Mickey Rourke’s Amazing Performance Highlights ‘The Wrestler’
Darren Aronofsky directs ‘The Wrestler’, and serves up one of the best films in recent years against the rough and tumble backdrop of professional wrestling. The film is meticulous in its realistic portrayal of the sports entertainment subculture.
To understand the enormity of Aronofskys cinematic achievement, its important to consider the less than glorious history of pro wrestling in American film. Perhaps the best film ever made until now with a significant pro wrestling component was 1962s Requiem for a Heavyweight. Adapted from Rod Serlings Playhouse 90 broadcast of the same name Requiem starred Anthony Quinn as an aging boxer who is at the end of his career and the end of his rope. After a final devastating knockout (to a young Muhammad Ali”still Cassius Clay at this point–who plays himself) he turns to the worked environment of pro wrestling out of necessity. The strange moral code of pro wrestling confounds Quinns character (I fought 111 fights and never took a dive”) and is at the crux of the films dramatic tension.
While Requiem is a praiseworthy film bolstered by solid performances by Quinn and Jackie Gleason and features a number of prizefighting greats including Muhammad Ali, Willie Pep, Jack Dempsey and Barney Ross it is at its core a boxing film. Pro wrestling is portrayed as the lowest, most humiliating avocation for a boxer. While there are certainly those who share this critical assessment of wrestling, it does little to explain its appeal and enduring popularity.
Pro wrestling has been featured in a lot of other movies”though never well. There have been a few documentaries of merit (Beyond the Mat), some low budget films more interesting for their classic footage than anything else (I Like To Hurt People) and countless bad movies.
In the starring role of Randy The Ram Robinson, Rourke turns in the performance of a lifetime. Some of the comparisons that critics made–Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, Paul Newman in The Hustler, and Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull. The need for analogy is due to the fact that Rourke’s performance leaves the viewer at a loss for superlatives. Most impressive is the accuracy and detail that both director and actor devote to correctly portraying the pro wrestling milieu.
Aronofsky deftly balances both the appeal and revulsion inherent in pro wrestling. He manages to convey the gritty reality of life at the lower levels of the profession but also the appeal of pro wrestling”why men like The Ram put themselves through hell to stay involved and why hardcore fans care so much. The Wrestler succeeds on both levels, which likely accounts for the effusive praise it has garnered from film geeks who wouldnt know a headlock from a padlock as well as pro wrestling enthusiasts.
Aronofsky and Rourke manage to convey the lure and revulsion that is unique to pro wrestling and simultaneously extrapolate them to much larger truths about human existence. It simultaneously depicts pro wrestling at its best and worst and gets them both right. By putting in the ‘due diligence’ to get the pro wrestling backdrop right, the film allows the brilliance of Rourke’s performance and the deeper thematic significance of his conflicts to shine through.
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