‘The Smashing Machine’: A Review From Someone Who Was There

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media. The article contains spoilers about “The Smashing Machine,” a Benny Safdie-helmed film set to release in theaters on Oct. 3.

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I received an invitation from Diamond Films, the official distributor of “The Smashing Machine” in Brazil, to attend a special press screening of the movie. According to the publicist, the suggestion came from A24 Films, which had learned from Sherdog that I was the creator of Mark Kerr’s famed nickname. The studio contacted Diamond Films about purchasing some photographs from Kerr’s debut at World Vale Tudo Championship 3 in January 1997. They were interested in them for display during credits at the conclusion of the film. The publicist also indicated the distributor wanted to hear the “technical opinion” of a journalist who had followed Kerr’s entire career.

I’ll start by saying I really enjoyed the film. Truth be told, I already knew what to expect from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s performance as the lead. Three days before the screening in Brazil, websites around the world reported the 15-minute ovation the professional wrestler turned actor received at the film’s premiere in Venice. Although it somewhat dampened the surprise of Johnson’s fantastic performance as Kerr, I was still deeply impacted by the way he captured the paradoxical sweetness, calm and politeness that contrasted with the global fame the most feared man in the world achieved at the peak of his powers. I recall this being something that really struck me the first time I interviewed Kerr after he defeated Fabio Gurgel to win the WVC 3 tournament the night he debuted.

Despite focusing primarily on the conflicted and abusive relationship between the fighter and his wife, Dawn, and the drama involving his well-chronicled addiction to painkillers, the film surprised me by examining the friendship and partnership between Kerr and Mark Coleman. Safdie brought so much attention to it, in fact, that after Johnson and co-star Emily Blunt, the actor with the most lines was two-time Bellator MMA champion Ryan Bader, who portrayed Coleman. For me, he was the film’s biggest surprise.

I always viewed Bader as something of a shy, low-key kind of guy. I never imagined he could shine as an actor. A highlight of the movie takes place in a hospital, soon after Kerr overdoses. He bursts into tears upon seeing that Coleman had come to visit him in Phoenix. Bas Rutten also appears extensively in “The Smashing Machine,” playing a less challenging role as coach and mentor.

Another aspect that really impressed me was the attention the director, writers and production team paid to the fight scenes and equipment—from the Pride Fighting Championships and Ultimate Fighting Championship gloves to the IVC and Pride belts, from the Brazilian brands (Hunter, Hot Blood, Bad Boy) that sponsored most of the fight shorts at the time to the shirts from Full Contact Fighter, a newspaper my friend Joel Gold founded that often outfitted American fighters and served as a primary source of information for hardcore fans in the second half of the 1990s.

The atmosphere I witnessed firsthand with Kerr’s WVC 3 debut at the Maksoud Plaza Hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil was also perfectly captured. This includes the manner in which Kerr finished his fights with Paul Varelans, Sidney Goncalves Freitas and the aforementioned Gurgel. Even ringside, they took care to follow through. However, the film also deviates from the true story and claims artistic license by having Kerr defeat a fourth opponent who, of course, did not exist.

Great care was reflected in his first Octagon appearance at UFC 14, where he ran over Moti Horenstein and Dan Bobish, and his Pride debut, along with his controversial loss to Igor Vovchanchyn at Pride 7. That defeat resulted from illegal strikes and was later changed to a no contest. Even the attire Kerr wore to press conferences was correct. There was a technical care present for the sport that I had never before seen in an MMA biopic. In fact, I’ve never seen a big-budget movie that devoted so much space to fighting. You could say there’s more MMA in “The Smashing Machine” than there is boxing in “Rocky,” for example. Obviously, this has a positive side in showcasing the sport, but it also naturally raises concerns about the issue of “intrinsic violence in MMA” that will almost certainly be seized upon by critics in the mainstream media.

Safdie couldn’t cover Kerr’s entire career in just two hours. The film opens with Kerr’s debut at WVC 3 in 1997 and ends with his appearance in the 2000 Pride openweight grand prix, where he lost to Kazuyuki Fujita in the quarterfinals. It was the same event where Coleman avenged his friend’s previous loss by defeating Vovchanchyn in the final. I give the film 7½ out of 10 stars and strongly recommend it.