"The Wrestler"

Title: "The Wrestler"
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Producers: A. Handel and E. Ginzburg
Editing: Andrew Weisblum
Composer: Clint Mansell
Starring:
- Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson
- Marisa Tomei as Pam/Cassidy
- Evan Rachel Wood as Stephanie Robinson
- Todd Barry as Wayne
- Judah Friedlander as Scott Brumberg
- Ernest Miller as Bob/"The Ayatollah"

Plot and Critical Review: Randy "The Ram" Robinson is a professional wrestler who was a celebrity in the 1980s. He is now past his prime and wrestling on the weekends for various independent promotions. After a show, a promoter proposes a 20th anniversary rematch with his most notable opponent, "The Ayatollah", who now owns a used car dealership. As their last match sold out Madison Square Garden, Randy agrees to the rematch.

Randy goes home and is locked out of his trailer for not paying the rent; we learn that he loads boxes at a supermarket and that his boss, Wayne, does not hold him in high esteem. He frequents a strip club where he has befriended a faded stripper named Pam, stage-named Cassidy. He continues the training rituals for his wrestling appearance, including steroid use, hair-bleaching and tanning. After a brutal hardcore match, Randy suffers a heart attack and collapses.

Randy ultimately receives a coronary artery bypass and is warned by the doctor that his weakened heart cannot stand the stresses of steroids or wrestling. Randy cancels his upcoming matches and begins working as a deli counter operator at the supermarket. He tells Cassidy about his heart attack and tries to woo. She warms to him at first and tells him about her son, but when Randy gets too close she leaves.

At Cassidy's suggestion, Randy visits his estranged daughter, Stephanie, whom he had left years before. She curses him and tells him to leave her alone. Randy returns later with a gift suggested to him by Cassidy, and apologizes for being a bad father. The two bond over a visit to an abandoned beachfront boardwalk, and they agree to meet for dinner on that coming Saturday.

Randy goes to Cassidy's strip club to thank her. but she once more rejects his overtures. Dejected, Randy attends a wrestling match as a spectator and receives the attention he was seeking from Cassidy from his fans and fellow wrestlers. After watching the match, Randy gets drunk with his friends, snorts cocaine, and has sex with a woman he meets at a bar, sleeping the entire next day and missing his dinner date with Stephanie. He goes to her house in the middle of the night, but she tells him that she never wants to see or hear from him again.

Randy goes to work at the supermarket deli counter, where a fan recognizes him. Embarrassed by his job, Randy cuts himself in the deli meat slicer, screams at his boss, and quits. Randy calls the promoter to reschedule the previously canceled Ayatollah match and sets out for the venue, despite his doctor's warnings. Before the match, Cassidy unexpectedly arrives after walking off the stage in the middle of her strip club show to go see Randy. She apologizes, urging him not to wrestle for the sake of his health. Randy explains that the real world is where he gets hurt, and the only place he belongs, the only place where he's truly loved, is the wrestling ring.

Randy enters the ring and gives an emotional speech to the crowd before the fight begins, declaring that the fans are his true family. During the physical exertion of the match, Randy begins to feel angina, but continues despite the Ayatollah's pleas for Randy to pin him. Randy pushes through the pain and climbs to the top turnbuckle. As he does so, he notices that Cassidy is not there. Randy prepares to deliver his signature finishing move, a diving headbutt called the "Ram Jam." Brought to tears, he salutes the cheering crowd and leaps from the ropes as the screen cuts to black.

Produced on a budget of $6 million (a rare feat in 2008), "The Wrestler" fared well at the box office as well as resurrected Mickey Rourke's career. Rourke, who was best known for his work as an actor during the 80s and career as an amateur boxer during the early 90s, had been without a significant role for almost a decade. While many thought him washed up, director Darren Aronofsky saw something special in the aging actor and rolled the dice on casting Rourke as an (undeniably) washed up professional wrestler. The resulting combination of a dynamic script and exceptional cast earned the film multiple award nominations and helped Rourke to gain his first Best Actor Golden Globe. "The Wrestler" was also highly praised by the professional wrestling community for its accurate portrayal of the lifestyle many wrestlers endure for the sake of the fans. While the film openly admits that professional wrestling matches are staged, it quickly does away with the myth that the wrestling is "fake" as we see the very real challenges these athletes face every time they step into the ring.

My Rating: 7/10

Content to Caution:
V-4 - Several scenes of person-to-person violence related to professional wrestling. One scene of intense violence and gore associated with "hardcore wrestling".
L-3.5 - Many characters use curses and abusive language toward one another or in general conversation.
DU-3 - Randy uses a buffet of medication to control the pain associated with a career of a professional wrestler. Some smoking and drinking.
RT-0 - No comment.
H/S-3 - Some of the wrestling scenes are suspenseful, especially as Randy struggles with his health but decides to wrestle against the orders of his doctor.
CH-2 - No comment.
S/N-3.5 - Several scenes in a strip club and one sex scene between Randy and a girl he meets in a bar.

