Going Beyond the Mat: The Possible Basis for The Wrestler

Posted in ARTS to From the Box by Pat Brown on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 3:00 pm

Finally watching Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler this weekend, I became even more convinced that the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), told with an unusual amount of wit and compassion for Aronofsky, is at least partially based on the story of Jake "The Snake" Roberts. The Snake (pictured left) was never as big a star as The Ram is supposed to have been in The Wrestler, but he was a main event or sub-main event attraction for the WWF in the 1980s. Fifteen years after his heyday, Jake was wrestling in high school gymnasiums, addicted to crack and estranged from his only living relative, his daughter. With the exception of the crack — substitute steroids instead — this is the story Aronofsky tells in his latest film.

I know all of this not just because at the age of 13 I was a huge fan of what is now known as the WWE (the World Wildlife Fund sued the World Wrestling Federation for the moniker "WWF" a few years ago), but also because of Barry Blaustein's forgotten documentary Beyond the Mat (1999). The film, inspired by the director's love of professional wrestling, is an inside look at the profession and what happens to its stars after they leave prime time television.

Jake The Snake's story is by far the most affecting part of a film that presents no little amount of tragedy and scandal. Advertised as "The movie Vince McMahon doesn't want you to see," a cheap slogan which means absolutely nothing to people who never watched WWF, the documentary tries to discover just who these people are that exhibit their bodies and their pain each week on national television, or in tiny venues in middle America. Yes, their sport is a fake one, and I wouldn't argue with you if you called it trashy, but the dangers of their profession are real, and the men who choose it are both more banal and more strange than you've probably imagined.

So if The Wrestler piqued your interest, not necessarily in watching Monday Night Raw, but perhaps in people like Randy "The Ram" and Jake "The Snake," whose stories are not at all atypical, check out Beyond the Mat. Blaustein's is the only film other than The Wrestler to honestly consider the odd cultural phenomenon of professional wrestling and the people who make it.

New Releases From the Box

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
I forgot to mention this one last week. This sophomoric sex comedy barely escaped the deadly NC-17, and here is where I make my obligatory remark about sex vs. violence, etc. I haven't seen this film yet, but Kevin Smith, every 15 year-old male's favorite filmmaker, won me back over with the gross-and-trite-but-irresistibly-hilarious Clerks II. So if you can forgive the earnest bombast of Dogma and Chasing Amy, the neanderthal-brow humor of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Mallrats, and the general shittiness of anything he's done other than the two Clerks films and his Q & A's, then this might be worth a try.

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist
Juno 2: Juno Harder. The "indie-lectual" movement has officially worn out its welcome. Though I admit to thinking Juno was hilarious and sweet, this movie has to be the last straw. I won't be able to bear another Little Miss Sunshine or Smart People or Garden State.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XIV
This long-running show in which a guy and two robots riff on bad movies is a '90s classic which, regrettably, we'll probably never see all of on DVD. While the producers owned broadcast rights for the terrible movies they showed, locking up home video rights has been more difficult. Hence, each pricey box set comes with a random assortment of four episodes from the show's 10 or 11 seasons (depending on whether you count its early days on Minnesota public access cable). This strategy also works in the same way the mixed-up James Bond box set strategy works: the two different hosts, Mike and Joel, tend to polarize the fans. This fan likes to think it's in favor of Joel, the Sean Connery of MST3K.

Next Week on From the Box

The author ponders whether it's OK to insult a film starring not one, but two recently deceased actors with the release of Soul Men, starring Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. Meanwhile, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo insult the disabled with Blindness, and Oliver Stone fails to adequately insult our latter President with W. Also, now that Mr. Eastwood has retired from acting with his turn as a racist old guy in Gran Torino, we'll look back on the start of his career on DVD. Tune in next week!