dagblog - Comments for "Film Review: The Wrestler - Hulk Hogan in Shades of Blue"

funny ... the one scene (or

Deadman — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:39:21 +0000

funny ... the one scene (or at least piece of dialogue) in the wrestler that rang false was when the stripper character played by marisa tomei likened rourke's injuries to those suffered by jesus, so perhaps the word resurrection was intended.

It's not about wrestling

acanuck — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:12:52 +0000

In reply to The plays are excellent of

It's not about wrestling (except at the very end) but your review brought to mind the 1962 movie Requiem for a Heavyweight. Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason are at the top of their craft, as is Cassius Clay. Just had to toss that in.

The Wrestler sounds intriguing. I saw a TV ad promoting the film as "the resurrection of Mickey Rourke." Resurrection! Seems to me "comeback" would have sufficed.

OK, I only saw the last

Donal — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:08:49 +0000

In reply to It's so much deeper than

OK, I only saw the last fifteen minutes, so that makes more sense now.

Wow, thanks for the full

Michael Wolraich — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:13:16 +0000

In reply to It's so much deeper than

Wow, thanks for the full story, Smark. I'll have to get the documentary.

And thanks for finding the link, Donal.

It's so much deeper than

Smark — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:04:51 +0000

In reply to Found

It's so much deeper than that. The documentary mentioned is "Bret 'Hitman' Hart - Wrestling With Shadows".

The infamous screw-job was at a PPV in Bret's home town about a week before he left WWF for WCW. His contract was up at the end of the show. The planned finish was for Hart to win in his home town in exchange for doing one more match for free the next night in another town (on Monday Night "RAW") where he would lose and the belt would go to someone else.

Since the contract would be over, Hart would not legally be required to do this. Vince McMahon arranged for Hart to lose with Shawn Michaels (his opponent) and Earl Hebner (the ref), with Hart in the dark about it. When Michaels applied the Sharpshooter finishing hold (that Hart was supposed to counter), McMahon signalled for the bell and Hebner and Vince hauled a$$ to the back with the belt. Michaels looked dumbfounded as well but it was revealed later that he was in on it.

McMahon was afraid Hart was going to take the WWF belt to WCW like Ric Flair had done in years past. WWF was losing to WCW in the ratings at the time and this could have been a death blow to RAW.

I still don't think Vince was justified. Hart seems to be a man of his word.

Found

Donal — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:16:00 +0000

In reply to I don't remember the names. I

Found it:

http://www.documentarychannel.com/main/content/view/105/28/

I don't remember the names. I

Donal — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:12:22 +0000

In reply to He looks a bit like Flair,

I don't remember the names. I saw part of it a while ago on the Doc channel when we had Dish TV. He was a longtime performer and wanted to go out with the title. They had told him that he would win to get him to do one last match, but actually fixed it so he would lose.

The plays are excellent of

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:05:46 +0000

In reply to great review, G. much better

The plays are excellent of course, so they don't fall into cliche like Rambo and Rocky, but they all contain archetypes of old men who take shelter in delusion, which contrasts with Ram's lucidity. Lear and Loman literally go insane. Levene, I admit, does not fit as well into the group, insofar as his exercises in self-promotion may be more pretense than hallucination. Let me know if you have better examples, but tragic old men are hard to come by these days. There Will Be Blood? Paul goes insane but not because of impotence.

It would have taken more than a single flashback to change Ram into a tragic figure. I suspect that the hole in the film was due to Rourke and Aronofsky relying on the "easy and logical extension" you mention rather than weaving selfish hedonism more fully into Ram's character. The movie's greatest strength is its resistance to caricaturing Ram. But in that case, it can't rely on caricature to fill out the missing bits.

PS I think that you would write excellent movie reviews, Mr. Wannabe Screenwriter.

great review, G. much better

Deadman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:29:34 +0000

In reply to Film Review: The Wrestler - Hulk Hogan in Shades of Blue

great review, G. much better than anything I could have done - though i gotta think you could have come up with better examples of The Senile Has-Been genre - aside from the 2008 presidential election, im not even sure the ones you mentioned apply.

anyway, i think you're right that we needed to see a bit more of the 'bad' side of The Ram, maybe an opening credit flashback scene or one involving his daughter may have helped crystalize that side of him. But i still felt it was a rather easy and logical extension to see how someone who was at the top of the pro wrestling allowed himself to indulge the excesses of that world at the expense of nurturing those important personal relationships.

Welcome, dupree. Funny that

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:00:42 +0000

In reply to I have vivid memories of your

Welcome, dupree. Funny that the wrestling stood at to you. (Judging by your email address, I'm guessing that you're KK.) Yes, I was wrestler in high school, though far from a champion. And I've been frequently recommending the World According to Garp on dagblog, probably the best book concerning high school wrestling ever written, though the subject is somewhat tangential to the main thrust.

In answer to your question: none whatsoever. Or at least no more than anyone else who grew up in the 80's. "Pro-wrestling" is a theatrical performance and bears very little relation to competitive wrestling, which is not as fun to watch but has the advantage of being an actual sport. We wore green frill-less singlets with ugly white earguards and stayed as low to the ground as we possible could to avoid being taken down. In contrast with professional wrestling, where the best wrestlers are those who play to the audience, good competitive wrestlers tune out the audience entirely. Indeed, it's difficult to do otherwise when you're pouring every last atom of strength you can summon into cranking your opponent onto his back or keeping him from doing the same to you.

The film correctly portrays pro-wrestling as theater, but I was impressed by the way it succeeds in doing so without sneering, acknowledging that it is not the sport that it pretends to be while recognizing its practioners for their talent and seriousness.