In the west-side of Los Angeles fight world, a world inhabited by bouncers, cagefighters, cops and special forces types, Mike Terry is a Jiu-Jitsu teacher who has avoided the prize fighting circuit, choosing instead to pursue an honorable life by operating a self-defense studio with a samuraiâs code. Terry and his wife Sondra struggle to keep the business running to make ends meet. An accident on a dark, rainy night at the Academy between an off duty officer and a distraught lawyer puts in motion a series of events that will change Terryâs life dramatically introducing him to a world of promoters and movie star Chet Frank. Faced with this, in order to pay off his debts and regain his honor, Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his life.
Like David Mamet's previous films,Redbelt's narrative slowly exposes the well-guarded secrets of systems shrouded in mystique and conspiracy, this time at martial-arts academies and on Hollywood film and television sets. Reminiscent ofRocky,Redbeltis an unapologetically moralistic tale of an impoverished, inner city Jiu Jitsu instructor whose idealism is an affront to those who seek to sink him. Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), unknowingly affiliated with the wealthy Brazilian family who rigs televised MMA matches, naively rescues actor Chet Frank (Tim Allen) from being mutilated in a bar brawl, but isn't able to link Frank's sketchy relations until Terry's life is endangered. Fated to ...
