Fat City wrestler...

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2009)

While Cinderella MAN may just be the greatest boxing movie ever made (it manages to convey- and convey vividly- the give-and-take one experiences in close-quarters hand-to-hand combat), movies like FAT CITY (which deals with down and out fighters whose skills will never take them to the top) hit even closer to home (there can be only one champion at any given time, and a whole lot of losers). THE WRESTLER is to "professional wrestling" what FAT CITY is to boxing: an unvarnished look at the guys at the bottom (and why they sometimes end up there). Like "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Mickey Rourke's Randy "The Ram" Robinson has his day in the sun (the often referenced first match with "The Ayotolla"), but hits the skids somewhere along the line and ends up one missed rental payment away from homelessness. (I once spent an unbelievably hot and humid night in a North Carolina high school gym- where the air-conditioning had, of course, gone out- helping carry and assemble a wrestling ring for a local troupe. I was also their videographer that night. These were the kind of guys who weren't household names in their own homes, if you know what I mean, but they gave it their all. There was one guy who'd actually been on a big time cable show several times, but now he was bottom feeding. The most interesting aspect of it all was seeing how the wrestlers themselves swarmed all over the promoter trying to get their money before he could give them the slip. I found it all a bit amusing until I showed up to video tape another event- held in the parking lot of a biker bar- and got nothing for my trouble but a pat on the back. Truly, the greatest show on Earth...) Rourke's Robinson is one of the most sympathetic characters in the annals of sympathetic screen characters (it was almost impossible for me to keep from bursting into tears every time he delivered one of those quiet comments that sent shivers down my spine and his examination of his surgical scar- which I call my "autopsy scar"- had me quivering with repressed emotion). If you haven't seen THE WRESTLER, I urge you to do so at once- and don't forget to bring a hanky.