Product Details

• Actors: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
• Directors: Darren Aronofsky
• Format: AC-3, Color, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English, Spanish
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Fox Searchlight
• DVD Release Date: April 21, 2009
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (270 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001TOD9VI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,171 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Wrestler [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The mystery of Mickey Rourke's career comes to a grungy apotheosis in The Wrestler the much-battered actor's triumphant return to the top rope. He plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a heavily scarred and medicated battler who's twenty years past his best moment in the ring. But he still schleps to every second-rate fight card he can get to, stringing out the paychecks (more likely a fistful of cash) and nursing what's left of his pride. His attempts to adjust to a more normal kind of life form the most absorbing sections in the movie, whether it's flirting with a stripper (Marisa Tomei is in good form, in every sense), establishing a bond with his understandably angry daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), or working behind the deli counter at a nondescript megastore. Rourke is commanding in the role; he obviously spent hours in the gym and the tanning salon, and his ease with the semi-documentary style adopted by director Darren Aronofsky allows him to naturalistically interact with the colorful real-life wrestlers who crowd the movie's ultra-believable locations. All of which helps distract from the film's overall adherence to ancient formula. You might find yourself waiting for the scene where the risk-taking Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) pulls the switch and reveals his true motives for pursuing this otherwise sentimental story, but there's no switch. The Wrestler is an old-fashioned hoke machine, given grit by an actor who doesn't seem to be so much performing the role of ravaged survivor as embodying it. --Robert Horton

Stills from The Wrestler (Click for larger image)

Product Description

Mickey Rourke gives the performance of a lifetime as pro wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a former superstar now paying the price for twenty years of grueling punishment in and out of the ring. But he's about to risk everything to prove he has one more match left in him: a re-staging of his famous Madison Square Garden bout against "The Ayatollah." Darren Aronofsky directs a powerful cast in this action-packed saga of guts, glory and gritty determination that is "as irresistible as a headlock" (New York Post ).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

146 of 160 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The resurrection of Mickey Rourke, March 4, 2009

By 

Movie Fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wrestler (DVD)

I've been a wrestling fan since the '70s and it's one of those things that I have to hide from most people because they think it's a joke or they just don't understand what it's appeal is. Then came along "The Wrestler" and now my friends are asking me questions and taking interest in "the business". I saw the movie with some friends and family and we had some very spirited discussions afterward. They couldn't believe that these guys would, for example, mutilate themselves to have blood in matches (a practice called "blading" that's performed with a small piece of a razor blade), or that years spent in the ring will leave most wrestlers battered and even disabled thanks to the legit wear and tear that wrestling has on the body. Most people assume a wrestling ring is a trampoline, but it's actually like landing on concrete and over time there's a price to pay for taking bumps on such a hard surface for so many years. "The Wrestler" reveals all of these issues wrapped up in an enthralling and emotional motion picture you wont soon forget.

Life imitates art on several levels in "The Wrestler". For example, the movie shows the dark side of steroid abuse that has caused a laundry list of wrestler deaths in just the past 10 years (the pressures of the Monday Night War era claimed the lives of countless wrestlers). Well, during the first backstage wrestling scene, Mickey Rourke's character shakes hands with a wrestler that is huge and jacked to the gills. That wrestler died from heart failure a few weeks before the movie's release. Also, there is a scene where another huge and overly muscular wrestler sells several illegal muscle enhancers to Rourke's character. That wrestler was recently arrested for selling drugs. But the real story here, is how Mickey Rourke's character of Randy the Ram mirrors Mickey's life in many ways. Both are former stars, both have pushed their bodies to the limit in sports (Mickey revealed on the Charlie Rose show that he was forced to quit boxing because one more serious blow could've been it for him) and both want to get back in the spotlight. Thankfully, Mickey has achieved his goal of regaining the spotlight. As for Randy, that's a different story.

Randy the Ram, seems to be based on a combination of former wrestlers Lex Luger and Jake the Snake Roberts. Lex Luger's ailing body and rock bottom financial situation plus Jake's volatile relationship with his daughter were definite inspirations for screenwriter Robert Siegel. Mickey takes the experiences of Lex and Jake, along with his own and shapes a character that he was born to play. The part was originally written for Nicholas Cage, but I can't imagine anyone but Mickey Rourke playing this part. Mickey plays Randy with such heart and soul that he truly makes the audience feel for him. We feel his pain, we relate to his shortcomings and we cheer him on to find love and rebuild the relationship with his daughter. When Randy apologizes to his daughter for being on the road wrestling and not being there for her when she needed him, you feel it.
As a wrestling fan, one of the most powerful scenes takes place at the end when Marisa Tomei's character begs Randy not to wrestle just moments before the start of a match due to his heart condition and Randy tells her that he belongs out there. It's the only place he fits in, it's the only place he feels successful and loved. Randy's music then hits and a man who looked broken down and beaten just a second ago, busts thru that curtain and walks out as a superstar with the crowd eating out of his hand. It's a powerful scene that sums up why so many wrestlers find it so difficult to walk away from the business.

Don't let the fact that "The Wrestler" takes place in the world of professional wrestling keep you from seeing it. You don't need to be a fan to enjoy this movie. Wrestling is merely the backdrop for the drama taking place on the screen. Everyone puts in amazing performances. Rourke and Tomei deserve their Oscar nominations and Evan Rachel Wood nearly steals the movie. Just keep this in mind while watching it. Don't get too wrapped up in the drama, because after all, it is just a movie. And movies are just fake, scripted entertainment with predetermined outcomes.

