BEYOND THE MAT review

Hey folks, Harry here. Every now and again I get a tape sent to me that genuinely surprises me. Recently Universal and Imagine films sent me a screener of BEYOND THE MAT... A documentary that they have high hopes for... Academy Award dreams and prayers...

Now I'm not sure why they sent it to me... perhaps it's that I look like I'd get off to professional wrestling. I've got the long hair... the sumo physique... I'm perfect.

And as it happens to turn out, from Junior High through High School when I was living up in North Texas in a town called Seymour... I was indeed a bigtime Professional Wrestling fan.... WWF was my addiction. Me and my entire group of friends would throw each other around the room, put each other in sleeper holds, do that figure four thing... We never worked up the nerve to pile drive anyone besides my baby sister on a bed... but... I would follow Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Jake the Snake, Kerry Von Erik, King Kong Bundy and on and on... They became this strange bizarre staple of superheroes and villians. I remember discussing at length that the floors were rubber and it didn't hurt. How the 'metal' poles weren't really metal. That it was real... that it wasn't real...

But there was one thing that never crossed my mind. And until I saw this documentary, BEYOND THE MAT, it was something I never even considered. That the wrestlers were human beings. I mean... come on... that was George THE ANIMAL Steele and Randy MACHOMAN Savage.... They didn't look human... how could they be?

I just assumed they were extreme from second to second. Constantly pumped up and ready to stomp and kill. I figured there was some sort of asylum somewhere in the country that these men were chained to padded walls at. I mean... Surely someone like THE UNDERTAKER or STONECOLD STEVE AUSTIN while walking down the street might go nuts... grab some mild mannered suit dude and begin ramming their head into a Parking Meter. Right?

Well.... Ol Barry Blaustein, the documentarian, decided to seek out the world of wrestling and take a look behind the curtain.

What he found was not always pretty. In fact when you see what has become of Jake the Snake... If, like me, you were ever a fan... you'll be stunned. In a strange way... while watching this documentary I began thinking of Frank Miller's classic Batman story, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS... What happens after an athlete's prime... a superman's prime.... What becomes of these extreme people when life can no longer move as fast as their mind once remembered it.

When their knees begin to go... When they begin coughing up blood clots... When they are no longer on the big screens... in the big halls... when all they want is to be at the main event so much... they'll... gulp... be a referee...

This film gives humanity to an area that I thought was anything but. Wrestling had always been one of those goofy bizarrities of American Pop Culture that... made me smile. I can't imagine a sport where pounding a man with a folded metal chair won't get you disqualified and banned for life. But here... While they show you quite a bit of what happens on the flip side... the pain is real... the blood... the cuts... the back problems... it's real. The personas are created carefully... but... these men have families, histories and tragedies.

This documentary is... very enlightening.... Through it all it is covered with love, respect... and is more than willing to not only show the filthy sham side of things... but at the same time... it is willing to confront the wrestlers and the promoters with the very things they try to ignore. When you see the Mick Foley/Rock match... from the perspective of the wife and children... It may very well change the way you watch wrestling for all time. I held my hand over my mouth and was saying... 'oh my god...' It shook me. And when Mick is confronted in the documentary with the same footage... again... you see how human these guys really are.

Many may feel the Jake The Snake sequences are the darkest material... and yes... his story is a dark one... It is the scenes with Mick Foley that really got to me. You see... Mick seems like a great guy, but you can tell his wife is on pens and needles... she's tired of the worry... and it is here where you understand why in Comic Books, it's necessary for the girlfriend/significant others not to know who their spouse/boyfriend really is at night. I assume it's a bit like being a police spouse... except here you can see the horror that your lover/husband goes through in sensurround pay-per-view.

Overall... this is a fantastic film. I haven't watched wrestling in over 10 years.. but I know if I were to put it on tonight... and if I watched it... it would be with new eyes. This documentary isn't quite CRUMB... but it is an amazing look at a field that while always in the limelight... it is never really uncontrolled like this. Here you get the cynicism, the denial, the glory and the thrills... you get the tragedy and the mayhem. The friendly handshakes and the posing with fans... the crack pipe, the stitches... and the blood. You'll see the wrestler wake up in the morning in pain and agony... and go from a doctor's diagnosis to straight back into the ring without flinching.

Barry Blaustein has made a fantastic documentary with quite a bit of wit and charm. An emotional journey that isn't a bunch of posing and insanity. It is a must for all wrestling fans... whether they be idle fans or rabid fans...

Beyond The Mat will be available for a one week run in Los Angeles beginning October 22 at the AMC Century City Theater. The movie is being screened in October so it can be considered for an Academy Award nomination in documentary categories.