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David Mamet on Redbelt
By Fred Topel | Image property of Sony Pictures Classics
David Mamet is known for his provocative stage plays and film scripts. He's done action movies like Heist and Spartan, but they still have his signature words. Redbelt too has its MMA fighting, but no shortage of Mamet banter. While it seems an unusual fit, Mamet is actually well versed in the ways of Jujitsu.
David Mamet Talks Redbelt
"I washed up in Los Angeles a few years ago and my friend Ed O'Neill said if I ever came to Los Angeles he would put me together with these Brazilians who teach this marvelous art called the Brazilian jujitsu," Mamet recalled. "So I did and he did. I got intrigued with jujitsu not only as an art but with the world surrounding, the people it attracted. That's what the movie is really about. It's about all the different people, all the cross-pollination of people who are attracted to this world. The people who fight for a living and fight to stay in shape and the woman who comes and discovers she can re-form her life. Those are the people you find in a jujitsu academy. It's a fascinating place."
The title comes from the actual red belt that the ultimate Jujitsu master can hope to achieve. If, like me, you thought black was the highest of all belts, Mamet explained his research.
"In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, there is one red belt and it's currently Helio Gracie, who is one of the two men who created Brazilian Jujitsu. He's now 95 or 96, and he wears the red belt. It's an honorific because in Jujitsu there are only the four belts: white, blue, purple, brown, black. White means you don't have a belt, in effect."
Redbelt
In the film, a trainer gets into trouble when he tries to earn a living while holding onto his integrity. Mamet is no stranger to the art vs commerce debate. "Everybody's got to take their pigs to market. You can be the best chair maker in the world, but you've got to sell the chairs. Down through history and even today everybody's kvetching about the middleman. They say that guy isn't doing anything. Well, you can say he's not doing anything. You could do it. You have the choice. You don't. Why? Because middlemen are necessary. Commerce is necessary. It's not enough to be great in your craft. One has to engage in commerce and the free market. And nobody likes the middleman because it doesn't partake of the purity of craft. Whether you're a fighter or a chair maker or an automaker or a dry cleaner, you've got to get down in the muck and get involved in commerce. And when you get involved in commerce, whether it's as a fighter or a filmmaker, at some point you will be abused, disappointed, robbed, betrayed, because there are a lot of different people in the world. That's just the way the world is."
Not that he's cynical or anything. Mamet still believes in the concept of honor. "What I'm saying is that people are intrinsically human and as human beings there aren't one class of good human beings and one class of bad human beings. We all have the capacity for good and all have the capacity for bad. What I tried to do is adopt a view of the universe which is we all have the capacity to do good. We all fail sometime. Then there's capacity for redemption so there's the potential for grace. We have to recognize that not only in our souls but in each other so we shouldn't castigate people by being of a different political persuasion but realize, like some Roman said, he said, 'Speak softly, inside every man's breast a fire is raging.'"
Redbelt opens to theaters May 2nd.
For the trailers and more movie info, go to the Redbelt Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Sony Pictures Classics
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