Has anyone seen this film yet? It's the latest film by director Aronofsky, starring Mickey Rourke as a washed up professional wrestler who struggles with his forced retirement after a heart attack, trying to settle into a relationship with an aging stripper and her son. However, the temptation of one last match with his old nemesis The Ayatollah (based heavily on The Iron Sheik) seems too strong to resist even though it could kill him. The movie's wrestling scenes were taped at shows of independent wrestling federations Combat Zone Wrestling and Ring of Honor. By shooting at actual wrestling shows they've managed to add a ton of emotion to the bouts that extras could never bring. Furthermore the small venues and lower production values really add a gritty realism to the fall that Mickey Rourke has made from eighties super stardom.

 

 

 

What's perhaps most surprising of all is that it's a professional wrestling movie that doesn't suck. It has already won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, and Fox Searchlight has picked up the distribution rights. It will be shown in American theaters after it finishes its tour of festivals, and there's even talk of Fox Searchlight pushing Mickey Rourke for an Oscar nomination for best leading actor. If this happens the movie would probably see a worldwide theater release, which means more exposure for independent wrestling :D

Bumping this in honor of the two Golden Globes and two Oscar nominations... surely someone must have seen this movie by now :|

I haven't seen this movie but I've only heard good things about it, it even got a 98% on Rotten Tomato. I personally am not going to see it till it comes out on dvd just because I'm not a fan of wrestling enough to go find it in a theater. but if it gets that wide release I'll go see though.

Yep, I just watched it about a week ago. Wrote a little review in the what movies you last saw topic. While I liked it, I don't see myself watching it over and over like Aronofsky's other movies. Of the two Oscar nominations I don't know what kind of chance it has (or should have) because I haven't watched enough of the other movies to compare. Micky Rourke was great and Marisa Tomei was good so it shouldn't be surprising if they win.

I've been following this on IMDb for about a year now. I haven't gotten a chance to see it yet, but it's been Aronofsky's only work since "The Fountain". Although I'm not too happy with the direction his movies are going in. RoboCop (2010), The Fighter (2009), and The Wrestler don't seem to be where he does his best work...

This movie is good, much better than Slumdog Millionaire. It's infinitely superior to Requiem For A Dream, and I like it about as much as Pi.

I've been following the news of this movie. Heard nothing but awesome things about it. Only thing wrong is that it dosent show in Singapore, so I'm currently trying to find the movie online.

 

 

 

[bleep] Singaporean government.

I've seen the trailer a little while ago, and it looked terrible.

 

 

 

I'm going to see it when it comes out though, Aranofsky still has some credit.

On the role of professional wrestling in the movie: By putting the main character into this branch of entertainment he becomes infinitely more tragic. He's decades away from the time he was a star, putting his body through hell in front of crowds that are rarely bigger than a few dozen people. He's desperately trying to reclaim a shred of his old fame, but how do you redeem yourself in a sport where the outcome is always fixed? Also, by using real wrestlers and real wrestling crowds (all the matches were taped at actual wrestling shows), the whole experience becomes a lot more realistic. The other wrestlers talk like wrestlers. The crowd reacts like a wrestling crowd, chanting, cheering and booing. The deathmatch that takes place halfway through the match features Necro Butcher as Randy's opponent. This man really is a deathmatch wrestler, regularly competing in exactly the kind of match that's shown in the movie. He really does go through barbed wire, sheets of glass and thumbtacks on a regular basis.