The Smashing Machine (18)

Director: John Hyams, 2002

Stars: Mark Kerr, Marcus Coleman, Royce Gracie, Igor Vovchanchyn

Softly spoken, articulate and courteous to a fault, Mark Kerr has the demeanour of a hotel concierge or a provincial bank manager. But let him loose in an Ultimate Fighting arena, and this clean-cut goliath exhibits a chilling facility for grappling opponents to the floor and pulverising their faces in a whirr of elbows and knees.

As Hyams’s excellent HBO documentary opens, Kerr is the unbeaten top dog of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a virtually rule-free combat sport that pits martial artists against boxers and former wrestlers. The encounters, which take place before thousands of blood-craving fans, are medieval in their brutality.

With a money-spinning tournament in Japan looming, it’s not just Kerr’s friend Marcus Coleman and the rest of his monstrous rivals who threaten to take his crown. There’s also an unstable, alcoholic girlfriend and a life-threatening addiction to the painkillers that fuel his invulnerability in the ring. A Rocky-style climax beckons — but the real-life coda is infinitely more engrossing, and Hyams neither glamorises nor patronises his hulking subjects. As Kerr and the Ukrainian Igor Vovchanchyn convene for an emotional post-mortem minutes after tearing into each other like pitbulls, their mutual respect is both bizarre and curiously noble.