Posted: 06/29/2006

Peaceful Warrior

(2006)

by Karen Petruska

Based on author Dan Millman’s real-life experience as a gymnast, Peaceful Warrior follows the character of Dan Millman as he journeys from being a selfish and arrogant gymnast to the self-aware peaceful warrior of the title. His inspiration for change is a “quicki-mart philosopher” whom he calls Socrates, played by Nick Nolte, who teaches Dan to let go of ego and desire in order to live for the moment.

Scott Mechlowicz as Dan is a bit small to be a gymnast, but he plays both arrogance and despair with conviction. Nolte is typically surly and unusually self-contained, but he lends the film a gravitas that almost makes the movie’s cliff’s notes version of philosophy palatable. There is talent in the supporting cast but Salva fails to develop these relationships. Similarly undeveloped is a possible love relationship with Joy (Amy Smart) who has an undefined relationship with Socrates. Yet the heart of the film lies with Dan’s resistance towards and gradual acceptance of Socrates’ lessons. Salva draws this mentoring out to a two-hour running time, and the film feels long at times. But Salva always gets things moving again, and Mechlowicz makes for a sympathetic hero.

Dan names Nolte’s Yoda-esque character Socrates, but the film, featuring such fortune cookie mottos as “it is the journey that matters” and “live within the moment,” also owes a debt to bastardized eastern philosophy. Committed to a life of “service,” Socrates works at a full-service gas station in the middle of the night, can jump heights of ten feet and demonstrates cat-like reflexes. None of this is ever explained, of course, and the Enya-like score reinforces the sense of mystery that surrounds Socrates. The script doesn’t allow Nolte to make Socrates a real character, and as such, he cannot draw from the audience anything more than a mild curiosity.

An early scene in the film humorously depicts Dan offering Socrates a host of common clichés as possible “insights,” with Socrates rejecting each with disdain. Yet despite this rejection of clichés, Kevin Bernhardt’s screenplay practically oozes with banality. I kept waiting for something in the film to surprise me, but director Victor Salva follows exactly the “inspirational story” playbook, complete with our hero perfecting that elusive skill that no other gymnast has yet achieved. In addition to such camp moments as an injured Dan performing a routine on the rings…at night…in the rain, the script depicts the usual plot of continual achievements and setbacks that somehow keep us rooting for the flawed hero. Combined with weak dialogue and a lack of character development, this predictable plotting dooms the film to mediocrity.

Lacking depth or complexity, the pat solipsism offered by Peaceful Warrior is difficult to swallow. Dan notes the irony of a gas station attendant claiming to know the meaning of life, yet the film doesn’t reflect this self-awareness. Moments of humor are few and far between, despite the fact that Socrates himself states that humor is one of the three most important parts of life. Salva would benefit from a greater sense of whimsy: he takes everything so darn seriously that he can’t overcome the weaknesses in the script and plotting.

After suffering an injury, Dan almost realizes his greatest fear—how to live life when unable to do the one thing he does well: gymnastics. I sat up in my seat, intrigued that perhaps this film might break the mold. Unfortunately, Salva quickly returns to the sports-movie script, reducing Dan’s injury to another obstacle on the path to glory. As such, though the film made me feel sympathetic towards Dan and even tense about the (completely anticlimactic) outcome of his final competition, this impact was fleeting. The film had left my mind the minute I exited the theatre.

Karen Petruska is a film critic living in Chicago.

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