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Movies :: Soul Warrior A new film starring Nick Nolte in one of his best supporting performances delivers Buddhist tenets to a mainstream, family-oriented audience. "Peaceful Warrior." Rated PG-13. Starring Scott Mechlowicz and Nick Nolte. by Betsy Sherman
The film is an adaptation of Daniel Millman's 1980 autobiographical novel "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior." This so-called "spiritual memoir" was adapted by Kevin Bernhardt and directed by Victor Salva ("Powder"). The filmmakers do a beautiful job of bringing Buddhist tenets to a mainstream, family-oriented vehicle without getting caught up in jargon. As the enigmatic mentor figure, Nick Nolte adds this role to his collection of brilliant supporting performances. Fresh face Scott Mechlowicz ("Mean Creek") brings conviction and charisma to the role of a college gymnast who craves Olympic gold, but learns how competition as a way of life can cause spiritual damage. The Dan Millman of the movie (Mechlowicz) seems to have it all. As a star member of UC Berkeley's gymnastics team, he's headed for the Olympic qualifying trials. He's got family money at his disposal, and can get seemingly any girl he wants. But we're dropped straight away into one of his nightmares. Dan does a spectacular routine on the rings in front of an appreciative crowd. He drops to the ground -- and his leg shatters into sawdust, which is summarily swept into a dustpan (this and subsequent dream sequences are made vivid by computer graphics). Dan distracts himself with casual sex, rowdiness in the campus pub, and reckless, high-speed jaunts on his motorcycle. A late-night run brings Dan to a modest Texaco station outside of the city. The white-haired station attendant with the penetrating gaze startles Dan by appearing to move faster than the eye can see. In the hope of learning some new trick that will help him perform a triple flip off the rings, Dan seeks out the man's tutelage. The older man, who tends to answer Dan's questions with questions of his own ("You like things explained, don't you?"), earns the sarcastic nickname of Socrates, or Sock, from the impatient athlete. The wisdom that Sock is eager -- in his cantankerous way -- to share is Buddhist mindfulness practice. With this skill, one can be fully relaxed and fully awake in the present moment. Inside yourself, Sock tells Dan, is "the only place where you're gonna find what you need." To someone as ambitious and goal-oriented as Dan, the traditional method of achievement is hard to shed. Even when he manages to find the joy of the moment during a gymnastics routine, he "flunks" when he tells Sock about it ("You're in the past, gloating, not in the now, living"). Dan will draw on Sock's method when he has to cope with a devastating personal setback. Director Salva, who has specialized in fantasy and horror, uses the modern, CGI-aided filmmaking idiom to make Sock's brand of warrior training more than just a screed. We experience it visually and aurally when Dan's mind slows down, his inner chaos abates, and he can really focus (such as when he sees individual drops of water in the shower, or notices the people in the park, who have previously been oblivious to him). Sock's roundabout teaching method gives the film its touches of humor. Usually, it's wry humor, as when Sock brings Dan on a trek into the mountains, because there's something Dan has just got to see. When Sock points to an ordinary rock as the "something," Dan catches himself on his way to a tantrum, and concludes that "the journey is what brings us happiness, not the destination." There are some more raucous laughs when Sock handles a back-alley mugging in a way not typical of your average martial arts hero. "Peaceful Warrior" has some over-the-top scenes (such as Dan pulling down his trophy shelves in a bout of rage and despair), but they're forgivable. Overall, the movie is imbued with sincerity, and it respects the audience's intelligence. Mechlowicz brings more than good looks and athletic grace to the role of Dan: he hooks us into Dan's struggle as he accepts, then fights, then accepts, then fights again the principles underlying Sock's philosophy. Nolte doesn't tart up the role of Sock or make him into a jade statue -- but that's presumably why he was cast, because he has the ability to zap right to the essence of a character, without any unnecessary nonsense. Amy Smart, her hair darkened from its usual blonde, pops up now and then as Joy, an intriguing student whom Dan meets at Sock's. Depending on what side you're looking at it from, "Peaceful Warrior" is like putting candy in your granola, or like putting granola in your candy. Either way, it satisfies. Visit the official movie website of "Peaceful Warrior."
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