Comeback of the Year: Rourke, the Ram, or Both?

A Review of "The Wrestler"

If a sports fan is asked to name a great movie dedicated to their preferred choice, most would have no difficulty rattling off a lengthy list of respectable films. Baseball fans would most likely name Field of Dreams. Football fans' answer to this question would easily be Rudy, Remember the Titans, or Friday Night Lights. Basketball enthusiasts may name Coach Carter as a good movie to represent their sport. Boxing fans could easily pick a great movie for their sport, from the relatively recent academy award winning "Million Dollar Baby," to the mega-successful Rocky franchise, to the Robert Deniro classic,"Raging Bull." Wrestling fans, however, would be completely stumped when asked to find a 'classic' for their genre. The last wrestling movie to feature the 'sport' of professional wrestling was 2000's "Ready to Rumble," a comedy that made a mockery of washed-up broken-down veterans. Nearly nine years later, director Darren Aronofsky decided to take a more serious approach at a film about a washed up 80's pro-wrestling star, with his critically-acclaimed movie, "The Wrestler."

"The Wrestler" stars Mickey Rourke as Robin Ramsinzky, a pro-wrestler better known by his ring-name, Randy "The Ram" Robinson. In Robinson's glory days, he headlined sold-out events in Madison Square Garden, "the world's most famous arena," as described in the introducton to the movie. The contrast between the past and present stands out harshly as the pictures and sounds from his days of glory change to a shot of the same man sitting in a tiny locker room, coughing, twenty years later. With his days of glory long behind him, down-on-his-luck former pro-wrestling star now resides in a trailer-park and still works wrestling matches for small crowds, despite his broken-down body. Not only does the hearing-aid-equipped Ram live in a trailer park, but he at one point was unable to pay his bills and had his trailer locked up, forcing him to spend the night in his busted-up Dodge Ram van.

The Ram, now headlines indie wrestling events at venues as small as reception halls and high-school gymnasiums, taking any booking he can get in order to earn a living. Despite his current condition, he is respected and revered by the entire lockerroom at these events, as he was most likely the reason many of these men decided to become professional wrestlers. Respect does not pay bills, however, so even twenty years past his prime, resorting to even taking a booking for a hardcore match involving staple guns, barbed wire, and glass. The old-school star is completely out of his element and the pain of the match eventually results in a heart attack, which forces him to give up wrestling. Still having to make a living, he takes on extra hours at a local supermarket, beind the deli counter. After realizing he still has nothing, he considers risking a comeback.

Randy's only family is his estranged daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), who holds a grudge against her father for being on the road throughout her entire childhood. Ram's love interest is an aging stripper, Pam (Marisa Tomei), who develops a friendship with the wrestler but reminds him that there is an 'uncrossable line' between her and her customers. Rourke's character truly has no one in this movie, and it is, for the most part, a complete downer, except for one scene. Ram temporarily reconciles with his daughter, and they waltz in an abandoned, broken-down ballroom. This is a symbolic scene, as such a grungy location could host a beautiful moment like a father dancing with his daughter, which in a way is an analogy for The Ram. No matter how broken down and worthless the world may view him, he still loves his daughter. In one of the most emotional scenes of the movie, The Ram says, "I'm a broken down piece of meat, and I deserve to be alone. I just don't want you to hate me."

The movie is very authentic, with all wrestling scenes filmed in between matches of real wrestling events from promotions like Combat Zone Wrestling and Ring of Honor. The movie features cameos of wrestlers, from current WWE star Ron "R-Truth" Killings to the hardcore indie-favorite "Necro Butcher," to the recently deceased "Paul E. Normous." While Rourke used a stunt double for his hardcore scene with Necro Butcher, he did undergo training from WWE Hall of Famer Afa Anoai in order to legitimately pull off wrestling manuevers in the other scenes.
It seems as if every scene and detail has a meaning or analogy. Marisa Tomei's academy award-nominated role as the aging stripper parallels the Ram's story as she gets older and less successful at her job, feeling less and less needed by society. The majority of the soundtrack is hair metal; stars of the 1980's, many of which may now be considered washed up, just like the Ram.

The movie is lower budget compared to most feature films, and is shot in a very close-up, gritty, documentary-style manner. In one of the deli scenes, real customers interact with Rourke in truly improvisational moments, as the movie's budget could not afford the complete closing of the real supermarket in which the scenes were filmed. In the final wrestling match scene of the movie, the Ram uses Guns N Roses' Sweet Child O Mine as his entrance music, a tune that would ordinarily come with a hefty price tag of $1.5 million, donated free of charge by Axl Rose, in consideration of the movie's low budget.

Reportedly, Rourke was not paid for his role, because no one would financially back a movie with him in the starring role. The common perception of Rourke that he was a volatile, undependable, washed-up bad-boy who would pose a great risk as an investment. In many ways, ths movie eerily paralleled Rourke's own career in the acting world. Rourke's final speech as the Ram sounds almost autobiographical: "I don't hear as good as I used to and I forget stuff and I aint as pretty as I used to be but god damn it I'm still standing here and I'm The Ram. As times goes by, as times goes by, they say "he's washed up", "he's finished" , "he's a loser", "he's all through". You know what? The only one that's going to tell me when I'm through doing my thing is you people here."

Without runing any major plot points, it's important to say that this is not a feel-good movie. This movie is more Raging Bull than it is Rocky, and Rourke's nomination for the oscar for best actor is truly warranted and deserved. It is a travesty, however, that the movie was snubbed in the best picture category, and that Bruce Springsteen (who wrote the title song, "The Wrestler," free of charge) was also snubbed in the best song category. Springsteen's "The Wrestler" plays during the ending credits.

Rourke's comeback is about to come full-circle, as he is planned to make his way to the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, to work a match against WWE's Chris Jericho at the 25th annual WrestleMania--wrestling's equivalent to the Super Bowl--in front of well over seventy-thousand screaming fans. Given Rourke's dedication to training for The Wrestler, he is bound to work hard to put on a good performance at WrestleMania. WrestleMania has had celebrity appearances since day one, whether it was the WrestleMania II appearances by Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, and Ozzy Osbourne, or the Wrestlemania 24's appearances by Floyd Mayweather and Snoop Dogg. However, never before has WrestleMania featured a match with an Academy Award winner, or even an nominee. In late February, the world will find out if Rourke will approach WrestleMania as a winner or just a nominee. Win or lose, the event is bound to be a success, and wrestling fans around the world will echo Springsteen's sentiments: "Tell me friend, can you ask for anything more?"