“The Smashing Machine”: Dwayne Johnson Embodies Mark Kerr
Some stories are cinematic even before they reach the screen. That of Mark Kerr is one of them: a towering fighter, legend of Vale Tudo and MMA. The nickname The Smashing Machine came to him naturally; he stepped into the ring as if crossing a minefield, knowing that at everything might blow up if he took the wrong step.
Embodied by Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, a former wrestler turned Hollywood’s go-to actor, Kerr’s story peels away the glossy armour of invincibility and exposes his inner emotional chaos. We see a man bearing not only muscle and blood, but the weight of expectations, addictions, and fragility. Beside him stands a sublime Emily Blunt, in a role that expands the film’s scope: not merely the girlfriend, but the human counterpoint, the voice reminding Kerr (and us spectators) that heroism without intimacy is just a poster pose.
On the red carpet came much of the cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, 39-year-old director Benny Safdie, and Kerr himself.
Presented in competition at the Venice Film Festival, “The Smashing Machine” is more than a biopic, but a reflection on the cult of the body, on ritualised violence, and on that ever-fragile boundary between victory and self-destruction. The question that lingers, between an ovation in the theatre and a step on the red carpet, is: who is really fighting? The athlete, the man, or the icon that swallowed him whole?
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photos: Ludovica Arcero
