The Wrestler (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Featurette-Making Of-Within The Ring: Behind the Scenes Featurette Interviews-Crew-Interview with Mickey Rourke Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	104:47 (Case: 109)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:19)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Darren Aronofsky
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Mickey Rourke Marisa Tomei Evan Rachel Wood Mark Margolis Todd Barry Wass Stevens Judah Friedlander
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$39.95	Music	Clint Mansell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Cassidy: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

    Randy "The Ram" Robinson: "Hmmm....what was that all about?"

    Cassidy: "It's "The Passion of the Christ". You have the same hair. You've never seen it?"

    Randy "The Ram" Robinson: "(Grunts as if the say no)"

    Cassidy: "Dude, you gotta, it's...it's amazing. They throw everything at him, whips, arrows, rocks.....He just takes it."

    Randy "The Ram" Robinson: "Tough dude."

    Cassidy: "Sacrificial "ram!" (laughs)"

    Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler won The Golden Lion at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. It marked an acting comeback for Mickey Rourke who won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and the film was also nominated for 2 Academy Awards, one each for Mickey Rourke, who plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson/Robin Ramzinski and Marisa Tomei who plays Pam/Cassidy. Mickey Rourke was very close to winning the Academy Award for Best Actor but lost out to Sean Penn in Milk. Rourke downplayed his chances, citing his past criticism of the Academy, however Sean Penn was gracious in victory, acknowledging Rourke's exceptional performance in his acceptance speech. The Wrestler made many critics' top ten lists in 2008, and for a good reason, the acting of Mickey Rourke makes the audience sympathise for his character, even though the situations that Randy "The Ram" Robinson finds himself in the film is due to him alone.

    Mickey Rourke acknowledges that he has been in the acting wilderness for the past 14 years. Apart from an excellent supporting role in Robert Rodriguez's Sin City (2005), no studio was willing to bankroll a project with him in it due to his impulsive and intemperate behaviour. The Wrestler is an independent film project for this reason, initially Nicolas Cage was to be cast in the lead role. However, once you've seen the movie, you cannot help but feel the quiet and courageous sadness that Mickey Rourke brings to the role, especially as he tries to reconcile with his neglected daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood. Marisa Tomei also brings to her role as the club dancer/stripper Pam (or stage name "Cassidy") years of toil and struggle to get by. Marisa Tomei's nominations for her supporting role in 2008 were thoroughly deserved, this role is possibly her standout career performance.

     The quotation that opens this review comes from the film, in a dialogue scene with Randy and Cassidy. Cassidy quotes the famous opening lines of the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, Chapter 53 and compares Randy's weekend wrestling, while past his prime and glory days to Christ as a sacrificial ram. Obviously the idea of a ram is allegorical, it's a play on Randy's wrestling stage name, "The Ram" and his devotion to give of himself, to punish his body for the sake of his fans. This signifies the main theme of the film, the question of where the lonely protagonist Randy Robinson's loyalty lies in his personal journey of redemption. The Wrestler should not be compared to films like Rocky or Raging Bull, the role of the sport of wrestling itself pales into the background in comparison to the character study of "The Ram" from his glory days in the 1980s to his present day struggles to pay his rent and keep a job.

Video

    Due to the independent financing of this film, the movie was shot in Super16mm format. This was a creative decision by director Darren Aronofsky. He wanted to shoot the film as a fictionalised documentary, thus the use of handheld cameras by cinematographer, Maryse Alberti. Super16mm film when developed becomes like standard 35mm film, although the look of the film stock will be more grainy and will contain more low level noise. I would expect this to be the case on the Blu-ray version as well.

    The aspect ratio of the film is 2:35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    Grain and low level noise is evident due to the aforementioned reasons. Due to the documentary "look" of the film scenes were shot with less light and reflection.

    Colour is slightly muted due to the creative choice of cinematography.

    The main feature takes up 5.0 gb of space on a 7.4 gb disc. The average bitrate is 6.5mb/sec which is quite acceptable. There are no mpeg artefacts, film or video artefacts.

    Subtitles are presented in white, in the "black bars" part of the picture on a widescreen television.

    RSDL change occurs at 71:19 during a scene change, it is not too noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Clint Mansell, Darren Aronofsky's composer, wrote the score for the film, with Slash, formerly of Guns N'Roses playing along on the score. The soundtrack has many heavy metal songs from the 1980s. Bruce Springsteen also wrote The Wrestler for the film. It plays over the closing credits.

    There are two audio tracks. The default track is a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track encoded at 224 kbps. The second track is a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448kbps. The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is muted and dull whereas the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is discrete and clear, each speaker is utilised when you play the movie with the Dolby digital 5.1 soundtrack. This film should only be experienced, in my opinion, with the Dolby Digital 5.1 track, the Dolby Digital 2.0 track sounds lifeless in comparison.

    Dialogue is clear and synchronised.

    Music is mainly from the 1980s, Randy "The Ram" Robinson's "golden era". Artists include Ratt, Scorpion, FireHouse, Slaughter, Quiet Riot and even Madonna. Randy "The Ram" Robinson's entrance song to his wrestling bouts is Metal Health by Quiet Riot except for the last wrestling match in the movie when Guns N'Roses' Sweet Child O'Mine is played. Axl Rose is credited in the closing credits for donating his song to the film for free (due to budget restrictions, the song would have been too expensive to license otherwise).

    Surround Channel Usage is discrete, with sound coming from every channel, especially during wrestling crowd scenes and when songs are played as part of the film's soundtrack.

    The Subwoofer is not used often, only during wrestling matches, and even then very subtly.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Featurette-Making Of-Within The Ring - A behind The Scenes Documentary (42:42)

Interviews-Crew-Interview With Mickey Rourke (15:45)

Theatrical Trailer (2:19)

    The Wrestler has been released in Region 1 (USA) and will be released in Region 2 (United Kingdom) on the 1st of June, 2009. The Region 1 (USA) release includes:

    * A Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track, the 42-minute behind the scenes documentary (as on the region 4 release) and the music video for Bruce Springsteen's, The Wrestler.

    However it misses out on:

    * The 15-minute interview with Mickey Rourke.

    The Region 2 (United Kingdom) release is identical to the region 4 release.

    The Region 4 version, with the quality extra of Mickey Rourke's interview, would be the version of choice for region 4 DVD collectors.

    The Wrestler is a small budget film, presented in a documentary style, which has enjoyed great critical success due to the characters in the film and the great acting of the film's stars, Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. Although The Wrestler was not nominated for best picture by the American Motion Picture Academy for Arts and Sciences in 2009, it certainly deserved to be. Credit must be given to director Darren Aronofsky for incorporating real wrestlers in the film, as well as real customers in the deli scenes and even real crowds during the wrestling matches as these where filmed at real events. The documentary style also allowed Mickey Rourke to draw inspiration from his real-life experiences, quite a few of his scenes are in fact improvised, scenes were not storyboarded as is usual for Hollywood productions.

    The Wrestler is a "must-have" addition to any serious cinephile's DVD collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall