Yes, I'm a biased MMA fan and yes, I'm also an Anderson Silva fan. So what, this movie kicks serious ass just like Anderson does!
Like Water is a documentary film that debuted in NYC at the Tribeca Film Festival that revolves around a year in the life of Anderson Silva, the world's greatest mixed martial arts fighter. It was masterfully directed by relatively new filmmaker, Pablo Croce, and is a VERY impressive piece of filmmaking! The title comes from the famous monologue by Bruce Lee about being "like water".
On the surface, the film is about the day to day existence of the greatest mixed martial artist this world has ever seen. Underneath all the obvious blood, sweat and tears of this extremely tough sport and lifestyle is the simple story of a devoted family man and devout, God fearing Christian. He's just a man doing what he has to do to put food on his family's table and clothes on their backs. As his grandmother says in the film, he found something he was good at. Sorry to disagree, Grandma, he's not just good at it, he's absolutely amazing at it. There's some intimate glimpses into Anderson's home life with his family. You get to see him at home with his wife and kids who are obviously Anderson's greatest motivation to do what he does. He is torn between making a living in the rough and tumble fight game and having to be away from his family for stretches as long as three months. That's a part of a fighter's existence that no one but those intimately involve see or know about. It's amazing that they can stay so focused. The dichotomy is that in order to provide the best possible life he can for his family, he is forced to be away from them. Ironically, that's one of the aspects of yin/yang that make up the man and the martial artist that is Anderson Silva.
Most of the movie is based on Anderson's preparation for his fight with perennial bigmouth and steroid junkie, Chael Sonnen. It's very much a good guy, bad guy type of film. You leave the theatre hating Sonnen more than when you walked into it (if thats possible) and leave loving Anderson. As much as there is to like about Anderson, there is 10x's more to dislike about Chael. The guy just doesn't stop talking bullshit, EVER. He said more insane, idiotic things in an attempt to hype his fight with Anderson than Charlie Sheen did on one of his UStream broadcasts. We're talking monumental bullshit! What we get to see in this film is how unaffected Anderson is by Chael's never ending attempts to rile him up. Its obvious that Chael was trying to throw Anderson off of his game mentally by trying to anger him. Fighting with anger isn't smart, Anderson is smart. He was having none of it, choosing to take the high road and not engage in that nonsense. The Spider could care less. In fact, we also see that Anderson could care less about any of the ancillary tasks that are involved with being an athlete at the level he operates at. He wants nothing more out of life than to be with and provide for his family, train with his close friends and get in the cage to challenge himself, all while leaving the outcome, as he says, in God's hands.
When it comes to training, Anderson and his Black House brothers do not play games. That's a dead ass serious team of fighters who totally support each other.There's plenty of inspirational, Rocky-like training footage throughout the film. If you want to see people sweat, you won't be disappointed. There is also moments when you see Anderson fighting through the pain of an undisclosed injury to train and prepare for battle. It seems like its some sort of rib/oblique strain, and very apparent that he's in a considerable amount of pain. There's definitely no quit in this dude, he refuses to half-step anything. He'd much rather sweat his ass off in the gym than sit in front of someone's camera or microphone to do interviews. As he says, it's like doing the same interview over and over, no one asks anything different.
Some specific things that stood out to me in the film are:
-Ed Soares is an excellent manager. Getting a glimpse into what he does on a day to day basis is very impressive. Not only is he an interpreter for all of his Brazilian clients, he's also a motivator, a psychologist, a babysitter, a bodyguard, an older brother and a friend. It's obvious that Anderson and the rest of the Black House fighters really like, respect and appreciate Ed a whole lot.
-Dana White hasn't been around a camera or a microphone that he doesn't love. And he loves to hear himself talk. His nonsense about cutting Anderson from the roster was completely unbelievable and obviously all about him pushing his "I'm the boss" agenda. I didn't buy any of it, but for the sake of some drama in the film, I guess it served it's purpose.
-Anderson is as true a martial artist as there is in this sport and he fully embraces the culture that comes along with that. He isn't just some fighter that goes to the gym to train. He encompasses all that is right about being a martial artist. There's a moment in the film where he comes into the Black House training facility and sees Lyoto Machida for the first time in a while. He gets very excited and calls Lyoto, "Machida-San". You can see from his expression that he is very happy to see Lyoto, that they are very good friends and that they are bonded by their respective lifelong study of martial arts. They have a conversation about their styles, agreeing that they are smart, cerebral fighters that don't need to engage in brawls just because that's what the bloodthirsty fans want to see. They also concur that they can't and shouldn't change anything, they just need to win their fights and stay safe. They are very similar in their mental and spiritual approaches to fighting. As Anderson said in the film, his primary goal in any fight, first and foremost, is to be able to get home to his family in one piece.
You can't walk away from this film not understanding what's important to Anderson Silva. It's really very simple; his family, his God, his friends, his training family and his "job", which just so happens to be kicking people's asses inside a cage. Director, Pablo Croce, did an exemplary job in portraying that. It's the story of a simple man, in the prime of his career, being thrust into a complicated life, and all he wants is to do his job, a job he seems to both love and somewhat hate at the same time. More yin/yang. If it were up to Anderson, he would only punch the time clock when he was training and when he steps foot inside the cage. All that other stuff involved in his chosen occupation is nothing but a nuisance, but something he is forced to do. He seems to hide inside the world of his Dr. Dre "Beats" headphones, only taking them off right before he has to "go to work". I wonder what music he is constantly listening to?
Since this film debuted in NYC, out of a possible 5 "apples", I give Like Water 4 & 1/2 apples. Pablo Croce did an excellent job on this documentary and he and his team did a fantastic job shooting it. Based on the quality of this film, Mr. Croce's future looks very bright. I just hope this movie gets the exposure it deserves and any anti-MMA biases people might have don't get in the way of it getting it's just due. Whether or not your a Mixed Martial Arts fan, an Anderson Silva fan or even hate him or the sport, go see Like Water. It's a very well made, inspiring film. I highly recommend it! Below is a link to an interview I did with Pablo right after the movie emptied out. It was totally unexpected and I want to thank Pablo for taking the time to chat.
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