Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Mick Foley
Terry Funk
The Rock
Vince McMahon
Jim Ross
Jake Roberts
Chyna
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Directed By:
Barry W. Blaustein
My love for martial arts and all things combat started curiously with professional wrestling. I attended the saturday morning broadcasts religiously, in front of my television screen, worshiping strength in entertainment. Then, a little girl got murdered and a petition was passed to get every violent television program broadcasted after nine pm only (as if murderers went to bed early). I struggled through this blackout and kept following wrestling until I found out about boxing at sixteen. Even if my religious symbiosis with pro wrestling stopped, I was always attached to those vaudeville figures. This soap opera for men. I've been meaning to watch BEYOND THE MAT for a few years now, since it followed wrestlers I grew up with. The real legends of the ring, back in the days where actual WRESTLING was still an integral part of the show.
Barry Blaustein follows the life of a lot of wrestlers, but his main focus comes across Terry Funk, who's on the verge of retirement, Mick Foley, who's taking insane punishment for a living and one of my old school favorites, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who's life has been in shambles since he forever. Blaustein confronts the myth that pro-wrestlers are muscled sissies who prance around without taking any damage. While they aren't the equivalent of boxers or mixed martial arts fighters, they are some sort of extreme circus performers, living constantly on the road, trying to make it into the big leagues. The story of Jake Roberts was particularly heartbreaking. His life was doomed to be fucked up from the start since his father was actually dating his grandmother and ended up raping the twelve years old daughter and make her pregnant. Jake's father was a pro wrestler too, so his decision to embark this life was to chase the ghosts he was born with. I know it's fucked up, but can you really blame him for trying to have a relationship with his father?
While the stories of Roberts and Foley are completely mesmerizing, BEYOND THE MAT gets really derivative at times. It's trying to cover a subject that's simply too wide for a feature documentary. For example, the movie starts and finish with the beginning and the end of Darren Drozdov's short lived and tragic wrestling career. Really, it's the beginning and the end, nothing in between. The man got paralyzed while wrestling, I think there was a story more interesting than Terry Funk's fading career there. I understand Blaustein was trying to expose the ECW, which was a very different product that the WWE back then, but Terry Funk's story is the same sad story than the one of many wrestlers. They don't know when to stop. They are literally doped up with the cheers of the crowd. Same with the storyline of Mike and Tony, aspiring superstars, that gets dropped as quick as the WWE drops them after the tryout. It's like Blaustein had a hard time deciding who he was making a movie on.
While it's pinballing in every directions, BEYOND THE MAT has great insight on the world of pro wrestling, especially on the physical risks of the job. The segments about Mick Foley, the kingpin of damage, are terrifying. He's a man who's moved by the fear of dying anonymous and an undying will to make history. He takes ungodly amounts of damage in front of his own children for that. It's pretty messed up. While I can understand Foley's will for immortality in the collective consciousness...dude, don't bring your kids on the job. BEYOND THE MATS highlights a world where the imaginary and the cold, hard reality are often walking hand in hand. While the characters live forever, the human being behind them often dissolve, along with their lives. While it's a decent documentary, the main point of Barry Blaustein's film is that there's a lot more to talk about with this business.
SCORE: 74%
While the stories of Roberts and Foley are completely mesmerizing, BEYOND THE MAT gets really derivative at times. It's trying to cover a subject that's simply too wide for a feature documentary. For example, the movie starts and finish with the beginning and the end of Darren Drozdov's short lived and tragic wrestling career. Really, it's the beginning and the end, nothing in between. The man got paralyzed while wrestling, I think there was a story more interesting than Terry Funk's fading career there. I understand Blaustein was trying to expose the ECW, which was a very different product that the WWE back then, but Terry Funk's story is the same sad story than the one of many wrestlers. They don't know when to stop. They are literally doped up with the cheers of the crowd. Same with the storyline of Mike and Tony, aspiring superstars, that gets dropped as quick as the WWE drops them after the tryout. It's like Blaustein had a hard time deciding who he was making a movie on.
While it's pinballing in every directions, BEYOND THE MAT has great insight on the world of pro wrestling, especially on the physical risks of the job. The segments about Mick Foley, the kingpin of damage, are terrifying. He's a man who's moved by the fear of dying anonymous and an undying will to make history. He takes ungodly amounts of damage in front of his own children for that. It's pretty messed up. While I can understand Foley's will for immortality in the collective consciousness...dude, don't bring your kids on the job. BEYOND THE MATS highlights a world where the imaginary and the cold, hard reality are often walking hand in hand. While the characters live forever, the human being behind them often dissolve, along with their lives. While it's a decent documentary, the main point of Barry Blaustein's film is that there's a lot more to talk about with this business.
SCORE: 74%