The art of hand-to-hand fighting has a special place in the heart of men. It doesn't matter if you're the president of a geopolitical superpower, the chief of a badass commando or some kind of athletic freak of nature, besting your fellow man in an unarmed fight will earn you the ultimate reverence of your peers. That's why Bruce Lee enjoys a Godlike status in any fighting discussion (even though he was primarily an actor) and that's also why Anderson Silva will enjoy one is about ten years from now. The idea of making a documentary about Silva in his fighting days seemed like a great one to me, that it would humanize him and/or build his legend.
LIKE WATER doesn't accomplish any of that. While it's a rather pleasant overall experience, it's as hollow as it gets for a documentary.
Here is what I learned about Anderson Silva during my viewing of LIKE WATER: he's been married for many years, he has several kids and he misses them a lot during training camp. That's it. Given that I'm more educated about Anderson Silva's career than the average viewer (I've been following his career since his beatiful victory over Japanese sensation Hayato Sakurai in 2001), I don't think there was much in LIKE WATER that I couldn't have learn through a thorough reading of Silva's Wikipedia page. It's a short documentary (it clocks under 80 minutes) that focuses around his training camp for his first fight against Chael Sonnen and it's pretty much just a bloated episode of UFC Primetime.
If anything, LIKE WATER bears witness to the strange culture the UFC has built around its elite fighters. Maybe it's director Pablo Croce who was inexperienced (it was his first documentary, he shot two other since, including another UFC-related one where he worked as a cinematographer. His IMDB profile photo was taken with Anderson Silva, for christ's sake), but all he does it following Silva during his training camp, hoping a storyline is going to draw itself. So all you got is heavily edited footage of Silva training, heavily edited media footage and heavily edited interview footage. There is now rawness, no human confrontation to LIKE WATER, but someone it respects the editorial line and the visual style of the UFC's promotional material.
Here is what I learned about Anderson Silva during my viewing of LIKE WATER: he's been married for many years, he has several kids and he misses them a lot during training camp. That's it. Given that I'm more educated about Anderson Silva's career than the average viewer (I've been following his career since his beatiful victory over Japanese sensation Hayato Sakurai in 2001), I don't think there was much in LIKE WATER that I couldn't have learn through a thorough reading of Silva's Wikipedia page. It's a short documentary (it clocks under 80 minutes) that focuses around his training camp for his first fight against Chael Sonnen and it's pretty much just a bloated episode of UFC Primetime.
If anything, LIKE WATER bears witness to the strange culture the UFC has built around its elite fighters. Maybe it's director Pablo Croce who was inexperienced (it was his first documentary, he shot two other since, including another UFC-related one where he worked as a cinematographer. His IMDB profile photo was taken with Anderson Silva, for christ's sake), but all he does it following Silva during his training camp, hoping a storyline is going to draw itself. So all you got is heavily edited footage of Silva training, heavily edited media footage and heavily edited interview footage. There is now rawness, no human confrontation to LIKE WATER, but someone it respects the editorial line and the visual style of the UFC's promotional material.
Dim lighting, a vague impression that Silva's alone in the gym, a choreographed scene meant to add some visual flare to the documentary. Have I ever seen this before?
One thing that I thought LIKE WATER did well despite itself was to expose the conundrum of shit talking in real fights. See, Chael Sonnen is kind of a one-note song who got himself a title fight using steroids and transcendent mic skills *. When you're risking your face in a cage, a good session of shit talking might be added value for the paying customers, but it's just unnecessary stress for the fighters. LIKE WATER caught several reactions of Anderson Silva and his manager Ed Soares to Chael Sonnen and UFC president Dana White and I thought illustrated the pressure UFC fighters often have to face in highly mediatized events, given that they'll actually beat the shit out of each other at the end of the day.
Anderson Silva is immortal. He's become immortal in the cage by doing nasty things to fighters such as Rich Franklin (twice), Dan Henderson (my favourite performance of his), Forrest Griffin and Vitor Belfort. When he stepped in the cage, it was always an event because anything could happen. His legacy doesn't need a documentary. Especially from a director he obviously didn't trust enough to confide to him (and who obviously had a goal to get in the UFC's good favours). If you're interested in a documentary about mixed martial arts, watch FIGHTVILLE. If you're interested in Anderson Silva, watch him fight in the cage. His exploits will be aired for many, many years. It's going to be some time before we can find such an exciting and dominant champion.
* Sonnen was suspended for steroid usage for one year after the first Silva fight and was recently suspended for two years for repeated offense. It's safe to say it was part of his strategy book.