 Red Belt, a 2008 martial arts film starring Chewy Tell at Joe 4 as a martial artist who's struggling to keep his school open. Now, there's a lot of films out there that feature Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but many times it's kind of mixed in in an overall, you know, mixed martial arts or MMA style film. So, today we're going to talk about why I personally feel, at least up to this date, that Red Belt is the ultimate Brazilian Jiu Jitsu movie. Now, as far as Senadojo goes, this episode is going to be a little bit different in that this time I am not reviewing the film. I have watched thousands of times growing up or have a personal attachment to. I've seen Red Belt a few times and I thought it would be kind of interesting to take a fresh approach into this movie and why I feel it represents the art so well. Also, as a warning, there's going to be some spoiler alerts. If you have not seen this film, I do highly recommend you go check it out right now. I will be giving away plot details and talking about specific aspects of the movie. So if you don't want any spoilers, then please pause right now, go watch the movie and come back and join the discussion. We're also going to examine two ways I feel this movie represents Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Versus the obvious way through its story and the second is a little bit more of an obscure behind-the-scenes reference. Filmmaker David Mamet actually studied Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for six years before writing and directing this film and honestly it shows. Now, this movie has BJJ at its core and even though after watching it a few more times for this review, it's very clear to see that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lies in its heart and it wears it proudly. There's a lot of martial arts films out there that will feature a specific martial art but they don't all go into such great detail about the art and even fewer still will pick up on the small nuances associated with that art. Jiu Jitsu EGO 4 stars as Mike Terry, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor. And right from the get-go of this movie, it drops us right smack in the middle to one of his classes. In just the first scene of the film, we get a clear establishment of the setting. We get a great sense of Mike's character and we can immediately see that he's invested in his teaching. The frustration of things not going your way in rolling and Mike encouraging his students to not give up the fight and great quotes like, and in reference to your opponent, if you cannot control yourself, you cannot control him. I also really like the way this movie reveals little tiny plot details. So for example, films tend to have long-winded expositions sometimes to set up characters or background information or what have you but in the case of this movie, one of the characters is a cop and instead of just telling us he's a cop, they use the moment of him rolling and actually getting the process being choked out where Mike says, okay, officer down. Oh, that got you, Matt. But in that one line, we instantly go, oh, he's a cop and hearing that triggered him to kind of fight back. So little reveals like that as a filmmaker and as someone who really appreciates storytelling, I thought that that was really smooth and this movie is full of little reveals and dialogue like that. So Red Belt finds a way to naturally disseminate its story exposition, which I think is, it's a hard craft to master and it does it pretty well. And the movie plays such great attention to detail when it comes to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I mean, the uniforms are accurate, you know, the right types of uniforms is not just standard karate gi's that a lot of movies might be tempted to do. So you can tell they have the right uniforms. The belt order is correct. They even use terms like academy professor, which is greatly more associated with Brazilian jiu-jitsu. They don't use terms like dojo and sensei as often. So you can see the little attention to detail and care and that this was crafted by somebody who actually knows, understands and appreciates the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The other thing I really appreciate about this film is how it delivers the sense of brotherhood. You know, there's a lot of knuckleheads out there, of course. This doesn't speak for everybody and of course this complies to a lot of martial arts. When it comes to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, there's a lot of pride that comes within that and I'm pride within a family sense. So when you're on the mat, problems stay outside and everybody on that mat is your brother and sister. And in my personal experience in working with anyone from Brazilian jiu-jitsu and even when we did it ourselves, that really resonates and I think this movie really nails that because it is a familial relationship. They are your brothers and sisters and that does come across in this film. Now this film sports a pretty solid cast overall. Highlighting this list is that of Chumi Tell himself. He projects such honor and integrity when he's on screen and it's so easy to root for him and when he's teaching, we actually listen to him. Other notable cast members are Joe Montegna, Emily Mortimer, Rodrigo Santoro and Ricky J who delivers some of the best snarkiest and bluntest lines in the film. We also have Tim Allen and Alice Braga who do well enough but sometimes the film seems to forget about them and it kind of feels like they aren't always around for the ride. We get some fun cameos too, most prominently from John Machado, part of the Machado family who are very well integrated with the Gracies and in the lineage of BJJ. We also get Randy Couture as the fight commentator and in appearance by martial arts great Dan Inosanto who plays a professor and grandmaster. And in the event you watch this movie without blinking you may also catch Simon Rhee, also known for his role as Dahan and best of the best actor Ed O'Neill who is a real life Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and apparently even Gene LaBelle. Now to be honest I look for Gene LaBelle, I saw him in the credits as old fight coordinator or old stunt coordinator. I couldn't personally find him myself so perhaps that's when I blinked but if any of you out there know what scene he's in and can point me to it I'm kind of curious to know. So as a first impression I really dig the BJJ vibe in this film. It presents the art with such respect and even to the point of maybe even the samurai level of honor. But there also tends to be a lot of mixed feelings about this film and I think the over complicated plot might put off some viewers. So the plot, and once again, you know, spoiler alert I'm gonna go into some plot details but in a nutshell the plot is Chewytail Ejio 4 plays Mike Terry who runs a struggling BJJ Academy. One night a frantic attorney Laura accidentally hits Mike's car and comes into the school to apologize. When one of Mike's students, Joe, a cop, tries to help her with her coat Laura grabs Joe's gun and accidentally shoots out Mike's front window. Joe and Mike agree to claim that wind broke the window in order to protect Laura. However, Mike's insurance won't pay for the window and Mike's wife Sondra is tired of her fashion business floating in his school so she begs him to go and ask her brother, Ricardo, played by John Machado for a loan. Mike goes to visit Ricardo at the club run by her other brother Bruno. Now Joe has been struggling to make ends meet so Mike finds out that Joe has been working as an off-duty security officer at the club but Bruno hasn't been paying him. Mike tries to confront Bruno about it but he's told that if he wants money then he has to fight on the undercard of their upcoming event. And of course, Mike, feeling that, you know, competition weakens the warrior he rejects the offer. Then by happenstance, agent action star Chet Frank, played by Tim Allen, is at the bar and gets into a fight with another patron. Mike swoops in and saves the day earning the gratitude of Allen's character. Now from this point on the sequence of events gets even more complex which involves Chet giving Mike a watch as a gift who then gives it to Joe to help him make up for lost pay who then gets suspended from the force when the watch comes up as stolen and Tim Allen wants Mike to be a consultant on his new war film since Mike is an experienced veteran so his manager Jerry, played by Joe Montagna offers him a producer role in the film and invites him and his wife over for dinner in which Mike tells him about his teaching method and a very quick story about an ancient challenge in which fighters draw a white or black marble with the fighter pulling the black marble having to fight with a handicap. Now all of a sudden Tim Allen and Joe Montagna inexplicably ghost Mike and all of the dress orders that Jerry's wife plays with Mike's wife turned out to be fake. Now this puts Mike and Sandra in an even worse position because she borrowed $30,000 from a loan shark for supplies with a dress. Then Mike finds out that Jerry took Mike's training method and obscures story about the marble to Bruno and Ricky J who steal the idea to use it to promote their upcoming fight in which Soren's brother Ricardo is going to fight a prominent Japanese fighter for the national prize of an ivory studded golden belt in the battle for honor. They try to sue but Bruno's lawyer has evidence that Joe covered up the shooting and this puts Joe in the bad predicament of choosing to be possibly prosecuted or for dishonoring the academy and he chooses to kill himself instead. This forces Mike to join the undercard fight so that he can keep his school open and help Joe's widow but then he discovers that the marble trick is rigged with an illusionist Mike made at Bruno's club earlier in the film. Mike of course refuses to go along with this and when he confronts Bruno about the fixed fights he discovers that they brought up their grandmaster in person all the way up from Brazil to watch the fight. Mike is appalled to know that Ricardo and Bruno were willing to rig desirable fights in the presence of the professor. It really does seem to be a bit of a roller coaster and an over complicated way to move the story along but this is going back to what I was talking about the behind the scenes reference to how this movie is also like a Brazilian jujitsu match. Now when it comes to filmmaking it's actually very important to understand the difference between story and plot. Story is what the movie is about. Plot is a sequence of events that tell that story so story is the what, plot is the how. So for example the karate kid, the story of the karate kid is about a young boy who moves to a new town and he can't find balance in his life. The plot is in the sequence of events in which he gets strung up with bullies that beat him up and he finds a little master who teaches him the way of karate to redeem himself at a tournament. So story and plot are two very separate things and it's kind of important to note here. The story of this film is the story of a man who is a former veteran and feels that using his martial arts for competition weakens the fighter. He is struggling to keep up with his academy and he's facing mounting pressure from everyone around him encouraging him to enter a highly publicized fight that would solve all his financial problems. So when it comes to narrative storytelling the story poses a question that the movie spends its time trying to answer. In this case the question is will Mike be able to keep his BJJ school open while still retaining the integrity and code of honor that he lives by? So when it comes to plot the dramatic structure is a yes-no-yes-no structure which means you take that question will Terry be able to keep his school open and he gets his first obstacle? Immediately the answer is no. Uh-oh! But then he overcomes it off school then the answer is yes. Okay yes he's going to achieve his goal met by another obstacle which is no. So when you watch movies try to pay attention that every time the movie starts there is a main question for that main character something that they have to achieve and the whole movie goes back and forth through yes they're going to achieve it no they're not. No they're not. That's just the nature of dramatic storytelling and filmmaking in general. They all do it. Pay attention to that. The thing is story and plot they're supposed to complement each other and in the case of Redbell at many times it feels like the plot and story are two opponents that are actually rolling with each other escaping and reversing each trying to get the upper hand of the narrative. Unfortunately though by the time we get to the film's resolution it feels like the story has tapped out and the plot kind of collapsed under itself and I have three main gripes when it comes to the way BJJ is handled in this film and of course by all means if he disagrees with me let me know in the comments this is a good discussion topic but there's three things that bug me about the way Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is portrayed in this film. Now the primary major gripe in the film is its subject matter itself the red belt. