Concussion 4K 2015 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

In America, famous athletes suddenly and mysteriously die one after another. A young but talented pathologist wants to get to the bottom of the truth, but not everyone wants the truth.

Review 4K Movie

First of all, let's make it clear that Concussion is "Concussion," not "Defender. It is a movie about concussions, and it is not particularly clear what the defenders have to do with it. Maybe there is a profound idea that Will Smith's character is a defender of his discovery and the health of the next generation of Americans, but I have a hard time believing it. Secondly, for the already mentioned Smith, this movie becomes literally a pass back to the big leagues. Lastly, before we begin, this sports drama, based on true events, explores a very hot topic for American soccer (next just soccer).

The main character is Nigerian-born Dr. Bennett Omalu (Will Smith). As an immigrant, he has about 6 or 7 different medical degrees to his credit, is a Ph.D., a highly trained professional trying to get an MBA. He works as a coroner at the local morgue, and one day the body of famous and successful former soccer player Mike Webster comes in. Brain scans show nothing remarkable, and throughout his fifty years of life he has not complained of headaches or concussions, only in his last days his brain has been playing tricks on him: hallucinations, voices in his head, insomnia, all leading eventually to suicide. Dr. Omalu can't match these symptoms with the seemingly healthy brain of a 50-year-old man, so he decides to do a full lab study, spending his hard-earned $20,000 on the procedure. Because he is convinced that something is not right here. An autopsy of the brain yields results, and the subsequent strange deaths of former soccer players only confirm Dr. Omalu's fears. His discovery is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), characterized by concussion, an injury to the brain caused by frequent and severe blows to the head or head. It is this condition that has caused numerous deaths in professional soccer, and the culprit, according to Omalu, is America's most popular sport, its "beating heart" - American soccer. Naturally, the heads of the NFL, who have been guessing about such diseases for years, cannot allow some coroner's research to endanger an entire industry in the country's entertainment business.

The topic raised in "Concussion" is fairly narrowly focused. By and large, as much as the issue is relevant in the United States, it is just as irrelevant in the rest of the world. This is the first reason why the film can be repellent. The second is that the numerous dialogues and medical terminology will seem like tedious details of the film to most viewers unaccustomed to this kind of cinema. However, I personally find "Concussion" to be a very interesting film, both scientifically and athletically. Dr. Omalu's research received the widest response in the United States in 2012, when the horrifying statistics on the likelihood of CTE in the average soccer player reached even the White House, and Barack Obama was forced to convene special conferences about it. The film vividly illustrates the inability of modern society, led by money and ratings, to consider the truth. Corporations are willing to go in the vilest and lowest ways just to preserve their own reputations in front of their audiences by covering up the numerous deaths of people in their sphere. Dr. Omalu is one of those who could safely be called a "hero of our time." Even though the center of this heroism is again the United States, it is not about any pathos or self-centered patriotism. Nor will the film tell you a story about America, director Peter Landesman stressing in a separate paragraph that the farther you are from the United States, the better. Heroism has no citizenship or nationality.

It is not the first time for Will Smith to play such a stoic hero, especially with his immeasurable charisma he can do anything. However, Will's last strong dramatic role was in 2006, when he brilliantly played his father in Chasing Happiness (yes, it's been a while), all these years he blatantly muffed and got royalties only for his appearance on the screen, and now the thing that I personally have been waiting for - the return of Will Smith - has happened. His character is considerably developed: the African accent sounds extremely believable from Smith's lips, and some of the character's traditions may or may not actually belong to Bennett Omalus, but definitely add a few points to the character of the film. For example, before performing an autopsy on a body, he asks the person who has already died for permission to do so and apologizes for what he is about to do. During the autopsy, he prefers to listen to music on headphones. He throws away the used knives, which enrages the director of the morgue, saying that the institution is a municipal one and they have no money for new knives for each individual corpse. Dr. Omalu replies, "Would you like your mother to be operated on with the same knives as the serial killer? To keep the story from seeming too prim and medical, the director shows us the story of the doctor's acquaintance and subsequent relationship with another immigrant (from Kenya) named Prima (Gugu Embata-Ro). I wouldn't say that the love line has any significance here or if it is convincing, but nonetheless, it would probably be worse without it. In the background, Alec Baldwin shines as Dr. Julian Bales, the personal trainer of the soccer team, some of whose members have been victims of CTE. He is one of the first to decide to support Dr. Omala.

"Concussion" is a strong and important story in terms of the necessity and relevance of the subject matter, but with flaws in the storytelling. It is not as smooth as one would have liked, nor is it as constructive as it seemed at the beginning of the film. Will Smith does his best to turn the movie into an event, but his alone is sometimes lacking. Nevertheless, his merit in the film is visible even from across the ocean, actually, as is the fruit of Dr. Bennett Omalu's research. A good movie with a high risk of going unnoticed.