The Hurt Business

is a documentary about mixed martial arts (MMA) that played for one night at a local theater as a Fathom Events offering.  A small group of us went to check it out.  I confess that I expected it to be an attack piece, because so many documentaries these days seem to exist to push the agendas of their creators.

I was wrong.

The Hurt Business pursued no single narrative.  Instead, it chose to give a quick overview of just about every narrative in the MMA press today.  From steroid use to concussions, from fights as acts of barbarism to fighters as noble warriors striving to be the best, the filmmakers chose to cover every key topic lightly.  You won't find depth in this movie, but you will find information on a lot of different aspects of the sport.

I walked out with almost no new knowledge, which left me a bit disappointed, but I still enjoyed seeing what the filmmakers had created.  If you're new to MMA, though, I expect you'll leave with a great deal more info than you had before.