“The Smashing Machine” has a lot of cringey moments for those of us who don’t like seeing fists relentlessly beating on flesh with realistic detachment, but filmmaker Benny Safdie provides Dwayne Johnson with an opportunity to show his dramatic acting skills and  toxic  raw chemistry with his pal Emily Blunt.

We all bring our own experiences to the movie theater and that can inform how we feel about the films we watch. Not a fan of wresting or boxing, I know Dwayne Johnson mostly from his TV and film career and going into the film I knew nothing about Mark Kerr. But I did start out as a sports writer and I do know something about pain and I have been hit hard on the head.

Fans of Mark Kerr will know that the title comes from his nickname as an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)  fighter.  They have probably also already watched the 2002 documentary: “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr” from HBO. Directed by John Hyams for HBO Documentary Films, that film only ran 78 minutes (1 hour and 18 minutes). This film which was written and directed by Safdie is 123 minutes (2 hours and 3 minutes) and covers a three-year period, 1997-2000.

Safdie’s  “The Smashing Machine” begins in Brazil with grainy slightly gold-toned footage that suggests the past. In this case, São Paulo, Brazil in 1997. It’s Kerr’s (an almost unrecognizable Johnson) first MMA tournament in what was the World Vale Tudo Championships.  Kerr slams down UFC’s California-born Paul Varelans (Andre Tricoteux) and then takes on the Brazilian Mestre Hulk (Marcus Aurelio). Then he takes on Fábio Gurgel (Roberto Abreu).  He wins all three matches, throwing his opponent down and smashing his head with his huge fists as his opponent is pined to the floor of the fighting ring.  This fist-to-face pummeling makes me queasy, but director Safdie shows it’s something a certain audience craves. Kerr has a tattoo on his shoulder with the character that means dragon in Chinese and two little bugs on the other shoulder.

In a time before streaming, the brutality of the no-holds-barred sports is questionable television programming and the UFC has problem with TV exposure and “ultimate fighting” bans.  Without TV rights and exposure, the big paydays go away. But then Kerr and others turn to the Japanese Pride Fighting Championships. There are still rules and contracts but also  language barriers that leave Kerr  frustrated. Kerr’s girlfriend, Dawn Stables (Emily Blunt), works at being beautiful. She enjoys the home, the expensive clothes and the pool that Kerr’s brutal work brings, but she seems to have no ambition of her own.

While Kerr has good friends amongst fellow competitors like Mark Coleman who he knew from college wrestling NCAA competitions as well as frenemies like the Ukrainian Igor Vovchanchyn (Ukrainian professional boxer Oleksandr Usky). In the Pride championships there are rules and Usky breaks them during a match in which he at first claims victory. Kerr disputes the decision and video replays validate Kerr’s complaint, resulting in a no contest. Yet that is his first loss and Kerr has become addicted to the adulation of huge, vociferous crowds. Kerr also becomes addicted to painkillers. At some point, over-the-counter painkillers aren’t enough.

Kerr doesn’t deal with addiction well, but a near death experience helps him to change courses. He finds himself on the comeback trail with Coleman and on the outs with Dawn who is used to feeding addiction’s companion, neediness.

As director and writer Safdie doesn’t sweeten this screenplay in the familiar manner of many sports biopics. Maceo Bishop’s  camera work mimics a documentary, giving us seemingly authentic reality. The camera and Johnson and Blunt plunge bravely  into the ugliness of intimate love darkening briefly into hate. There are harrowing moments and Johnson and Blunt carry them well.

Watching these tall, muscle-bound men, I wondered what it must be like to walk among giants, exist in a world where being six-foot and 200-lbs. is the norm. I grew up with a father who spent hours watching boxing–no baseball, not basketball, not volleyball. Boxing. He even bought two sets of red boxing gloves. I had watched the 2010 documentary “Boxing Gym” by Frederick Wiseman which tries to explain the extraction of boxing to white collar workers. I still don’t get it. People who do will probably like this better than I.

My father was not a tall or bulky man. I will never be described as big-boned. I don’t know what it’s like to grow from a normal-sized kidto a six-foot 200-lb. person, but I’ve been smacked in the head by pavement, luckily with a helmet on both time.  I know that pain from continual injuries isn’t temporary and pride goes before the fall. At the end of the film, I wondered the reality of the real Kerr’s daily pain and then wonder was the glory days worth it all?

What the film does show us the real Kerr and mention that Dawn Staples and Mark Kerr do get married, in 2025, but it doesn’t mention they are now divorced.

Other things you might want to know include Varelans began his career in Ultimate Fighting Championships in 1995. Varelans, 51,  died in January 2021 of COVID-19. He had been in a medically induced coma. Sidney Gonclaves (Mestre Hulk) is alive and well and currently on Instagram.

“The Smashing Machine” had its world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival Festival on 1 September 2025. It had its Los Angeles premiere on 11 September 2025 at the Directors Guild. The film is schedule for theatrical release in the US and Canada on 3 October 2025.