“The Smashing Machine” came at a perfect time.
By the early 2000s, not much about MMA was still known in greater American popular culture. Names like Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock floated around mainstream levels, but there was still a lack of knowledge about the sport as a whole.
And due to MMA being such a fresh sport with a growing fandom and culture, there was a hunger for any information that could be uncovered about it. The sport had yet to receive any type of long-form peek behind the curtain, and that’s exactly what the film gave viewers.
“The Smashing Machine” followed heavyweight Mark Kerr during an incredibly important part of his career. Not before he captured a major title or headlined a massive show, but instead as he started to face significant adversity both inside and outside of the cage.
Kerr’s story gave a never-before-seen look at how the sport affects its fighters. It was an incredibly tense film that undoubtedly was informative for both MMA diehards and skeptics alike, and has stood the test of time. Before the film gets a biopic remake featuring Dwayne Johnson next year, let’s discuss one of the most important pieces of media from the sport’s early years.
‘The Life and Times of Mark Kerr’
After years of utilizing his wrestling background and overpowering skills to terrorize the heavyweight division – making himself an MMA trailblazer in the late 90s with UFC tournament wins and appearances in Pride – Kerr started to run into issues.
In and out of the cage, things were becoming too much for Kerr. In late 1999, he was stopped in the second round of a fight at Pride 7 against Igor Vovchanchyn due to a series of knees to the head. While the strikes were deemed illegal and the bout was eventually overturned to a no contest, it was still a shell-shocking moment for Kerr, who had never experienced anything even close to defeat in MMA before.
Shortly after that loss, Kerr’s drug addiction started to hit a breaking point. He overdosed later that year, pushing him to check into a rehabilitation facility and go completely sober. He briefly separated from Dawn Staples, his partner at the time, saying that her addictions would make it hard for him to stay sober.
Amid a breakup and a health scare that turned him sober, one of the biggest opportunities in his career came around.
Kerr was put into the 2000 Pride Grand Prix, a 16-man tournament held across two dates. After getting past Enson Inoue in the first round, he took a beating on the ground to Kazuyuki Fujita and lost via decision in the quarter-finals. The film leaves off with the notion that Kerr had possibly stepped away from MMA, although his absence ended up being nothing more than a break. His last fight was in 2009.
There’s something especially damning about the way this documentary begins around what could be considered the beginning of the end for Kerr. You get to watch someone reckon with having to slow down and face defeat for the first time in years, and along the way seeing them realize the other issues in their life that also had to be addressed.
“The Smashing Machine” ends on a note that left me uneasy. It wasn’t a good ending for Kerr, but was it bad? He didn’t win the 2000 Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix and turn around what was becoming a concerning decline in his career. And, against the advice of Bas Rutten, he got back with his girlfriend and they later got married. But, for the time being, it seemed like he was going to step away from the destructive life that MMA had given him. As noted at the end of the film, he hadn’t fought in over a year by the time the documentary was released.
Kerr was seemingly clean from drug use and had limited drinking. And, most importantly, he wasn’t dead. The extreme life that was documented in the film made it seem like anything could have happened to Kerr, as terrifying as that may be.
If you didn’t know how Kerr’s career went, this film would have you on the edge of your seat and fearing for the worst. But even when you know that Kerr is still alive to this day, the film is a tense and chilling viewing.
A Complicated Fighter
Kerr is portrayed in a way that pushes back on some fighter stereotypes while reinforcing other parts. He’s soft-spoken, kind and patient, and seemingly quite self-aware. One of the film’s strongest side plots is the struggle that Kerr faces mentally with processing his career.
At times, he mentions only hurting an opponent if he has to, or not truly understanding why he fights. In one of the opening scenes, he explains to an elderly woman in a doctor’s waiting room that MMA is not the bloody, gore-filled sport that promotional material makes it out to be, and instead a technical battle of styles.
But in other moments, he considers the idea of performing in “the most primitive” sport “orgasmic,” and waxes poetic about how when he gets hurt by an opponent it makes him want to hurt them even more.
While taking pleasure in the sport, Kerr clearly has some struggles with the idea that it’s at the expense of others. This contradiction makes Kerr a more complicated figure than the muscly warrior who simply just wants to go out and kill (or get as close as they can to doing so before being stopped by a referee).
No matter what you feel about Kerr, it’s clear that he’s a sympathetic figure in this film.
The Other Smashing Machine: Mark Coleman
An unexpected portion of this film, to me, was the in-depth inclusion of Mark Coleman.
Coleman was, in a sense, very similar to Kerr. They were both jacked-up Americans from wrestling backgrounds. Coleman similarly had a soft side to him, mentioning that he fought to support his newborn children.
The film at one point almost briefly becomes a story on Coleman, following him in 1999 while Kerr remained in rehab.
The documentary builds tension in the second half over the possibility that Coleman and Kerr would have to face off as part of the 2000 Pride Grand Prix. Both seemed disturbed over the idea of fighting each other but owned up to the fact that it was a possibility.
Documentary filmmakers don’t get to write the script of their presentations. In the end, Kerr’s quarter-final elimination prevented him from having to meet Coleman. But, in a somewhat storybook turn of events, the fight that Kerr gave Kazuyuki Fujita caused the Japanese opponent to essentially forfeit his semi-final bout against Coleman, fast-tracking him to a grand final win over Igor Vovchanchyn.
If there was anything about the film that felt like a “good” ending, it was this. A friendship, something that Kerr seemingly had few of, was preserved.
An Importance For Fans And Outsiders Alike
To me, there are two ways that this film has incredible value: One for those who are outsiders to MMA, and another for anyone (even nowadays) who follows the sport.
“The Smashing Machine” wasn’t going to calm any of the public’s worries regarding MMA being a brutal bloodsport. This film basically showed that, yep, MMA is violent, gruesome, and damaging. But, that’s not what makes it important to that demographic. Instead, it’s the way the people inside the sport were humanized and given a voice.
The film doesn’t show the Kerr that is this untouchable badass, a guy who just shows up and beats people up. It shows a man who is mentally and physically broken by the world around him. It shows a flawed character, someone who then more than ever before had to come to terms with his shortcomings.
You gain a close understanding of Kerr over the course of the film, and he becomes so much more than a faceless fighter who, for all you know, might just be competing for the sake of hurting others.
But this isn’t a film just for those who don’t watch MMA. I think it’s a sobering experience for those who are fans of the sport, as it presents a closer-than-ever look at the thrill and agony that those involved experience.
MMA is entertainment. Especially in the early 2000s, it reeled fans in with the promise of violence and larger-than-life characters. People wanted to see competitors take damage. But, expectedly, MMA promoters spend little time discussing the lows that such performances can deliver. And in turn, it’s easy for fans to forget the dark places that the sport can take fighters to.
“The Smashing Machine” is a reminder to fans that the sport they watch comes with a price to those involved. That person you saw get kneed in the head repeatedly continued dealing with that damage long after they stepped out of the ring. Everyone involved in the sport, no matter how larger-than-life they can be due to their huge size and gutsy willingness to compete, is human just like you. It’s a very grounding film that should be necessary viewing for any fan of the sport.
“The Smashing Machine” probably didn’t create any more fans for MMA. But it gave the world a better understanding of the trials and tribulations that trailblazers in the sport went through, making it one of the most important pieces of media to exist from the scene’s early years.
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