Warrior

Theatrical Release Date: 2005 07 15 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 786936696110

Studio: Miramax

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence]

Summary: A cold-blooded warrior strives to become a man of peace in this strikingly photographed drama from writer and director Asif Kapadia. Lafcadia (Irfan Khan) is a steel-nerved professional soldier who works as a lawman for the corrupt leader of a local political regime (Anupam Shyam). Lafcadia is valuable to the tyrant for his ability to kill without mercy, but when he's sent with his compatriots to massacre the people of a small village who've been delinquent in paying their taxes, Lafcadia is struck by a vision of a young girl standing on a mountain overlooking the carnage. The vision startles Lafcadia into a change of heart, and he pledges to lay down his weapon and never kill again. However, the tyrant isn't happy with Lafcadia's decision, and retaliates by putting his son (Puru Chibber) under arrest and burning his home to the ground. Undaunted, Lafcadia sets out on a quest in the Himalayas to find the child from his vision, with the tyrant's ruthless enforcers on his trail. In time, Lafcadia is joined in his search by a fugitive (Noor Mani) on the run from a prison work gang. The Warrior was shot in two versions, one in the Hindi language and one in English. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Action

Features: Deleted scenes with optional commentary
The making of The Warrior
Feature commentary

Warrior

Format: DVD

Release Date: 05/02/2006

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 87 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Warrior
1. Father and Son [7:49]
2. Carrying Out Orders [7:54]
3. Cold Feet [3:34]
4. No One Leaves My Service [6:56]
5. Is This Your Father? [4:26]
6. The Blacksmith's Help [7:08]
7. Riaz [8:39]
8. Now You Know [5:35]
9. To The Holy Lake [8:02]
10. The Warriors Are Here [7:45]
11. Revenge [3:33]
12. Help Wanted [5:38]
13. Leaving The Past Behind [6:36]
14. End Credits [2:49]

Michael Buening

A serious action movie on an epic scale, The Warrior should please fans of samurai dramas and the kind of populist international masterpieces made by David Lean and Akira Kurosawa in the 1950s and '60s. Director Asif Kapadia uses imposing landscapes, lean storytelling, and minimal dialogue to convey broad, overarching themes of redemption. Though set in a specific historical period in the Indian Rajasthan desert and Himalayan Mountains, the film seems to take place in the abstract past of folklore. The titular warrior is Lafcadia (Irfan Khan), part of a group of sword-wielding thugs who terrorize, rape, and pillage on behalf of a local warlord. After nearly decapitating a girl while destroying a village, he has a vision of his boyhood home in the mountains, and decides to give up violence and return there with his son. The warlord sends the remaining warriors to kill them. Lafcadia is a complicated character whose past actions make it nearly impossible to forgive or feel compassion for, but Khan's gripping performance is amazingly bold and graceful. His face seems to contain a thousand conflicting crystal clear emotions and it's telling that, in a film filled with dramatic long shots, Kapadia decided to open the movie with an extended tight close-up on Khan's eyes. (After its release, this film made Khan a global star.) Throughout The Warrior there are intermittent bursts of violence, and an increasing buzz of tension as Lafcadia nears his home and his pursuers draw closer. But this tension is deflated in favor of a pacifist message that rejects the allure of violence. This is a movie where simple actions dictate the awesome influence each character wields. The extremities of this world may be foreign to most people, but the struggle for a complicated salvation it chronicles is not. ~ Michael Buening, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Paul Webster  Executive Producer 
Hanno Huth  Executive Producer 
Dario Marianelli  Composer (Music Score) 
Bertrand Faivre  Producer 
Asif Kapadia  Director 
Asif Kapadia  Screenwriter 
Tim Miller  Screenwriter 
Irfan Khan  Actor 
Puru Chibber  Actor 
Mandakini Goswami  Actor 
Sunita Sharma  Actor 
Noor Mani  Actor 
Damayanti Marfatia  Actor 
Feroz Khan  Actor 
Anupam Shyam  Actor 

Country: UK