I got to see this last night and while I'm not ready to put it in my
recommendations as of yet, I still recommend it. I don't usually write
reviews but in this case I must speak of it. I am a wrestling fan and I
have had some involvement in the wrestling industry in a couple
promotions as a ring announcer so this really hit home for me.
Through the years we have had such wrestling movies like THE WRESTLER
(1974 and no it has nothing to do with), BODY SLAM (probably the best of
what i am naming off), NO HOLDS BARRED, READY TO RUMBLE, and NACHO
LIBRE (does that even count?), director Darren Aronofsky and writer
Robert Siegel bring us a compelling story of a wrestler.
Mickey Rourke stars as wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, who was big in
the 80s but has his best days behind him. He still continues to
wrestle for smaller promotions and works at a grocery store. When I
first heard about this movie and when I told them about who is the star
they could not believe someone as old as Rourke would play a wrestler. I
have seen many wrestlers that are his age that just cannot retire
because that is all they know. Randy does whatever he can to stay just
standing and uses a lot of drugs to do so. Seeing them go backstage at a
wrestling show brings back a lot of memories. After a very brutal
match with the real-life wrestler Necro Butcher at a show for the
real-life promotion CZW, he ends up having a heart-attack and learning
that he should not wrestle any longer.
Trying to adjust to
this life, he tries to reconnect with his daughter Stephanie, played
very well by Evan Rachel Wood, who he has had a very difficult
relationship and obviously was never there for her but wants to make up
for it. He also wants to form a relationship with his stripper friend
Pam, played by Marisa Tomei, but she has issues of her own and is
reluctant to have a relationship. Randy also starts working full time
in the meat department of the grocery store. With this, he sees that
all he really knows and the only place he is really accepted is in the
wrestling ring and agrees to have a match with his 80s rival the
Ayatollah, played by wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller.
What I
expected here was a ROCKY-type story formula but that is really far
from what is. Randy is someone who is very flawed but is aware of these
flaws and really wants to change but that is very difficult for him,
especially with his daughter. We have nice interactions between Rourke
and Tomei and Rourke brought such warmth to the Randy "The Ram" Robinson
character. I heard that Nicolas Cage was first considered but Rourke
was perfect for this part and got wrestling training from WWE Hall of
Famer Afa Anoai of the tag team The Wild Samoans.
This was more than a wrestling movie. This was a movie on a man passionate about what he does but loses it and wants it back.
Bruce Springsteen has a new song THE WRESTLER which is great. I really
had to analyze this when I was done and realized this was so greatly
done in my opinion. As someone who has been backstage in wrestling, it
was a pretty accurate film on wrestling and the backstage world. When I
heard about this movie, I was so excited since I am a fan of Mickey
Rourke and of wrestling and can't believe this was done.
Even if you don't like wrestling, this is still very watchable. There are many real-life wrestlers in the back-stage scenes.
That is about all I really have to say. I don't usually do this but
feel very compelled to review this movie from the perspective of someone
who has had part-time involvement in the wrestling industry and have
met many different wrestlers in that strange world. Due to my job, I
don't really get to go to as many wrestling shows as I used to and
that's fine because theater is far more important but I would like to
get back to the wrestling in the future.
Stay tuned on Saturday
or Sunday for the 165th Edition of Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations
which includes a movie with Mickey Rourke and I have quite a few
scheduled of him in the coming weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment