Wrestling

Good evening,
Last week I was trying very hard to keep myself occupied in an attempt to soothe the voice in my head that was screaming "badabadabadabada-BATMAN!" over and over again. One of those close to futile attempts started quite late. I believe it was last wednesday, around half past midnight, I asked my roommate if he would be up for a movie. I had set my sights on "The Wrestler", a movie I've found quite hard to convince people to watch because of the name alone. As soon as I mention the title people seem to scatter and run for the hills. Because who would want to watch a wrestling movie?
Usually I would try to explain to these people that The Wrestler is no more about wrestling than let's say.. Black Swan is about ballet or House M.D. is about medicine. It is just some kind of base that is required to convey a message. And almost always, I'd get the response: "yeah, yeah, what other movies you got?"
But on this night, my roommate caved, and we watched The Wrestler. A movie I had seen once before, when it first came out, I had watched it on one of my flights across the pond separating my homeland from my sister's. Also known as the Atlantic ocean. I had liked it back then, it had made a certain impression on me that made it somewhat memorable.

Last wednesday however, it struck me in a whole new way. I really sat down for it, and let it do it's work on me. A movie that is strayed away from by quite a few because of the wrestling aspect, showed me a very different underlying message.
To me this movie shows us an incredibly interesting triangle in the life of a wrestler nearing retirement. At one end of this triangle we have our Wrestling superhero "Randy the Ram", and you see him doing his thing. The crowd goes wild, and he gives them a great show. This is truly what he likes to do, and he does it well. The public sees him as a living legend.
Then there's his colleagues, his fellow wrestlers, we get a view at the professional aspect of wrestling. The interaction between the wrestlers, he is treated with respect but also a certain level of carefulness. People realize he's nearing his limit, and he can't do the things he used to be able to do.
And then there's the handful of people who actually know him when he's not putting on a show. The few people who interact with him during day to day life. In this film we see him reaching out to these people. Attempting to break free of all his roles, his shows, his characters.
The overlap between these three worlds, and the direct interaction between them, is what makes this is a great film for me.

If this verbal diarrhea manages to get even one person closer to ignoring their inner voice telling them they don't want to see a movie about the ballet, or wrestling or two gay cowboys, I have done my good deed for the day.

Live long and prosper,
Teun