Peaceful Warrior

I read this book when I was 19 and it actually changed my life. (I even became a Vegetarian. LONG before it became popular in the Midwest.) This movie was just OK. I'm glad I did not have to pay to see it. I took my Wife with me to see it and she, having not read the book, was confused as to how this story could have had such a profound effect on me. The movie is like a rather poor cliff-notes version of the book. The acting is a bit wooden and you never get to know the main character enough to care much about him. There are some significant changes to the plot from the book to the movie. These are major changes that reduce the importance and context of the lessons and reduce this to a "Karate-Kid" (as some other reviewers noticed) without a good script or decent action sequences and only so-so acting. Frankly, Sting would have been a better choice for the casting of Socrates.

My advice would be to read the book and skip the movie unless you "REALLY" like one of the actors in it and will see anything they make just because.

I saw this movie at a screening,(ironically at UCLA) and I really liked it. The only part I didn't like about it was the odd editing they did to make UCLA look like Cal. Of course, I'm a Bruin, so maybe I could tell the differences more.

The movie itself was sad, but at the same time, inspiring. One of the best parts of this movie is the student-teacher relationship between Dan and Socrates, his mentor. This movie hits home because it almost portrays the classic American Dream and the many people who chase it. Dan Milliman, the main character, is living the good life: he's one of the best athletes on the team, popular with the girls, still gets excellent grades. In all, his life is perfect. Yet, in a strange way, he's not entirely satisfied with his life, and you can see that the way he is living isn't good for his well-being. When he meets his mentor, he goes through an entire mental cleansing that is portrayed with humor and poignancy.

In the end, the point of this movie is not whether he reaches his goal or not, but the process of going there, and thats what makes this movie worthwhile.

I really liked this movie. Gives a good feeling after watching it. I'm going to see it again with a couple of friends. Nick Nolte is one of my favorite actors and he does a great job here. I read the book by Dan Millman and I found it to be very uplifting. The other actors were pretty good, and the story moves along really well. I went to the Peaceful Warrior website which was pretty cool too. I think everyone ought to go see the movie. It's important to watch movies like this if you've every had difficult times in your life and have struggled a lot. It gives you a different perspective on things. I think the screenplay was very well written also.

I was invited to a screening of The Peaceful Warrior in NYC Thursday April 13th, having just learned of this film's existence a few days earlier.

I was looking forward to the film, but with some trepidation, considering that prior attempts at communicating spiritually oriented books or ideas had fallen short of my expectations and had fundamentally failed to convey to the audience a transforming inner experience; witness What the Bleep, Siddhartha, Little Buddha, and others.

Let me say this, simply and directly. They got it right this time, and they did it in a way which could be embraced by crowds at the multiplexes. By impressing the discovery of bona fide spiritual truths on a recognizable sports template, the movie makers will be carrying under-appreciated ideas and experiences to the masses. At least I hope so! I actually woke up early the morning after seeing this, with my mind full of things I might say in an exhaustive review. Never in my life have I felt that way about a movie before.

The reason this movie succeeds is that it follows one of the most basic rules for good story-telling: it shows rather than tells. Although some fundamental spiritual ideas are described with words, it is the plot and character development that proves the truth of those words. You see the transcendence and the realizations in the faces of the characters, and you are not left to wonder why. You understand.

The story, based on a book by Dan Millman, follows a college gymnast who has great potential but whose desire for success is one of the main obstacles standing in the way of that potential. In his mindless pursuit of a goal, he becomes sucked into the deep dark hole of life-is-what-happens-while-you're-making-other-plans. In its simplest message, our hero's real challenge is to find happiness by being present and finding interest and love for what's right in front of him.

The film doesn't try to oversimplify the content of a spiritual path into a single dogma; there are many other seeds of thought strewn along the path by Socrates, each of which could have been the basis for a different struggle to transcend relative unconsciousness.

For many years I have been convinced that non-religious spiritual thought and experience could be something to drive the world in a new direction. This movie provides an example of what life can be like if we ponder these thoughts and implement them in our lives in a concrete and practical way. It's not necessary to be a champion gymnast to derive the fundamental teachings from this film. It is a teaching that anyone can understand. This is why I see that The Peaceful Warrior can inspire those who embrace the possibilities which it offers to become peaceful guerrilla warriors, working tirelessly underneath the radar, changing the world.

This is not only a good movie, it's an important one.

I've long been a fan of the book upon which this film is based -- Dan Millman's The Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

If you've read the book, you know its central lesson is learning how to live in the moment.

Filled with memorable aphorisms, the book is part novel, part autobiography, and part spiritual guidebook -- and I have to admit that I was nervous about how the book would translate to the big screen.

But I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening of the film. And for fans of the book like me -- and people who've never read it -- this film delivers.

Nick Nolte's performance as Socrates is one of the best he's ever given. Scott Mechlowicz does a great job showing us the transformation of Dan Millman. And the feeling one has when one walks out of the theater-- of wanting to seize every moment that life offers you-- is a feeling that we don't get often enough. That feeling is worth the price of admission alone.

Peaceful Warrior is that rare film that manages to be hugely inspirational without being cheesy. It's well worth seeing.