Director Gavin O'Connor comes out swinging in this flawed but fiercely moving family drama about two feuding brothers competing in a martial-arts tournament. The script, co-written by O'Connor, isn't always steady on its feet, but the actors score knockouts. Tom Hardy, the fireball star of Bronson, brings animal force to Tommy Conlon, an Iraq War veteran returned home to Philadelphia after 14 years. He has no use for his troubled father, Paddy (an exceptionally fine Nick Nolte), who abused his late wife. But Tommy wants Daddy dearest, a wrestling coach, to prep him for an MMA competition that could earn him $5 million. Tommy's married older brother, Brendan (a very fine Joel Edgerton), also wants the prize, to save his home from foreclosure. The brutal MMA action is skillfully staged. But Warrior aspires to myth. It's Cain and Abel battling it out in the face of a decidedly ungodly father before humanity goes down for the count. Strong stuff.

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“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."