Like trying to find a stuntman to replace Arnie in his filmic heyday it would have been nigh on impossible for anyone other the former wrestler turned movie star Dwayne The Rock’ Johnson to have played the pioneering MMA champion Mark Kerr. He is The Smashing Machine of the title an almost unstoppable force in the ring that beats his opponents into submission and often unconsciousness. It’s a sport that’s about as far removed from crown green bowls as you can get.
Picking up in 1997 Kerr is the champion of the MMA scene that was still in its infancy and without the profile that it has today and his prowess is demonstrated in brutal fashion at the MMA tournament in Sao Paulo where we see him demolish his opponent and win. And yet his prize money is paltry compared to today and it sees him go to Japan to compete in a UFC tournament called the Pride Fighting Championships where it would seem that contestants can look forward to getting battered in the ring (‘You’re fired! – Ed). But despite the organizers making it clear that one particular move is banned his opponent still does it and sees Kerr lose a fight for the first time in his career. Kerr’s protestations about his the illegality of his opponents move should have seen him declared winner instead its declared a no decision fight – so though he didn’t lose neither did he win as usual and it’s this that starts his journey into a spiral of depression and opiod dependency that’s further exasperated by his long term girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt).
Throughout Kerr is portrayed as genial and even sensitive despite his man mountain size and the sport he excels in but post rehab and off the roids there are several scenes that suggest it’s the roids that keep him as a genial giant.
The film is very much a show case for Johnson to show his talents beyond the bombastic blockbusters he’s known for and was for some years the No 1 box office star and this is very much a reset for him in terms of performance as he is very good in this underneath some slightly distracting prosthetics and a head of hair. But he handles the more delicate scenes well notably after his first loss in Japan maintaining his usual soft spoken almost childlike civility to the tournament sponsor before going to his dressing room alone and breaking down in tears. And yet equally on another occasion he destroys a door in his home in the blink of an eye after one of many arguments with Dawn, Blunt is as good as ever but her role here feels a little underwritten.
Written, directed and edited by Benny Safdie there’s an often documentary feel to many of the scenes that extends to the fights themselves which keep us outside the ring rather than inside it as seen in films such as Raging Bull and even the Rocky films. It’s a technique that keeps the audience as observers as much as anything else. Added to that is the use of many real life wrestlers Ryan Baderm Satoshi Ishii, James Moontasri, boxer Oleksandr Usyk, and Bas Rutten as himself and even Mark Kerr himself (who mercifully does not have a brother called Wayne), in documentary style scenes that sees him break the fourth wall.
Like The Iron Claw (2023) with Zak Efron this is a fascinating insight into a sportsman who arguably set the standard for the MMA scene without ever really getting the glory and acclaim that he deserved and The Smashing Machine sets that right in a film whose central performance is arguably better than the film itself.
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Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and director Benny Safdie at the London premiere…..
Here’s The Smashing Machine trailer…..