60 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotional, gritty return for Aronofsky--I mean Rourke, February 24, 2009

By 

A. Brodie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wrestler (DVD)

The Wrestler marks Darren Aronofsky's growth as a film-maker from strange, science-fiction tinged films to films with emotional resonance in a real setting. I am a huge Aronofsky fan, loving Requiem for a Dream nearly as much as Pi, but I was underwhelmed by his last effort, The Fountain. His films are almost unbearably intense, most prominently shown in Requiem, but The Fountain abandoned his first two films' grittiness for a sleeker, polished story-line, exploring ambitious philosophical themes while failing to deliver on the emotional level. For a while, I was worried where Aronofsky's career would go, especially after seeing that he was helming a project called The Wrestler, which seemed to deviate from the subjects of his previous works.

The Wrestler gets everything right. Aronofsky trades high-minded philosophical themes for a more grounded, concrete narrative. He also reestablishes the inventive camera-work that made Pi and Requiem so aesthetically stunning, shooting almost the entire film on a hand-held camera. And, lastly and most refreshingly, he reinstates the violence and shock-value of his first films, escalating the wrestling scenes to cringe-inducing bouts of brutality and decadence. However, such violence is in aid of characterization--to show the hearts behind these men in the ring, to demonstrate the toll such entertainment may take on one's body, all in the service of a loyal, loving audience.

"The only place I get hurt is out there," says "The Ram" as he enters the ring towards the end of the film. Rourke, giving a breathtaking performance that should have EASILY triumphed at the Oscars (it's a travesty that he didn't win), provides us a window into the tortured soul of a man who's thrown his life away for the sake of his profession. No matter how much Ram deviates from our idealized vision of a hero, the audience never feels any animosity towards him; he screwed up, and he knows it, but he can't help it.

The mirrors to Rourke's life are easily seen, making the film into some manner of Greek tragedy rather than mere drama. It is Aronofsky's presence, and a wonderfully crafted script, that sets The Wrestler above other comback portraits like Rocky; the brutality is reminiscent of Raging Bull, and the style behind the film is a marvel in itself. The Ram is equated to Christian iconography, pointed out by Marisa Tomei's stripper, in that he suffers for humanity--not only is it an effective comparison, but it gives the film more depth than the average comeback piece. The buildup of sounds is used frequently as well, to great effect, to further the window in the life of the Ram.

The film is not for everyone; my sister refused to watch the wrestling scenes, because they are quite shocking. Some scenes are rather melodramatic, but effectively so, making the film a draining emotional experience (I went teary-eyed at least twice). But, it is a rewarding film if you have any interest in the craft, or wish to see the performance of a lifetime by Mickey Rourke.

50 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wrestler Brings It -- Time After Time, March 22, 2009

By 

Just Bill (Grand Rapids, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wrestler (DVD)

It's been a long time since I heard an audience gasp -- and choke back sobs -- at a movie's end. But I heard it, and felt it, watching The Wrestler. The screen cuts to black, there's a pregnant pause, and then Bruce Springsteen's haunting song "The Wrestler" plays. Credits roll. And people leave the theater, stunned.

My wife and I saw the movie again yesterday. And I cried like a baby, again, the minute Springsteen started to sing.

Why? Two main reasons:

1. I felt for the protagonist, Randy "The Ram" Robinson. I put myself in his shoes, saw the world through his eyes. I totally empathized with the man. In fact, Mickey Rourke played the character so sublimely, with such utter believability, that he WAS "Randy the Ram." Because of that, what Randy felt, I felt. In effect, I became "Randy the Ram," too.

Sometimes, when you watch a movie it's difficult (if not impossible) to suspend disbelief enough to forget that you're watching an actor play a role. With The Wrestler, I never once saw Mickey Rourke acting. I never once saw any of the actors acting. It was like watching a documentary with real people.

2. In many ways, The Wrestler is a metaphor for every person approaching middle age, when lives and careers wane, options fade, and a stifling feeling of desperation sets in. Randy's love interest in the movie, Cassidy -- played brilliantly by the incredibly talented Marisa Tomei -- felt it. Granted, too late to help Randy. But she felt it. She looked around at the patrons in the strip club and she knew what Randy felt every minute of his life -- in the end, time will beat us as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Desperation can drive a person do things he/she wouldn't normally do, take actions that may seem foolhardy, react in ways that another day and time might temper. It's a difficult emotion to portray on screen because pushed too far, it becomes hysteria. Too little, and it merely wallows.

Reduced to its bare minimum, The Wrestler is a movie about desperation and the toll that emotion takes on everyone involved. It is a movie about a genuinely nice guy who's down on his luck and has nothing left to live for except (a) memories of his glory days as a pro wrestler, and (b) one last chance to re-live those days.

I've read other reviews here, including a couple of them that condemn the movie's "profanity" or "violence." To those people, I can only say that there's no more violence in The Wrestler than in the evening newspaper or on the 6 O'Clock news. And I've heard more profanity at a hockey game.

Whatever violence and profanity that occurs in The Wrestler is there because this is a gritty, real movie. There's nothing gratuitous in The Wrestler. Even the scenes in the strip club are real. Yes, you will see nudity. But not because it's a "steamy" Hollywood love scene; rather, because it's a strip club, where nudity occurs.

I'm going to see the movie again (for the third time!) this afternoon. I'm going to buy it the minute it's released next month. Although The Wrestler is sometimes painful to watch (one wrestling scene, in particular, makes me squirm), it is the most genuine, un-Hollywood movie I've seen in many years. Perhaps ever.

There's a line Randy speaks from time to time: "Bring it." As in, bring it on. Give me your best.

The Wrestler brings it. No matter how many times I watch it -- in fact, the more times I watch it -- it never fails to bring it.

I can't recommend this movie highly enough.