Verified Document

Wrestling Perhaps Even In The Research Proposal

(Dart) Some aspects of wrestling entertainment have remained unchanged for decades. Barthes states that wrestling shows were a "spectacle of excess." Yet they also deal with issues of suffering, defeat and justice. (Barthes 19) But what of the performers/athletes, what is their own feeling about it and their participation in it? In the Movie, "The Wrestler" this question is certainly addressed. Darren Aronofsky's film gives the audience a more in depth look into the participants of the sport. The main character is Randy "the Ram" Robinson, as portrayed by Mickey Rourke. He was a sensation in the 80's, which he often dwells both musically and stylistically, but in the present is now a "has been" in most respects. He has no money and his health is fading, the only gigs he can find is local school auditoriums holding bush league matches, all completely staged of course, but, at least he is allowed to win these. We also see some young participants in the local towns as well of other, like the Ram, going to wrestling conventions and making money signing autographs and hamming it up for the fans.

The grand expanse of good and evil is certainly exaggerated in the wrestling arena, and just as entertaining writers do they create stereotypical characters that can represent the extreme of both of these, God and the Devil and so on throughout time have represented the internal moral dilemma between our own internal conflict of good and evil. "the Ram" is essentially one of the god guys and...

In the microcosm of his world, however, he has fallen far from grace it would seem.
In a sense, not much has changed, save that the grand spectacle of wrestling has become grander on the outside, but as Araonfky's film shows us, the players are merely actors. While they may represent good or evil, in real life they are merely human beings. Randy in real life is estranged from his daughter and has no real stable relationship in his life. However, he also is caught up in the hype of his character and he appears to be alive only in the wrestling ring. The adoration of the fans certainly supports his euphoria in this zone . A heart attack forces him to try and "get real" but hs still cannot separate himself from the spectacle, and at the end, despite his girlfriend pleading for anew life, Randy "the Ram" Robinson returns to the ring. At the peril of his own life, another epic.

Works Cited

Barthes Roland. Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers. New York: Hill & Wang, 1989.

Dart, John. "Taking God to the Mat: The Biblical World of Pro-Wrestling." The Christian Century 19 Sept. 2006: 10-15

Tamborini, Ron, et al. "The Raw Nature of Televised Professional Wrestling: Is the Violence a Cause for Concern?." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.2 (2005): 202-210

Twitchell, James B. Preposterous Violence: Fables of Aggression in Modern Culture. New York:…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Barthes Roland. Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers. New York: Hill & Wang, 1989.

Dart, John. "Taking God to the Mat: The Biblical World of Pro-Wrestling." The Christian Century 19 Sept. 2006: 10-15

Tamborini, Ron, et al. "The Raw Nature of Televised Professional Wrestling: Is the Violence a Cause for Concern?." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.2 (2005): 202-210

Twitchell, James B. Preposterous Violence: Fables of Aggression in Modern Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Shakespeare's Hamlet Is Perhaps One of the
Words: 1661 Length: 4 Document Type: Research Paper

Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is perhaps one of the most famous and hotly debated literary artifacts ever written. However, because literary critics and historians have discussed the work so often, it is easy to forget that Shakespeare wrote his tragedy as a play to be performed in the context of an Elizabethan production, to an Elizabethan audience. It is a refreshing antidote to some of more modern textual analysis of this performed

Comparative Study Between Homer's Odyssey and the Coen Brothers O...
Words: 11490 Length: 30 Document Type: Thesis

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Homer in Hollywood: The Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? Could a Hollywood filmmaker adapt Homer's Odyssey for the screen in the same way that James Joyce did for the Modernist novel? The idea of a high-art film adaptation of the Odyssey is actually at the center of the plot of Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt, and the Alberto Moravia novel on which Godard's film is

Race and Revolution Book Critique
Words: 2172 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

We would not accept such an assertion about any other historical notion. Who would say that the revolution was inevitable, without the fight of the patriots and the leadership of the Founding Fathers? Yes, the question of slavery was a contentious issue -- but it was just as contentious a hundred years later, a hundred more years of bondage for blacks, and a hundred more years of making the

Shakespeare's Foreshadowing
Words: 2983 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

Shakespeare's Foreshadowing In Tragedy And Comedy Shakespeare is popularly known as "The Bard" for good reason: he excels at his literary craft, applying all the techniques and tools of drama at his disposal with a certain regularity. One of these important tools necessary for any truly coherent play is foreshadowing, or the appearance of elements early in the play that subtly predict the future direction of the plot, action, or symbolism.

Gymnastics Is a Sport That
Words: 2000 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

Of course competition at the major university level, and in the Olympic Games, is also important in terms of national pride and individual achievements for elite athletes. But at the community level, gymnastics is also important because it provides a way for young people to learn about -- and pursue -- practices that promote healthy living. The correlation between components of physical fitness and gymnastics: an article in the Journal

Masculinity in Films and Filmmaking
Words: 2520 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

196)." This is what we see during the 1980s to throughout the 1990s cinema with films like Fatal Attraction (Lyne, motion picture film), Predator (McTiernan, John (dir), 1987, motion picture film), the Terminator film and sequels (Cameron, James (dir), 1984, 1991, and 2003, motion picture film), the Mad Max (Miller, George (dir),1979, 1981, and 1985, motion picture) series, and the Lethal Weapon (Donner, Richard (dir), 1987, 1989, 1992, and

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now