On VOD 10/06/2026
The life and career of the unbreakable Dolph Lundgren, action hero, businessman, father, and so much more.
Let’s start with the obvious here, I am a Dolph Lundgren fangirl and have been since before high school when I first saw Rocky 4/Universal Soldier/Showdown in Little Tokyo. My mother had rules at the video store; my father did not, so I saw these and many more before I was old enough to see them. The man has always been impressive to me, even when I was told of his misbehaving while filming in Montreal where I lived at the time (said misbehaving is discussed in the film and basically self-destructive).
Written and directed by Andrew Holmes, this documentary is all about Dolph Lundgren and life and career with no intention of being anything else. This is not a full deep dive with multiple sides to a story; this is a story of one man as seen through his own eyes and some of those around him. This is not journalism per sey, it’s a documentary about the man with his approval, so for those looking for dirt or anything super negative, this will not be the documentary for them. That being said, the subject here, Lundgren, does not shy away from some of the less glamorous parts of his past and his own decisions. The film follows him through his recent cancer fight, something that almost took him out for the count, but it also has a focus on his view of his own life so far, including a childhood with an abusive father, his start in the party scene of NYC in the early 1980s, his relationships, his films, his battles, and his decisions that have led him where he is now. The film shows what looks to be an honest view into Lundgren’s life while picking and choosing what to show and what not to show.
One thing the film really allows to shine is vulnerability from a man often seen as one of the toughest in the industry. The man who most people first noticed when he told Rocky that he must break him. Here, he talks openly about his childhood, early career, recent health issues, his love life, his daughters, and a lot more. He shows an interest in being honest and open while giving a more vulnerable side of himself to the camera. Don’t get me wrong; he still looks like he could break most of us. The way he speaks of his own life shows that he has done some introspection and has opted to tell these specific stories, giving the viewer insight into a man they are likely already a fan of. The film also has a few of his loved ones showing such as current wife and his daughters as well as industry friends, such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his team. The folks speaking here have different views on him and his life, thus adding interesting takes on things. That being said, a few more people would have been fantastic to add, but it is understandable that they may have been busy or not interested (sometimes, the past doesn’t want to cross back with the present).
The film’s look is very much what the public has come to expect of this type of documentary with clear images, basic lighting, and just a very cohesive look that fits with many other documentaries like it released recently. There’s archival footage, photos, and new footage of interviews and following the subject throughout everyday life. This here all looks like it was done quite well, and, in a way, a three-people cinematography crew could achieve without creating any disconnect between the sequences. The cinematography here comes courtesy of director of photography Grant Cooper with co-cinematographer Ian Kerr and Shae Paterson. The fact that it was not obvious that there were three people working on this part of the film shows that these three worked quite well together.
Dolph: Unbreakable is an interesting, albeit too short (clocking in at 1h18min) documentary about a mainstay of the action film world of the last 40+ years. The film could have dug deeper on some fronts, but did well with what they opted to show here, giving a man most only see on screens more humanity, imperfections and all.