Wrestling with reality

Have you ever seen a one-trick pony in the field so happy and free?

If you’ve ever seen a one-trick pony then you’ve seen me.     — Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler

This, in two lines, perfectly describes Randy “The Ram” Robinson, the washed-up, beaten-down professional wrestler fighting through hard times with a broken down body and a wounded soul in The Wrestler. As a lifelong follower of the professional wrestling world, this film resonates with me more than the likes of Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It may not have been a Best Picture nominee, but there are plenty of things that make The Wrestler one of the best I’ve seen this year.

The first thing I noticed when I was watching this film was that it was shot using a lot of tight angles and it utilized a lot of close-ups. What this did, apart from giving a raw and indie feel to the film, is emphasize the humanity of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, making the audience feel like they are visually in the same world. It made the world of wresting more real. The tight angles perfectly convey the pain the lead character experiences.

During the scenes where The Ram is in the ring, it’s feels as if you are in the ring with him, feeling every bump and bruise. In the scene where the doctor is pulling out broken glass and staple wires from The Ram’s body after a brutal match, you watch every wire and piece of shrapnel pulled out of Rourke’s character as if you were beside him. The shots are so close you can almost feel his pain.

Of course, the camera work is only as good as the subject it’s filming. In this case, Mickey Rourke (and even Marisa Tomei) does a superb job as the subject of director Darren Aronofsky’s camerawork. The acting in this film is poignant and moving, especially with a small cast that depends largely on Rourke and Tomei.

In Rourke’s money scene, where he talks to his estranged daughter by the beach, he turns on the tears so masterfully that I had to rewind it to check if they had to cut before the tears started to roll. He did that scene so naturally and so full of heart that it’s hard to believe that this guy was (is) once a self-destructive actor who cared very little about his craft. This film is worth watching just to see this performance. I know Sean Penn won the Oscar and probably deservedly so, but Rourke in this one is worth the price of admission.  

The last thing that struck me about The Wrestler was its gritty and unembellished take at the world of professional wrestling. The Wrestler isn’t about the glamour of being the Macho Man in the ‘80s or The Rock in the ‘90s. It isn’t about John Cena making Hollywood movies or Hulk Hogan having more mansions than hair strands. It’s about the blood these guys have to shed just to entertain a rabid audience. It’s about all the drugs they have to take to stay chiseled like granite. It’s about these guys not having enough time to see their children. It’s about these guys not having a future once their bodies break down and their popularity wanes.

The Wrestler is just about as realistic as a movie about a fake sport can get. It takes you into the life of man whose career path has backed him into a very unpleasant corner. The once proud and popular entertainer who headlined matches at Madison Square Garden is now an over-the-hill old man willingly disfiguring his body to amuse small crowds in bingo halls.

The pain of being The Wrestler is not the pain you watch every week on television. It’s everything before and after.

* * *

For questions, comments or corrections, please e-mail me at carlfrancisramirez@gmail.com.