Redbelt

"There's always a way out. You just have to find it."

2008 1h 39m EN

😐

6.4

MID

★6.4TMDB · 304

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Martial artist Mike Terry lives by a strict code of no competitions, for he feels that such contests weaken fighters. After saving a famous action star from a brutal attack, Mike takes a job in the film industry. He soon finds his personal beliefs and integrity on the line as circumstances force him to participate in a prize fight.

“There's always a way out. You just have to find it.”

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Cast

Chiwetel Ejiofor
Mike Terry
Tim Allen
Chet Frank
Alice Braga
Sondra Terry
Jose Pablo Cantillo
Snowflake
Randy Couture
Dylan Flynn
Ricky Jay
Marty Brown
Joe Mantegna
Jerry Weiss
Max Martini
Joe Collins

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: David Mamet
Writers: David Mamet
Languages: English, Japanese, Portuguese
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 18 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Japanese, Portuguese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CAST

Did you know

203+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by David Mamet, shot by Robert Elswit. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Stephen Endelman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Barbara Tulliver shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tim Allen and Alice Braga carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "There's always a way out. You just have to find it.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Mamet directs. Robert Elswit behind the camera. Stephen Endelman scores. Barbara Tulliver cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Japanese, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 18 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Japanese, Portuguese.
3203+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
4Directed by David Mamet, shot by Robert Elswit. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Stephen Endelman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Barbara Tulliver shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tim Allen and Alice Braga carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "There's always a way out. You just have to find it.".
9IMDB entry: tt1012804 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 12 themes, including "sports", "movie business", "video surveillance", "interracial marriage".

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert Elswit
Original score: Stephen Endelman
Editing: Barbara Tulliver
Production design: David Wasco
Costume design: Debra McGuire
Makeup / hair: Sheila Cyphers-Leake
VFX supervisor: David Altenau
Sound: Roy Waldspurger
Stunt coordinator: Jack Gill
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $7,000,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Redbelt (2008)

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David Mamet

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Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb280390232022-08-28
★ 5/10
Redbelt may not be, though it’s still pretty good, David Mamet’s best, but it is for the most part an interesting sample of his work in that it showcases some of his most finely honed traits and, more importantly, it is proof that the true mark of a gifted filmmaker is the ability to elevate any genre he chooses to use as raw material (his Spartan is another good example, as is Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire); in this case what we have is a deconstructed martial arts film, complete with a Big Tournament at the end – but the events leading up to it, and how the tournament itself unfolds, are handled with Mamet’s characteristic ear for realistic dialogue, attention to detail, and patience; the necessary patience to allow the plot to develop as a natural and organic succession of characters’ choices and their corresponding consequences, as opposed to, well, a plot. As a result we are spared such clichéd sights as the Training Montage, for instance, or the Romantic Interest. The hero is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teacher Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whose mantra is “There is no situation that you cannot turn to your advantage.” In keeping with this, Mamet weaves a script where there are no wasted movements; as in a Rube Goldberg machine, every disparate element – idealistic sensei, shallow Hollywood star, troubled police officer, traumatized female lawyer, long-suffering wife, crooked club owners, shady businessmen, etc., etc., etc. – is interconnected with the others and all serve the story just like all roads lead to Rome. Even something so apparently random as some dude performing sleight of hand in bar in exchange for drinks will eventually fall into place and fit in with rest as neatly as a key going into a lock. Only the ending seems like it was taken straight out of a much inferior movie (think something like a Kickboxer or a Never Back Down), and represents somewhat of an anomaly among Mamet’s filmography which, mostly for better but sometimes for worse, is nothing if not consistent – consider 1988’s Things Change, whose deus ex machina not only had a better set-up but was much easier to swallow because the movie was, after all, a comedy. But here the fanciful climax feels tacked on, especially after the effort made by both the filmmaker and his expert cast to invest the story with a palpable sense of realism. To go out of his way like this, Mamet clearly cared a great deal about the main character – and so will most people who watch the movie, though not necessarily, at least in my case, at the expense of inner logic.

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