Randy Robinson: A strangely autobiographical role for Rourke
If a sports fan is asked to name a great movie dedicated to their preferred choice, most would have no difficulty rattling off a lengthy list of respectable films. Baseball fans would most likely name Field of Dreams. Football fans’ answer to this question would easily be Rudy, Remember the Titans, or Friday Night Lights. Basketball enthusiasts may name Coach Carter as a good movie to represent their sport. Boxing fans could easily pick a great movie for their sport, from the relatively recent academy award winning “Million Dollar Baby,” to the mega-successful Rocky franchise, to the Robert Deniro classic,”Raging Bull.” Wrestling fans, however, would be completely stumped when asked to find a ‘classic’ for their genre. The last wrestling movie to feature the ‘sport’ of professional wrestling was 2000′s “Ready to Rumble,” a comedy that made a mockery of washed-up broken-down veterans. Nearly nine years later, director Darren Aronofsky decided to take a more serious approach at a film about a washed up 80′s pro-wrestling star, with his critically-acclaimed movie, “The Wrestler.”
