Sunday, February 22, 2009
Chauncey DeVega's World of Ghetto Nerds: Ledger Gets His Due and Mickey Rourke Wins Best Actor!
I am writing this before Mickey Rourke accepts (what I hope will be) his Oscar for best actor.
The Wrestler and Dark Knight were my two favorite movies of the year--I have not seen Wall-E but expect it to be my 3rd favorite once my list is complete.
For you Wrestler marks, here is a great roundtable discussion on the film and the accuracy of how it depicted the world and characters that are/is professional wrestling:
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I finally saw "The Wrestler" last Saturday. It reminded a lot of the days when WWE was actually WWF and came on WOR on Saturday mornings at 10 am. Around this time, this skinny guy named Vince McMahon was an announcer along with Mean Jean Okerlund and Bob Backlund was the WWF heavyweight champ. He lost his title to "The Iron Shiekh" who was reincarnated as the Ayatollah character in "The Wrestler." Clearly the Mickey Rourke character was, in some ways, patterned after Jimmy Superfly Snuka. He too would stand atop the turnbuckles of the ring, hold up both hands just before jumping atop the vanquished opponent. Superfly however would also give a "hang loose" sign along with the outstretched arms.
The razor scene reminded me of a steel cage match between Don Morocco and the Superfly. Those wrestling match venues reminded me of a match I saw at my high school gym back in '84. Jimmy Superfly Snuka and Special Delivery Jones headlined that night. There were rumors that all the wrestlers, good guys and bad guys, were playing cards in the boys locker room just before the matches began.
Those were good and more innocent times.
Folks didn't break kayfabe and it was such a scandal to here about the "good" guys and the "bad" guys hanging out together!
I have some old school clips I am going to post for black history month that I am sure you will enjoy.
chauncey d
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