This film is utterly un-Dutch and seems made for a US public, so I am surprised that (as far as I know) it hasn't been remade yet with some professional-wrestlers-aspiring-to-Hollywood-stardom in the cast.
The central theme as mentioned by other commentators is that in the future criminals convicted of manslaughter or murder can opt out of a lifelong prison sentence and into a special programme that will allow them to live in luxury as fêted gladiators who at regular intervals will fight to the death, with their bare knuckle fights broadcast to a wide fan base.
The central characters are: - The protagonist, a big man who cannot control his temper and his strength, but who otherwise is quite kind and lonely. - His friend the irreverent and wiry David, who is on a mission. - Goliath, the most feared gladiator, who seems unbeatable. - The master, some kind of sensei who rules over the gladiators and whose task is to make them accept death as the inevitable and desirable end.
It would be a shame to give away the subtleties of the plot, which lift the film above the average bash-brains-out level. Suffice to say that the fight scenes for which real cage fighters and strongmen were used are quite realistic and brutally violent, but that depicting the violence is not the goal of the film, which actually has a more positive message.
The central theme as mentioned by other commentators is that in the future criminals convicted of manslaughter or murder can opt out of a lifelong prison sentence and into a special programme that will allow them to live in luxury as fêted gladiators who at regular intervals will fight to the death, with their bare knuckle fights broadcast to a wide fan base.
The central characters are: - The protagonist, a big man who cannot control his temper and his strength, but who otherwise is quite kind and lonely. - His friend the irreverent and wiry David, who is on a mission. - Goliath, the most feared gladiator, who seems unbeatable. - The master, some kind of sensei who rules over the gladiators and whose task is to make them accept death as the inevitable and desirable end.
It would be a shame to give away the subtleties of the plot, which lift the film above the average bash-brains-out level. Suffice to say that the fight scenes for which real cage fighters and strongmen were used are quite realistic and brutally violent, but that depicting the violence is not the goal of the film, which actually has a more positive message.