It is about time. It looks like David Mamet is going to craft a film on the subject of Mixed Martial Arts combat. We get the following news about the project from monsters and critics:
Independent filmmaker David Mamet has unveiled ‘Redbelt,’ a film about ultimate fighting, at the Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.
Mamet said he was introduced to the sport by Mordecai Finley, his rabbi and a longtime jujitsu practitioner who has a bit part in the film as one of the under-card fighters, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
‘In a lot of ways, it`s an American samurai film. I think it`s a script Kurosawa would`ve liked.’
In high school a friend of mine kept bugging me to watch this video of guys fighting in a cage. Eventually I went over to his house and we watched UFC 1. By the end of the tape I was screaming at the tv and I could not believe that the slender and unassuming Royce Grace ripped through a gauntlet of fighters to become champion. Needless to say, I was hooked.
Soon after we began watching the UFC live at bars, or on Pay Per View. We also began kicking the hell out of each other. We would wrestle at school, in the park, at our houses, in churches wherever we could wrestle we were wrestling. We wanted to choke each other out and/or secure an arm bar till the other person tapped.
Fast forward 10 + years and UFC is right where I expected it to be. It is the fighting sport of our generation and I am glad that films are starting to be made about this style of fighting. It is pretty much watered down pit fighting, and we already know that pit fighters make for excellent movie characters.
It sounds like Mamet is a fan of MMA and I find it hilarious that his Warrior-Rabbi got him interested in the sport. It was classy to give the rabbi a bit role in the movie as a nod of respect. Red Belt is also a macho name and we will have to be patient and wait for this tale of modern day gladiators.
