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Fresh and Exciting

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I saw this film at a screening in New York City. It is a beautifully interwoven family saga that teaches the evolution of Jiu Jitsu from its roots in Japan to the Gracie family in Brazil and ultimately to the Ultimate Fighting Championship! Awesome!!!!! There is some really good bloody footage. Watch the teeth fly through the air!!! But somehow the director manages to keep it all very artistic by gently telling the story of the Gracie family who perfected this martial art form and spread it all over the world. He interviews several members of the Gracie family and weaves in the history of the martial art with beautiful images of Brazil.

I saw this film in its final stages of post production in New York City, right before it went to sound editing. And it was sensational, fantastic search job, a documentary that every Brazilian or not, UFC fan or not has to see. An anthropological study of a family of almost forgotten heroes that travel for a century between Brazil, Japan and United States.In 90 minutes of struggle merged and fights with interviews, the documentary covers 3 generations of this family and their beliefs and philosophies on fighting and life.Here is where the first UFC (The Ultimate Fighting Championship) and the "Vale Tudo" (Anything Goes) spread around the world with their bowls of açaí.A must go see.