“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” – Bruce Lee
These are the first words we hear in the Anderson Silva documentary, Like Water, directed by Pablo Croce. For those of you who don’t know who Anderson Silva is, shame on you. He is the “longest reigning UFC middleweight Champion” and, what many have described as, the best mixed martial arts fighter in the world. He is considered the modern day Bruce Lee and Pablo Croce gives us a behind the scenes look at the life of Anderson Silva, his philosophy on fighting, and the buildup to one of the most important and publicized matches in his career, his fight against Chael Sonnen.
As most martial artists will tell you, practicing the sport is not actually about the fighting as it is about being one with your body and being smart with how you use it. Silva is a talented and explosive fighter, but he is also smart and will use that intelligence to his advantage, even if it means reducing the quality of his show; as long as he gets the win that is what matters. To put it simply, he is a reserved fighter who plays his own game. Unfortunately paying customers and Dana White don’t see things this way and so for UFC 117, Chael Sonnen stepped up to challenge the champion in an attempt to force him into an “early retirement.”
On the whole, I enjoyed the documentary but mainly because of its subject matter. Anderson Silva is a very talented guy who I really do admire but he isn’t that fascinating of a character, instead he has the personality of an average guy. He is a reserved man who sticks to his principles. He doesn’t trash talk, he isn’t a showman, and he goes out to fight in order to provide for his family, which is really the only thing that matters to him. It is very respectable just not entertaining, but if you think about it, maybe that’s the point, to show that you can be on top of the world and still just be a simple man.
My chief complaint of the film comes from the repetitive nature of the documentary. I just kept feeling that throughout out the movie I was seeing some of the same scenes being played over and over. the movie could have been cut by ten minutes and still would have been just as good.
One other issue that Silva has is that he doesn’t promote his fights, which is something that he needs to do if he wants to keep his job. Eddie, his manager, tries to get him to understand the importance of this and this ends up being one of Silva’s biggest flaws. It’s his nonchalant attitude that deters some of my interest. I think that’s why I kind of got bored with the doc up until the last 10-15 minutes when the night of the actual fight arrived.
To be honest, I think a documentary of Chael would have been so much more entertaining, he talks trash and is a bit insane, he’s kind of like the juiced up wrestling version of Charlie Sheen. He is the guy that brings so much of the comic relief to the film, he should be quoted on a regular basis. I’m just kidding, while I really don’t think he actually deserves a documentary, it definitely would have been interesting to see his full build-up as well since he plays the stereotypical bad guy, something we rarely see in a documentary.
I also believe this would have been a better piece of work if they showed some more fight footage of Silva, we only got a taste of it in the beginning and if anybody who doesn’t know him saw the film, I don’t think they would fully understand what he’s capable of. At least with the additional footage it would have added a bit more intensity but I’m not sure if that’s what Croce would have wanted.
Overall, Croce does a solid job portraying Silva as the family man who believes in the philosophy of martial arts. He fights with honor, dignity and respect and that is what helps to explain his reserved and extremely determined nature. If you watch this film, watch it for the clash of personalities and talent in the finale. Silva calls how his fight will end and, because of that, it will have you leaving the theater with a satisfying grin on your face.
Rating: A calm documentary where the ending is where your time sitting on a chair truly pays off (6.5/10)
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