Please see the film before reading further
Aronofsky-as-Auteur
Aronofsky abandons many of his patterns, but retains a few aspects of his previous films while developing new techniques that could serve him well on future projects.
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| Cassidy and Ram at Cheeques |
Aronofsky shuns any explicit representation of fantasy--concepts integral to his three previous films--favoring an intense infusion of realism. Paradoxically, the realism within the professional wrestling world transports wrestling's most ardent fans into their own worlds of fantasy. Ram has fantasies about "making an honest woman" of Cassidy, but Aronofsky never shows us the fantasy. Ram, as an aging wrestler, and Cassidy, as an aging stripper, have also created their own tenuous delusions about the time left in their respective stations. They try desperately to hang onto their delusions while simultaneously trying to figure out "what next?"
Many personnel return to Aronofsky's team. Mark Margolis celebrates his fourth Aronofsky film, this time as Randy's landlord, Lenny. And after missing The Fountain (2006), Ajay Naidu and Scott Franklin return for their third go-round with Aronofsky, this time as a medic and producer, respectively. In a briefer role, Clint Mansell creates a quiet, lonely score in his fourth Aronofsky film. Worth noting, Maryse Alberiti fills in for Matthew Libatique as Aronofsky's director of photography (cinematographer). Her background in filming documentaries lends a mighty talent to Aronofsky's documentary, vérité feel for The Wrestler.
As in Pi (1998) and Requiem for a Dream (2000), drugs are necessary for Ram to function. They play a less prominent on-screen role this time, but are no less important. The steroids and painkillers allow Ram to function comfortably to, similar to Pi's Max Cohen and Requiem's Harry Goldfarb.
The crowds' chants, particularly in the extreme match, sound remarkably similar to Tappy Tibbons' infomercial to which Sara Goldfarb is addicted in Requiem. The chanting again demonstrates a mob mindlessly ecstatic about something, be it wrestling or Tappy Tibbons.
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| The Opening Scene |
Aronofsky leaves behind quick-cutting, camera wearing, and fades-to-white, using only one special technique throughout. The camera spends much of the film following Ram, when we only see his back and the back of his head. The film opens powerfully and quietly with a long shots of Ram's back to the camera--he's alone in an elementary school classroom after a remarkably small wrestling event. As he leaves the school, drives home, finds his landlord has "booted" his trailer park home like a car with overdue parking tickets. The camera follows him through the maze within a grocery store, backstage before events, and into Cheeques (Cassidy's strip club.)
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| Ram, from the back |
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| At Their Happiest, Ram & Stephanie |
Why does Aronofsky use this "following" technique? Coupled with many handheld camera shots, this following-from-behind technique gives a realistic, documentary feel. Given that we learn much about pro wrestling and its combatants' experiences, adding documentary-like camera techniques enhance the film's realism. Aronofsky also uses the camera technique so that, later in the film, he can draw a crowd-roar-enhanced parallel between Ram's wrestling life and his new life as a deli counter clerk. The "following" technique allows later for a counterpoint to Ram's loneliness. Aronofsky places the camera in front of Ram and Stephanie when they at their closest emotionally, in the abandoned building. It is the only time we see Ram directly facing the camera, and it is stirring.
Aronofsky also uses long shots a few time to demonstrate Ram's loneliness. In the first two long shots, we see Ram's loneliness, but he does not. The film opens with a long shot of Ram alone, clearly in an elementary classroom. In the next shot the camera pulls back to show just the pathetic size of the night's venue, an elementary gym. We don't see the long shot again until Ram leaves the hospital following his heart attack. Though we have seen his loneliness since the opening shot, this shot begins Ram's realization of his loneliness.
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| Stephanie and Ram |
Last, Aronofsky repeats a few similar locations, mostly from Requiem. The shot of Ram waking in the hospital reminds us of Sara Goldfarb in the hospital. Ram's Asbury Park, NJ boardwalk stroll with his daughter Stephanie and, particularly, the shot of them sitting in a glass-less picture window overlooking the ocean, remind us not only of Requiem's Coney Island setting, but of Marion at boardwalk's end. The boardwalk's end represents the ideal of Harry and Marion's relationship in Requiem, while the picture window shot represents the peak of Ram and Stephanie's relationship.
The Characters
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| Ram |
Ram, and to a lesser extent Cassidy, are stuck in the past. Eighties hairband music, most frequently Quiet Riot's "Metal Health," provides the pop music soundtrack for Ram. Stephanie, by contrast, has posters of the modern band Vampire Weekend. Cassidy and Ram visit a vintage store. Like most parents, Ram reminds Stephanie of how adorable her child self was. Ram has his 1980s action figure, and the original 1980s Nintendo Entertainment Center with its Wrestle Jam '88 video game that featured his wrestling character.
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| Pam |
Both Ram and Cassidy are living fantasy lives. Neither uses his/her real name. Ram hides behind two sets of fake names. At the most fantastic he is The Ram, then Randy Robinson, then, his birth name, Robin Ramzinski. "Cassidy" is her stripper name; she is Pam. Though Ram and Cassidy are both in show business, Pam has created a separation between home and "customers" whereas Ram's professional and personal identities are blurred. After Ram jams his thumb into the meat slicer, he says "Robin" one last time, leaving Robin behind forever. When Cassidy flees Cheeques to stop Ram performing, she reclaims her Pam identity.
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| Ram with the Trailer Park Kids |
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| Ram and "The Ayatollah" |
Ram's character arc is relatively simple, yet gripping. After Ram's heart attack, he feels alone, and lonely. He seeks loves from his only family, daughter Stephanie. After initial rejection, he pursues a extra-club relationship with Cassidy. He has moderate success with Cassidy, but she somewhat rejects him too. Ram then has great success with Stephanie, but is rejected harshly by Cassidy. Distracted by the rejection, he has a night of whiskey, sex, and cocaine, loses track of time, and missed his dinner with Stephanie. Stephanie rejects him once and for all. Feeling he's lost all his interpersonal relationships, including the one with the trailer park children, against doctor's orders, he returns to wrestling because it is the only thing he knows. It is the only relationship he thinks never lets him down. Cassidy, after the dim lighting no longer hides her age, which drives her from the stage, becomes Pam and attends Ram's match in attempts to stop him wrestling. Pam is too late. Robin is gone. Only Ram remains, and he has moved on. Near the match's end, so has she. He wrestles his Iron Sheik-like nemesis The Ayatollah of 20 years ago, ending the match with a leaping-from-the-top-rope Ram-Jam, his signature move. Screen fades to black, credits role. We are left to speculate what happens next. Given his heart-problems throughout the last match, most audience members will leave assuming Ram died during that one, last Ram-Jam. He died the way he wanted, in the arms of the only relationship he was ever good at, wrestling.
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