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the red belt is the highest attainable rank and it's usually used in lieu in place of ninth or tenth degree and the way it's portrayed in the film you know Laura played by Emily Mortimer she's taken a class with Mike and at one point she asked about the belt levels and Mike says well white is for beginners and black belts for professor and in between you've got blue, purple and brown and then she asked about what about the red belt and he goes well there's only one that's by the professor there's not only one red belt in fact the red belt again is the highest rank in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and it takes place of ninth and tenth degrees as of this date right now or as of 2019 there were at least 50 recognized red belts in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community and there's additional five that are tenth degree belts which are the graces and those who established the actual actually pioneered the art itself so tenth degree is reserved for them but there's at least five of them and there's plenty of people out there who are red belts and it takes a lifetime to achieve so it was kind of weird that this movie portrayed the red belt as a one single title holder for this grandmaster a fictional grandmaster at that whereas in real life the red belt is a goal to achieve but it takes a lifetime to do it and there was even controversy a few years ago back in 2015 a 35 year old man named Clinton Silva was awarded his red belt and that caused a major major stir in the martial arts community because you know Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the artists that takes the ranks incredibly seriously and it actually holds a lot of integrity so the red belt is not something that's just giving away really nilly and I felt that the way it was portrayed in this film was a bit inaccurate and a little bit disrespectful to be honest and that segues into the whole end tournament and even the magic ending itself I don't think that any actual legitimate sanctioned event would play by the rules that are presented here you know with the white marble and the black marble and whoever draws the black marble is handicapped and has an arm or two tied during the fight that is not safe and I really don't see just from a legal standpoint a liability point of view any large scale organization agreeing to go along something like that in addition the ranking structure and the competition structure is kind of obscure and a little kind of like conveniently placed for the course of this film and the whole magic ending and again spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler going on with the red belt Mike discovers that this corruption that the fights are rigged and he's insulted that the professor's there to witness this so he goes out there to tell the professor but of course Ricardo doesn't want to let him and security officers are after him so Mike takes on everybody in this fight to make his way to the ring that the professor happens to watch because the cameras are all covering and then the Japanese competitor who's there for the honor of his country with his national treasures watching on TV so everybody's watching this random fight in the hallway and as soon as Mike wins all of a sudden it's like magic resolution out of nowhere the Japanese fighter comes up and just hands in the national treasure and bows to him he doesn't know the context of the fight and then Mike works his way to the stage and grabs the microphone and then the professor himself walks up gives him the awards in the red belt and hugs him and the movie's magically over like honors restored and all that that honestly to me from what I know about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu it's kind of been a slap in the face red belts are not given out that way especially to somebody in his age group who would have been in his early 30s his character at least when they made this movie and that's just not the way the competition works it's not like he used Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in a fight and all of a sudden everyone's honoring and worshiping this guy so that was just a personal gripe if you guys disagree with that or if I've missed something again by all means correct me and set me straight down below but by the time I got to the end of this film that was something that really was kind of like eh it kind of overshadowed a lot of what the film has to offer in my opinion and the other thing that kind of rub me weird watching this movie was the choreography I mean this is a movie that's highlighting and showcasing the promoting Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I wanted to see more Brazilian Jiu Jitsu what we got to see is pretty cool you know we got to see a lot of the standard moves and locks and submissions but this movie falls victim to that one technique we've talked about before if you've seen our episode about the karate and how fight scenes are choreographed there's a lot of cutting there's a lot of blurred angles a lot of fast motion that kind of abbreviate the action you can't always see the whole fight and it's zoomed in close you don't always get a great scale of the sequence of going on in the fight and that might be because that Chewy Tell only had a few months of training before the film so they had to kind of cover it with angles but eh to me it felt like by the time I got to the movie I was like I kind of wish we saw a little bit more BJJ it's such a beautiful art to watch it's such a fantastic art but I don't case it more and I feel like the movie could have given us a little bit more of that and a little bit clearer presentation of that and also too he's using it to take on a bunch of people trying to take him down that's not really what the art is intended for you're not going to take on multiple people with BJJ it's a grappling art but of course they threw in you can see you know he's got a military background which they never really went into too deeply but he also punches and kicks and overall I just think the whole usage the whole end act just doesn't quite work for me so at this point in the movie you're probably asking me like well then why do you feel it's the ultimate Brazilian Jiu Jitsu film? because even though the film gets over complicated with its delivery the pulse of BJJ is vibrant and present throughout the entire course of this film we always feel the sense of the art it's code of honor, respect brotherhood and Mike's teaching is a philosophy throughout the film ring deep such quotes as don't get tired let the other guy get tired and I don't train people to fight I train them to prevail you can truly feel the love that director David Mehmet put into this piece and at least it's trying to do something different so even with all its flaws when I finish watching this movie I find myself with an urge to go hit the mats and even though Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not my home art it may be excited for BJJ and that's why I feel that up to this date Red Belt is the ultimate Brazilian Jiu Jitsu movie so what you guys think is Red Belt the ultimate BJJ film or is there another movie out there that you feel represents the art more accurately or even more honorably let me know in the comments below thank you so much for watching please be sure to subscribe like this video join us on Patreon and we'll see you next week