The "Reel Revelation": "Doctor's Orders"

Have your day-to-day activities ever been restricted because of an accident or injury? I remember when my sister hurt her knee in High School; she was injured as a result of a pole vaulting accident. Aside from being restricted from pole vaulting, many of her daily activities became much more complicated. I remember how frustrated she was by her restricted mobility and the need to depend on others. But my sister heeded the doctor's instructions and healed quickly. If she had fought against the healing process she might have caused further damage to her body and compromised her future as an athlete and fitness instructor. She didn't know it at the time, but listening to the doctor's orders opened up possibilities for the future that she wasn't even aware of.

Most of us are not doctors and, in spite of the vast amount of medical information available to us on the Internet and in books, we are not qualified to make judgments regarding our health. We'd be fools to do so, in fact. Thus we place our trust in the trained and qualified members of the medical community to tell us what is wrong (and right) with our bodies.

If we're all willing to agree on the ideas presented in the last three sentences; why do we hate going to the doctor?! I know that I do, at least. Do you have any specific reasons why you don't like going to see the doctor? I scoured the Internet for surveys that addressed this issue; here's what I found:

Reasons people don't like to go to the doctor because of... (in no particular order)

1) The primal survival instinct.
2) Fear of exposure.
3) Fear of coming into contact with other people who are sick.
4) Medical costs.
5) Fear that something might be wrong.
6) Self-pride and a feeling of weakness when going.
7) Nervousness and anxieties associated with seeing a doctor.
8) Fear of exams, especially gender-specific inspections.
9) The nurses. (I love nurses, so this is nothing personal, I promise.)
10) Fear of needles.

Those are all good reasons to dislike going to see the doctor. It should be no surprise that 60% of the reasons given are directly related to fear. But I was surprised that one reason came up missing, a reason I expected to see toward the top of all responses. For whatever reason, folks don't seem very concerned with the risk of losing the ability to do something because of a potential illness. People might be afraid that they're going to be told that they're sick, but there doesn't seem to be much thought given to the next step; 'what can't I do because i'm sick?' Even though it didn't appear in online surveys, however, i'm sure it's something we all think about whenever we feel even the slightest touch of illness. The very same is true of our spiritual lives.

We are all sick, and our sickness is the infestation and infection of sin within our lives. We've become so infected, in fact, that there is only one remedy for the virus that lives within us; the blood of Jesus. But Jesus didn't die so we'd be able to make use of His blood like a sort of spiritual Band-Aid. By no means. He died so that we might recover from the illness of sin and be transformed into new men and women, made pure and holy to live for Him! Not only do we wash ourselves and become clean through Jesus' sacrifice, our lives are changed by His death and resurrection, and this means far more than having to give up worldly pleasures; this means a change in lifestyle.

Have you ever heard someone (or yourself) say; "I'm not religious because I don't want to give up all the fun stuff !"? Maybe you've known someone who thought that being a person of faith meant having to give up all "earthly pleasures". We can't say that's entirely untrue as God does call His people to the walk of holiness to forsake the things of the world. In light of that knowledge, some people are just as afraid to come before God as they are to visit the doctor's office. Why? Because, like being afraid of restricted restricted activity as a result of physical injury people will be afraid of what God will ask them to give up. For some, that fear goes far beyond not being able to drink, smoke, and make merry. For some, that means getting out of a relationship, quitting a job, or making confession.

If you're reading these words and thinking to yourself, 'I know i'm sick (in a spiritual way), but I can't face God about it', don't be afraid. Consider these words from the Psalmist:

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51: 5-7)

Make David's prayer your own, and do not be afraid. Know that God desires for you to know the truth of His love for your life. Know that God wants you to have wisdom, that you might avoid sinful behavior. Know that God is compassionate and desires a true transformation of the heart, not the simple replacing of behavior.

If God is like a physician, then what are His "orders" for us?

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:12-14)

As the doctors of this world give us instructions to help us recover our physical strength, so Jesus gives us divine instructions that our souls may be freed from sin. And this is the sign of our spiritual health; that we love each other, sacrificing our lives for the sake of those around us. That is what Jesus has done, and that is what we ought to do. But for some, even those promises of love and freedom won't be enough; you're sure to meet people who will still afraid to give up their sinful lifestyles (in whatever form) in order to follow God. Do not be dismayed, but simply ask them what is better; to live and die in sin, or to be called a "friend" of God?

See you tomorrow - E.T.