The warrior in question is single father Lafcadia (Irfan Khan), the lead muscle for a heartless warlord. Lafcadia begins to question his occupation, leading his rabble of men to prey on the villagers who fail to pay off the warlord's inflated taxes. After a particular nasty raid, he decides to renounce violence, quit working for the warlord, and go on the run. This kind of betrayal has its consequences and before he can escape, they capture and kill his son.

Despite his devastation, he makes his way across the countryside while his former soldiers burn a path of destruction as they hunt for him. He gets a companion in a young street thief Riaz (Noor Mani), who reminds him of his son. He helps a blind woman who is on a pilgrimage to a holy river, but although she is blind she keenly senses the brutal core in Lafcadia's heart. Hoping for some kind of peace if not redemption, as Lafcadia travels closer to the Himalayas and his birthplace, he just might find it.

Asif Kapadia has crafted a very assured debut film. The story is very simple, the pacing is laconic, there is very little dialogue, and much of the emotional burden of the film is shouldered by lead actor Irfan Khan, who does an amazing job with each steely glance from his expressive face and emotive eyes. Honestly, this is the kind of film that would, for all the talent of its script, director, crew and cast, would totally fail because of a poor or even slightly lacking lead performance. Luckily, Irfan Khan is up to the task and does some amazing work, speaking volumes with a few seconds of silent expression.

The simplicity of the film did wear on me a bit. While the landscapes and cinematography is quite beautiful, there were times when it seemed like an easy way to pad the running time with a beautiful skyline or two. Sure, there are instances when a director, like Antonioni, can use the environment to add to a films emotional resonance, but there are also times when a lovely shot is just a lovely shot and it is not necessarily moving the story forward.

While it stylyictally may only lend itself to more patient viewers, The Warrior still remains an excellent tale of karmic retribution. While his past may haunt him, our warrior is not condemned by his actions and one simple act of good may be enough to set him on a path of peacefulness.

The DVD: Miramax.

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. Visually this is a positively sumptuous film. Cinematographer Roman Osin carefully framed the scenery and much of it is extremely stunning. Technically the disc appears to be pretty solid. Colors and shaprness are quite vibrant. Some slight softness is apparent in a few scenes, which I will chalk up to the low budget production and the unforgiving environment which was at times alternating between the frigid cold of the mountains or the blistering heat of the desert.

Sound: 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, Hindi with English and Spanish subtitles. This is a case where I wonder why bother having the surround. Not that the mix is bad but the simplicity of the films storytelling really carries over into the sound mix, resulting in a pretty straightforward mix with very little surround activity.

Extras: ‟Making Of‟ Featurette (44:05). --- Deleted Scenes (60:05), with optional director commentary. --- Feature Commentary by director Asif Kapadia.

Now, since this was such an interesting, less than run of the mill production, (a debut film, a weird mutt of an international production) all of the extra features are quite engaging. The ‟making of‟ is fascinating, getting into the particulars of setting up the international crew, casting the actors, many of whom were non-actors/first-timers, the locales, everything, from the film's start to the final wrap. The Deleted/Alternate cut scenes are very interesting, however the presentation was lacking. The deleted bits are mostly fragments with the majority being alternate longer cuts of scenes in the film; however, it is presented in one long, massive bulk. I would have preferred they separate each bit. The Commentary is also insightful, very anecdotal, and this being his first feature, Asif focuses on the production woes and technical quirks, yet remains (justifiably) proud of what he and his crew accomplished.

Conclusion: Favoring eloquence over stylization, it is easy to see how viewers may be mislead by the title, basics of the premise, and things like the DVD description which name drops Hero and promises ‟exciting samurai-style action sequences.‟ No, the film making here is much more subtle, and the subject matter is definitely more about avoiding violence than perpetuating it. The DVD presentation is quite good with an excellent round of revealing extras that add that extra incentive to checking out the title as a either a rental or a purchase.