Joe Soriano
O.J. LewisRam Jam to the Death
So up until today I was debating whether or not I wanted to see "The Wrestler", and since I had nothing better to do while at work I went ahead and did it. It wasn't a bad movie. Not in my top 10 sport movies of all time but it might crack the top 25. Frankly I'm not even sure if it belongs in the catagory of a sports movie. Although it be a brutal way to earn a living it is still a staged performance.
Either way the movie stands on its own as quite powerful in its own right. Mickey Rouke does a great job of portraying his character as a "broken down piece of meat" who is a pro wrestler at the end of his long and painful career. While watching it I was left with the feeling of how tragic it is for these athletes to put themselve through this, yet it also was not lost on me that beating eachother up with chairs, staples and barbed wire is exactly what they wanted out of life. To each his own I guess.
You have to admire the fact that they knew what they wanted and went for it no matter what the cost. On the flip side it was that very cost of glory, fame, and adrenaline that forced The Ram to lose everything.
Change is never easy and for some it is darn near impossible. You could see that all he really wanted in his world was to love someone and be loved back. He knew his time had passed in the ring and it was time to get out, but when you have lived your life on your own terms for so long it becomes harder to be accepted in everybody else's world.
There is really no way to be sure if The Ram survived that last jump from the top rope and I don't think that he did so I'll just run with that. Before that match he had one last chance to get out and he chose not to. All I can say to that is at least he went out on his terms and in his own way.
Either way the movie stands on its own as quite powerful in its own right. Mickey Rouke does a great job of portraying his character as a "broken down piece of meat" who is a pro wrestler at the end of his long and painful career. While watching it I was left with the feeling of how tragic it is for these athletes to put themselve through this, yet it also was not lost on me that beating eachother up with chairs, staples and barbed wire is exactly what they wanted out of life. To each his own I guess.
You have to admire the fact that they knew what they wanted and went for it no matter what the cost. On the flip side it was that very cost of glory, fame, and adrenaline that forced The Ram to lose everything.
Change is never easy and for some it is darn near impossible. You could see that all he really wanted in his world was to love someone and be loved back. He knew his time had passed in the ring and it was time to get out, but when you have lived your life on your own terms for so long it becomes harder to be accepted in everybody else's world.
There is really no way to be sure if The Ram survived that last jump from the top rope and I don't think that he did so I'll just run with that. Before that match he had one last chance to get out and he chose not to. All I can say to that is at least he went out on his terms and in his own way.
