
The highlight of this movie for me was the portrayal of the wrestling industry. People don't realize that while professional wrestlers put on an act to "stage" their fights and feign aggression and animosity towards each other in the ring, they also share a deep camaraderie backstage that the audience never witnesses. The wrestling business is like one large fraternity where even the most hated rivals in the ring can go out and celebrate a quality match at a local bar later that night. Since everything is scripted, the wrestlers need to know each others' tendencies and ring move preferences to properly pull off a perfectly choreographed match. Aronofsky lets the audience enter this backstage world of wrestling and understand everything that goes into promoting and executing a match. The depiction of the fandom associated with wrestling is also very well done. In one particular scene during a hardcore match, "The Ram" is offered to beat his opponent with a prosthetic leg from a wheelchair-bound fan. The crowd chants "USE HIS LEG, USE HIS LEG!!!" in a typical wrestling-style chant. Pretty funny and actually something that a mob of wrestling fans would do. I know this because I've been to a few WWE shows.
I particularly like the way Aronofsky shoots Rourke in most of the scenes from a camera angle positioned directly behind the actor. We see him walking to a bar, walking to his side job at the grocery store, walking out of the hospital all from the same back-of-the-head angle that we initially see when "The Ram" is making his entrance into the ring at the start of the film. This visual conveys the fact that while Randy attempts to get away from the sport and try to fit in with "the real world", he we always be viewed as a wrestler.
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2 comments:
I don't think I can see this movie, as I am still recovering from seeing Requiem for a Dream by the same director four years ago. I might be permanently scarred.
Don't worry, there's nothing like the "ass to ass" scene from Requiem in this one. It is not nearly as disturbing. Aronofsky can get very "out there" with his work but this is pretty tame by his standards. The only really graphic scenes are the violent bits related to the hardcore wrestling match.
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