Fight Films: The Smashing Machine
🕑 Added 2025-10-22 19:49:15 +0000 UTCWhether you think Benny Safdie's 'The Smashing Machine' is wholly successful or not, for combat historians it's a very compelling piece of Hollywood cinema in terms of its execution, and it allowed me and my brilliant guest Joe Greenwood down memory lane for a wide-reaching conversation about cinema and combat sports history.
Be sure to follow Joe's cinematic project on Instagram as well!
Comments
Kyle McLachlan
Yes indeed Zane is one of the people I was talking about! Not sure what film it’ll be just yet though…
Jack McReynolds
Love these film episodes! I do hope you have plans to reach out to MMA's film lovingest analyst, Zane Simon, about collaborating on an episode. I would really like to hear your thoughts on Warrior. I don't think it's aged well, the fight scenes all kind of blend together, and it feels like they adapted someone MMA fan fiction into a movie. That said, I do think it is a very good snapshot of what the culture thought of MMA at that time. Also, you get Kurt Angle as a fusion of Fedor and Aleksandr Karelin.