samurai earlier in the moviewell, fighting in a fixed event, fighting an opponent with whom you have an unreasonable advantage against, fighting for the sake of anything other then the true purpose of the martial arts, which is a life and death ordeal, does not represent that. (and for all those of you who might say that samurai did do those things, we are talking about the *IDEAL) *

The reason for the Red Belt himself to offer his belt was for the same reason. He represented the opposite of everything presented before the Professor. The professor could not be more board through out the fighting event. All the  lights, glitz, parade of Japanese men hitting drums, some archetype old man who borders on a mocking insult to pick the stone, some grudge match, a fight for entertainmentwhen many of the old martial manuscripts speak of not having concern of victory  or defeat but life and death. The only way to truly capture the fact that he had made a major statement by his actions was to show how much the most senior person treats him...and he does so in the purest way. A Rocky speach would just have cheapened the whole film.

If I am not mistaken, a Red Belt is only conveyed on those in BJJ if they have done some considerable to the development and promotion of the art. I could not think of something more fitting this description then righting many of the wrongs and bringing the spirit of martial arts, BUDO, back into the forefront of the art.

Mike Tabone


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## ihraxhunnie (May 21, 2008)

IMO the movie was a little difficult to follow.. in a way.. i guess maybe it's because i really have no background in jiu jitsu.. so i honestly didnt understand the significance of the red belt or just about anything that happened at the end of the movie..

and yeah.. what was the slap about? my best guess was that it was the raped woman and mad because he walked away from the fight? thats honestly the only thing i could come up with but it didn't make any sense.


maybe its one of those movies i just need to watch again to find some of the details i missed the first time? idk.


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## FearlessFreep (May 21, 2008)

> Saw it recently in a limited release. It was cool to finally see BJJ in a film,



YOu *gotta* see Flashpoint, which mentioned here


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## Errant108 (May 21, 2008)

Kembudo-Kai Kempoka said:


> Inosanto was the dude who was supposed to be Carlos/Helio. The shootfighter who never got to fight because Machado met the protagonist outside the ring, and gave up his Samurai belt was not Inosanto.



That was Enson Inoue, real life fighter.


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## mtabone (May 22, 2008)

the slap was because he gave up


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