Well Madsen doesn't exactly get to ride off into the sunset with the girl but he definitely gets to play the guy that wins all our sympathy. He plays Sean Kelleher, an Irish boxer living in Cork who accidentally kills his friend in the ring. This prompts Kelleher to promise his wife that he'll never box again. When heart disease takes his wife, Kelleher is left alone to raise his young son Michael (Luke Whelton). After a few years, Kelleher discovers that Michael suffers from the same hereditary heart disorder that had ended his wife's life. Now Kelleher is faced with mounting debt and enormous medical costs for the surgery needed to save Michael's life. But with few assets and few career skills, Kelleher is forced to break his promise in order to return to fighting to raise the funds needed for his son. But Kelleher doesn't go back into the professional ring, instead he enters a high stakes bare-knuckle boxing tournament run by "pikeys," a community of Irish travelers living in caravans outside the city. (Brad Pitt brought pikeys memorably to filmgoers' attention in Snatch .)
Strength and Honor marks the feature writing and directing debut of Mark Mahon. The bare knuckle fighting and backdrop of pikey fringe-dwelling has definitely been influenced by Guy Ritchie's Snatch with a touch of Rocky thrown in for good measure. Mahon even casts Ritchie favorite Vinnie Jones as the ruthless pikey champ Smasher ODriscoll. But then Mahon piles on heavy emotional drama, the likes of which you'd expect to find on daytime soaps. The fates are aligned against Kelleher at every turn, placing obstacle upon obstacle, and tragedy upon tragedy so he has no choice but to return to fighting and risking his life to save his son's. Mahon approaches his tale with utmost seriousness and somber sincerity, which only makes the melodrama more soapy.
Mahon's heart is in the right place and he genuinely cares for his characters. In fact he cares so much for them that he already has a sequel planned. Unfortunately he hasn't the talent to lift his story out of formula and clich. Mahon does reveal a nice flair for the gritty bare knuckle fighting. He uses an intimate filming style for this cruel style of fighting as the boxers are tightly encircled by onlookers. This is close quarters fighting and no escaping contact.
Mahon's casting is an uneven. Madsen gets a chance to display a gentler side of his talent in scenes with his son and his wife. Mahon taps into aspects of Madsen's talent that have been hinted at even in violent roles like Kill Bill (remember him in part 2 when he talked about how The Bride deserves her revenge). But this isn't the first time he's played a concerned parent, you might recall him as the foster dad in the silly Free Willy . In Strength and Honor, he gets to take a more serious stab at showing paternal love and it's a nice change of pace. But Richard Chamberlain, playing essentially the Burgess Meredith role from Rocky , is badly miscast and struggles credibility in every scene. Vinnie Jones chews up scenery and a few actors as the vicious fighter appropriately named Smasher.
Strength and Honor (rated R for some violence) never rises above its formula drama and fails to capture with much accuracy or detail the Irish traveler community. The only attraction here is Madsen.
Companion viewing: Snatch, Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy
