“Never Back Down”

 

 

By: Christina Sears

searstina@hotmail.com  

Never Back Down is a movie which I’m sure many people have seen. I’m sure people were lined up a Silver City reppin’ their fight wear of choice waiting to see this action packed film.

On the official Never Back Down website it says that this movie is “set against the action-packed world of Mixed Martial Arts.” It also says that “it is immediately apparent to Jake that MMA is not street fighting, but rather an art form he wants to master.”

Before watching the movie I had the pre-conception that this would be something ideal to a real MMA event. You would have a cage, gear, a crowd, a training scene and a huge fight scene at the end.

Never Back Down was the opposite of that. It was your typical high school movie, where the “popular kid” played by the O.C’s Cam Gigandet, picks on the new kid in town played by Sean Faris.

ONLY instead of something happening like a game of some sort, or whatever they use Martial Arts as a gate way of settling the score between these two characters.

When I seen the first fight scene, where the guys are wearing fight shorts… gloves…. And on some mats OUTSIDE I was thinking to myself “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

A little annoyed I watched on, Faris character goes to this gym where this great instructor is teaching and the guy takes him under his wing. His character deals with anger and says that the only time he doesn’t feel angry is at the gym. Which is something I think a lot of MMA fighters, or people who do martial arts in general can relate to. That is a subject that was more realistic then the fight scene I had previously seen.

They have some good training scenes with the kettle bells, rope climbs, etc all of that does take place in most gyms, the guys work THAT hard, and you put everything you got into training. I once read a great quote that touches base on that “Those who cry in training LAUGH in the battlefield,” and in the REAL world of MMA that quote can’t be any truer. But then Gigandet’s character realizes that Faris character isn’t going to fight in this “beat down” tournament. So he convinces Faris good friend to come over and watch them train then viciously beats the piss out of him and leaves him with a banged up face, broken nose, stitches, and broken ribs. Which obviously gets Faris character all riled up to fight in this tournament.This beat down tournament is held at what looks to be a night club, and might I mention there is NO cage, NO ring… nothing. The make room on the dance floor and pull out judo looking mats, people are crowded around with their video camera’s, camera phones, and whatever other digital device that is capable of recording these fights.

They have a big screen with the fights on there; they have the bouts posted so fights know who they are fighting. Ideally it was suppose to be the two main characters in the finals. HOWEVER one gets disqualified and the other one just taps the mat and walks away because like Faris character said it was between them it was never about the tournament.

They take it outside and settle the score in an “MMA street fight.”

After watching this movie all I could think about was “what is worse, this movie OR Tito’s reality series Anytown Throwdown?”

Although I’m sure everyone involved with creating this movie had great intentions they really had an outsider looking in and getting their hands wet in the MMA world. I don’t feel this represented any aspect of the sport (but its training) well. It just showed it to be what many feel as “barbaric.”

I mean you can search this kind of stuff on YouTube, people in their back yards, at bars, etc… the list goes on and on. Really, what separates the people who do this kind of things from the people who have a passion and drive for it? Who are actually fighters, and represent the sport in the up most respect every time they step in that cage or ring?

This movie did nothing for the world of MMA; I personally think it took it a few steps back then forward.

I’m glad I didn’t go pay to watch this, I can imagine what kind of idiots where there thinking “ooh yeah I’m going to be a fighter!”