Documentary shamelessly exposes pro wrestling
■ ‘Beyond the Mat7 has
nice moments but doesn’t
answer questions it raises.
By Samuel McKewon
Senior editor
Critics have chided the general
cheeriness of Barry W. Blaustein’s
three-year documentary “Beyond
The Mat,” an unapologetically
thumbs-up look at professional
wrestling.
Blaustein, a screenwriter whose
best credit is probably “The Nutty
Professor,” makes his love of grap
pling entertainment quite clear.
The documentary chronicles
both the World Wrestling Federation
and more decidedly violent under
ground minor-league associations.
The film is a bit shameless, and even
though WWF President Vince
McMahon disowns the picture, the
movie does little more than paint him
in his true colors: a buffed-up ver
sion or uoraon uekko, so to speak.
The WWF comes across as a col
lection of nice guys and the minor
league associations as nice guys try
ing to get into the WWF. Curiously,
the movie has a categorical igno
rance of World Championship
Wrestling, possibly reflecting
Blaustein’s taste in wrestling
leagues.
Still, the documentary has its
moments, mostly toward the end of
the film, as the director ends his jour
ney across wrestling America.
The cast is large, but three main
protagonists emerge: Mankind, a
masked psycho in the ring and a fam
ily man out of it; Terry Funk, a 50
year-old whose knees handle
wrestling better than walking; and
Jake “The Snake” Roberts, the WWF
star who washed out of wrestling and
into small Nebraska towns and a
crack addiction.
If anyone comes across as haunt
ing, it’s Roberts, who babbles on
incoherently at times; he waxes
philosophical like a dime-store col
lege graa at otners. His daughter
enjoys his company so little she
brings friends along as a buffer dur
ing visits. v- v
Funk, another WWF stalwart,
fared better, with a horse ranch and a
name in his hometown as good as
gold.
He cannot give up the sport, even
though he’s had several temporary
retirements.Funk’s best friend is
Mankind (Mick Foley), who’s about
to realize his sport has a greater
impact on his children than he ever
thought it did.
Blaustein makes pains to show
wrestling is not all show (we knew
that) and injuries are involved (we
knew that, too). He doesn’t illumi
nate what also seems obvious: If the
WWF weren’t such a carnival of
lights, smoke and overstuffed, fake
violence, a lot of those injuries
would disappear.
Yet the wrestlers are happy to put
themselves through it, and none too
few quit the league because of the
violence. But not many of them
come on as highly intelligent.
Is Blaustein’s point of view a
problem? Defenders of “Beyond the
Mat” will point to the portrayal of
Roberts, a miserable man getting
more miserable. But Roberts does
that to himself; one gets the feeling
Blaustein possibly cut some of the
worst stuff out to soften the blows.
Blaustein knows the camera well
enough; a shot of Roberts outside a
North Platte motel has power, as
does a series of cuts of Mankind’s
children as they watch him in person
for the first time. These are moments
of tense drama, and they come out of
nowhere, out of place in a film that
generally wants to celebrate the col
orful characters of the wrestling
business.
And yet “Beyond The Mat” is
intriguing, if only for those fine
moments described above that
Blaustein caught on film by acci
dent.
An early scene reveals
McMahon’s true stripes as he eggs a
prospective WWF wrestler to throw
■ ' ' ■
Beyond the Mat
STARRING: Various
wrestlers
DIRECTOR: Barry Blaustein
RATING: R
GRADE: C+
FIVE WORDS: “Mat” flawed
but interesting enough
up on command. Is anything more
made of this scene? Not at all. So
does Blaustein think the material
speaks for itself?
I’d guess not. Blaustein is like a
faulty parent: He catches his children
in a bad act, but he doesn’t much care
why or, for that matter, whether they
choose to change.
One wrestler freely admits his
past includes numerous gang mur
ders. He then becomes a friend of
Blaustein’s, even asking the screen
writer to drop his name in
Hollywood.
Blaustein happily obliges. At
times, he seems not like a filmmaker,
but an enabler.