Director of "Choke" comments

[Lithp]

I just got this from the ADCC forum, posted by Robert Goodman

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This seems like a good forum to comment on what I’ve heard and give some answers to the questions I’ve received.

First, I made the film because I thought Rickson Gracie was cool. Simple as that. I met him in 1991 before the UFC phenomena when he just broke away from his brother Rorion’s school in Torrance, California. He opened his own school on Pico Blvd. in West LA, and was giving private 30 minute classes for $30 from 6 AM to 8 PM. It was obvious to everyone that he was a guy going places.

What the Gracies, including Rickson, were "selling" was beautiful: they would teach you to protect yourself in a fight in meaningful way even if you were not a "tough guy." And they were willing to prove their methods in "real" situations. The legend of the Gracies was swept into America and the UFC was born.

But something more than this was just Rickson himself. I believed that the non-MMA audience would be more interested in seeing Rickson and his story than they would be about, let's say. . . Sakuraba or Wallid Ishamel. (True MMA fans might have a different perspective).

As I first conceived the film, the beginning third or so would be a story about the Gracie family, the middle third about Rickson's preparations for the Vale Tudo 95, and the final third would be coverage of the one night tournament. But to do the film this way would have required united Gracie family cooperation--something that was difficult to get at that time. So we changed the concept.

The quality of competitors in the Vale Tudo 95 was much lower than the quality of competitors in present-day events. But to do a documentary that works through, let’s say, Pride 13, would be a completely different film-- although some might say a better one.

And even though the quality of the fighters was not as good as today’s fighters, I believe that their stories are still interesting. Todd Hays may not have been the best MMA fighter, but his story was larger than just the fights; he was fighting to earn money to buy a bobsled in order to compete in the Olympics. His story was about "Fear, Money & Dreams." I hear his story has ended successfully and he is now one of America’s premier bobsledders. Koichiro Kimura’s day in the MMA spotlight may have been brief and unimportant, but he served as an interesting character in the film—-someone who contrasted Rickson’s professional, winner attitude. His story was about "Immaturity, Fear, & Redemption."

To make a more technical documentary that follows three present-day top MMA fighters in the month before the event would be a different film than "Choke" was. It would have a smaller general audience but a larger MMA fan audience-- more a sports documentary. I would be very happy to make this film as well.

Lastly, I received criticism that I portrayed Rickson in too flattering a way.

I tried very hard to portray Rickson as I perceived him. I think there are scenes and situations in the documentary that portray Rickson in "real" ways—-when he was frustrated in his locker room after his fight with Yamamoto, when he and his crew are plotting whether or not to hit the injured Yuki Nakai in the finals, when he has to go to the bathroom before the Yamamoto fight and we follow him and his entourage down the hall...

But the fact is, as I wrote before, I made the film because I thought Rickson was cool, interesting, and human, and I thought that the way he expressed himself -- through Jiu-Jitsu, through NHB competitions, and in his relationship with his family -- was exceptional and that people would want to have a peek in. And not just MMA people.

Is Rickson the toughest? Is Sakuraba? To me, it’s the equivalent to debating whether Spiderman can beat Batman. And I hope that if you pay close attention to "Choke", and really listen to what Rickson says, you’ll see that this question is probably meaningless to him as well. Because of this, he transcends the thing he does (jiu-jitsu, NHB fighting) and is worthy of becoming the subject of a documentary.

You can e-mail me at rgoodman30@hotmail.com.

(and as far as the other thing goes. . . I think the smart money will stay on Rickson.)

[John Bennett]

Well said.

Thanks Lithp!