The Film Talk – Part 49 – Revolutionary Road and The Wrestler
posted by
Jett Loe
Films Reviewed This Week: Revolutionary Road / The Wrestler
Plus we continue our DVD Commentary Competition
This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 11:15 pm. It is filed under Adaptations, Blog, Character Actors, Drama, Gareth Higgins, Gareth Higgins Reviews, Jett Loe, Jett Loe Reviews, Podcast, Stars.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
[...] The Film Talk – Part 49 – Revolutionary Road and The Wrestler [...]
Finally got to see “The Wreslter” last night and really enjoyed it.
A few comments as it relates to your show:
– I can certainly see the “Rocky” parallels – unfortunately for “The Wrestler”, Stallone made six movies before they made this one – however, I felt the Wrestler was more a fictionalized version of “Beyond the Mat”, pulling narratives from the 3 primary characters of the documentary and rolling them into the movie, with Rourke's character primarily based on Jake “the Snake” Roberts, as Jett mentions.
- Cliched? I would argue there is really one “cliched” part of the film – the deli. I disagree with the “stripper w/ a heart of gold” angle. She did not have a heart of gold, in my opinion. She only paid attention to Randy because no one else would – she's a stripper and is used to playing on people's fantasies for money – only when she realized she was no longer desirable to her patrons did she give Randy any help…and even then, she appears to (spoilers ahoy!) take off and leave Randy when Randy makes it clear he doesn't really need her.
- A “B” movie, as Gareth puts it – I would agree, and I think that's part of make it so enjoyable. I think it helps if you know a little about the pro wrestling culture — pro wrestling, as a form of entertainment, is “B” entertainment, if that makes sense…like a soap opera in tights – which makes this movie work so well.
Growing up in the place where pro wrestling arguably got it's start, I can tell you they really nailed every nuance about the wrestler's life. You could say Randy “The Ram” is just like every pro wrestler who ever was — the only difference between him and “Hulk” Hogan is Hogan's kept his money — otherwise, this is how they typically end up (unless dead).
Great show as always, guys.
think you make a lot of good points phil = a good way to see the film is as a fictional adaptation of 'beyond the mat'
+ as i said in the show if i saw the film before the marketing would have enjoyed it more…it wouldn't have been an 'ohhhhhh' movie.
+ though i do think the stripper had a heart o' gold = helping pick out clothes for the daughter etc. ,(real name pam etc).
I was taken by the claim that you could not relate to how these two characters, Frank and April (talking Revolutionary Road here), could be lonely since they have kids and neighbors. But the kids and the neighbors and coworkers serve to confirm their sense of isolation since they count these as an ordinary “them” against which they set their extraordinary selves. April and Frank share a belief that they exist apart from the world of kids, coworkers, neighbors, and the rest of “suburban mediocrity.” They're surrounded by it but want desperately to be apart from it. Whether this is simply a delusion, what kind of delusion it is, and where it leads is what the film (and book) covers.
But simply to call it crazy from the outset would be — to pull Rocky into this — comparable to dismissing Rocky as a film because everyone knows that boxing is a sport for the young, and that old boxers just aren't going to make it. Well … OK. Yes, but the story of Rocky is the story of fighting this out (literally and not) rather than ceding it from the outset.
Revolutionary Raod (the book) does give a little more attention to the kids and it helps to highlight the above by showing them more frequently as 'obstacles' that Frank and April are needing to bracket or shunt away from their scheming. But I agree with your approach: this should be reviewed as the film it is, not as visual aid for the book, but it's perhaps worth noting the film falls a little short of the book in this way.
Thanks for the fascinating comment Dale.
I hear what you're saying re: Frank and April and their sense of self. And your points make me wish I had read the novel before seeing the film. I haven't read the book yet – from what everyone has told it is a far more nuanced portrayal of these people and their problems than anything seen in the pic.
I was taken by the claim that you could not relate to how these two characters, Frank and April (talking Revolutionary Road here), could be lonely since they have kids and neighbors. But the kids and the neighbors and coworkers serve to confirm their sense of isolation since they count these as an ordinary “them” against which they set their extraordinary selves. April and Frank share a belief that they exist apart from the world of kids, coworkers, neighbors, and the rest of “suburban mediocrity.” They're surrounded by it but want desperately to be apart from it. Whether this is simply a delusion, what kind of delusion it is, and where it leads is what the film (and book) covers.
But simply to call it crazy from the outset would be — to pull Rocky into this — comparable to dismissing Rocky as a film because everyone knows that boxing is a sport for the young, and that old boxers just aren't going to make it. Well … OK. Yes, but the story of Rocky is the story of fighting this out (literally and not) rather than ceding it from the outset.
Revolutionary Raod (the book) does give a little more attention to the kids and it helps to highlight the above by showing them more frequently as 'obstacles' that Frank and April are needing to bracket or shunt away from their scheming. But I agree with your approach: this should be reviewed as the film it is, not as visual aid for the book, but it's perhaps worth noting the film falls a little short of the book in this way.
Thanks for the fascinating comment Dale.
I hear what you're saying re: Frank and April and their sense of self. And your points make me wish I had read the novel before seeing the film. I haven't read the book yet – from what everyone has told it is a far more nuanced portrayal of these people and their problems than anything seen in the pic.
[...] The Film Talk – Part 49 – The Wrestler and Revolutionary Road [...]