It took me over a year to finally watch The Warrior, through no fault of it's own. It had been sitting on my DVR since September 2007(a particularly rough month), and I just never got around to it. Finally I added it to my Netflix queue and caught up with it, and I couldn't be more pleased.
The Warrior stars legendary Bollywood actor Irfan Khan as Lafcadia, the lead warrior henchman of a brutal warlord in feudal Rajasthan. Lafcadia has a son who is reaching the early stages of adolescence, and as such Lafcadia decides to finally give up the ways of bloodshed and violence. He takes a vow of pacifism, an act which flies in the face of everything his master believes. After Lafcadia refuses to participate in the wanton destruction of a poor village and flees, his master sends his three remaining warriors to kill Lafcadia as a message.
What follows is a harrowing chase across desert landscapes, as Lafcadia sees the results of his past life and the far reaches of his bloody reputation. The Warrior is ultimately a story about karma, and the disastrous effects that can come from living life to any extreme.
Irfan Khan is one of my favorite actors working today, and I selected this film based solely on the fact that he was starring in it. He is mesmerizing here, portraying the haggard Lafcadia as a man who is clearly weighed down by the burden of his past. The film is beautifully shot, and I can see why it took home so many awards back in 2001(although it wasn't allowed to compete for Best Foreign Language Film here in the States). My only complaint is that the performances surrounding Khan's are comparatively weak, but in truth this is a film carried by and centered around him so it's not that big of a deal. The film is subtitled in Hindi, but don't let that stop you from enjoying a wonderful film. Besides, there isn't much dialogue anyway.
7/10
Next up on the queue: 2008's Man on Wire.
