Warrior: Forgiveness and Redemption

This class has had several movies that shown the theme of redemption from different angles and experiences. One such example is Jacket. This movie showed one man's journey that redeemed everyone in his life at that time including his own life.  While considering what redemption means in different cases I watched the movie Warrior for the first time. This movie features brothers who grew up with an abusive drunk father. One ran away with his mother and the other stayed. Each had a very different journey because of it.

The one who left with his mother was soon an orphan after his mother died. Later he became a marine in the US military. We find out later on in the movie that his unit was killed by friendly fire and he abandoned his post. While doing so he saved a man from a different unit but continued on his way without accepting thanks of any kind.

The one who stayed with his drunk father fought professionally (MMA) before settling down with his family as a high school teacher.

The father, who had lost contact with both his sons, got sober and desperately sought forgiveness from his sons.

The movies struggle is all summed up by its final scene. Both brother's are fighting for money in the finals of a MMA competition. One is fighting to save his family from debt. The other is fighting for the money to take care of a military comrades wife and kids. Both are mad at each other. Both have felt abandoned and hurt by their childhood scars. As their father watched them fight, the brother who has a family just keeps asking his brother why he's doing this, why is he still fighting. It ends when the brother who was a marine finally taps out. He only does so after a grueling fight and his brother saying "I love you." over and over. after the fight they both hold each other and cry.

This depicts their redemption. The brother who left felt betrayed by the one who stayed. The brother who stayed felt inferior to the one who left because of the special attention their father gave him. The one who left needed to feel loved and cared for. The one who stayed needed forgiveness. In the end their redemption was painful.

Is redemption always so painful in the end?

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