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On the whole, Hollywood superstars have - to a greater or lesser extent - become successful due to a really strong image, which they will go to obsessive lengths to protect. They certainly don't offer up anything in interviews which will tarnish the illusion, so anything approaching truth is shown the door.
It is then almost surreal, in this amusing documentary about the grubby world of American wrestling, to witness wrestler Mick Foley - whom we see being bashed about the head with a stepladder - agonising over the effect of his job on his wife and children, and Jake 'The Snake' Roberts - who terrifies opponents with his pet snake - being clearly upset at meeting his daughter, with whom he has at best a shaky relationship, after four years. Jake loves his kids, but doesn't have a clue how to get close to them. These are men who exercise complete control in the ring, but outside it they are anxious, mixed-up, mad or sad.
Not only planets away from Hollywood, "Beyond the Mat" is also set apart from the standard sports documentary which homes in on winning and not much else. It centres on the distinctive, disturbing, weird, unnerving universe that is American wrestling which primarily presents legitimised violence as entertainment. Mick Foley being wrapped in barbed wire until a river of blood flows down his face is not only idiotic and dangerous, it's also not sport. It's more like watching a film so violent that it's been denied a certificate. Does it ever occur to Mick who, offstage, is gentle and concerned (but perhaps not too bright) that it might be better not to let his very young children attend his fights?
Director Barry Blaustein, who wrote "The Nutty Professor" and other films, offers endless insights into this crackpot universe (often through clever juxtapositions and editing), but any implicit criticism is always made with affection, and often amusement. Almost as weird is the fact that this is a documentary that has made the big screen. It's good that it has.
