Arts & Entertainment

At The Movies

year are up more than 100 percent.
As a Jew, Blaustein is adamant that wrestling has
helped shatter at least one of the negative stereotypes
associated with the Jewish people. Though they
weren't involved in his film, wrestlers Dean Malenko
and the Raven, not to mention WCW megastar Bill
Goldberg, are all members of the tribe.
"I think that Goldberg is really culturally signifi-
cant for Jews. I think it's great that he uses his name
and that it's not used as a gimmick -- you know,
they don't play `Nava Nagila' when he comes out,"
says Blaustein.
"You're taught as a Jewish male, 'Don't hurt
yourself?' It's a mantra.
But there are all sorts of
Jewish images; it doesn't
have to be intellectual."
Five years in the mak-
ing, Beyond the Mat
traces the lives of a
handful of wrestlers
struggling to make a
name for themselves,
while at the same time
trying to maintain bal-
ance in their family lives.
As the movie's direc-
tor, narrator and on-
screen confidant to
many of his subjects,
Blaustein, 45, wore
many hats during the
course of the produc-
tion. "I'm involved in
this world in a weird
way," he notes. "I became
wrestling promotes violence, and the
part of the world as much
A scene from "Beyond the
demented, parade-like atmosphere it
as an outsider can be."
Mat": While admittedly
boasts is an embarrassment to American
Surprisingly poignant
incorporating fake story lines
culture. But millions of diehard fans dis-
at times, while excessivel
— the scenarios in the ring
agree and have continued to watch, send-
violent at others, Beyond
are phony and a marketing
ing wrestling programs skyrocketing in the
executive with WWF goes so
the Mat is a true behind-
far as to liken its stars to Jim
Nielsen ratings.
the-scenes peek at both
Henson's Muppets — the
There are those who think that all
the good and the bad of
danger and gore are very real.
wrestling fans are beer guzzling, tobacco
professional wrestling.
chewing, tattooed hillbillies, but that
While admittedly incor-
notion is far from the truth. In recent
porating fake story lines
years, viewership among fans with at least a college
— the scenarios in the ring are phony and a mar
education has more than doubled. According to
keting executive with WWF goes so far as to like
the USA Networks, syndicators of the hugely suc-
its stars to Jim Henson's Muppets — the danger
cessful World Wrestling Federation (WWF), rat-
and gore are very real.
ings in households earning more than $50,000 a
At 53, World Championship Wrestling's Terry

Barry Blaustein

gives wrestling fans

a backstage pass in

Wrestler New Jack and Director Barry Blaustein in
"Beyond the Mat": "You're taught as a Jewish male, Dont
hurt yoursel It's a mantra. But there are all sortsof Jewish
images; it doesn't have to be intellectual," says Blaustein.

A

DINA FUCHS
Special to the Jewish News

ccording to Barry Blaustein, the world
of professional wrestling is like a rebel-
lious child — it's just misunderstood.
Several years ago, Blaustein, a former
writer for Saturday Night Live (he developed many
of Eddie Murphy's most famous characters) and a
screenwriter on movies like Coming to America and
The Nutty Professor, set out to make a documen-
tary about the oft maligned and satirized sport.
At first, the film was just his entree into the
strange world that had fascinated him since he
was a child, an excuse to meet the larger-than-
life personas he had seen bruised and bloodied
in the ring.
"Really what I wanted to do was to make [a
movie] for people who can't stand wrestling, like
my wife and kids," he admits. Like a lot of fans,
I'm a self-hating one. [Watching wrestling] is not
something I'm proud of. But what I wanted to do
was to get people who couldn't stand to see this, to
sort of see it the way I see it — like a big theater. I
wanted to get them involved emotionally."
After much persistence and years spent earning
the trust of the movers and shakers in the wrestling
community, Blaustein makes his directorial debut
with Beyond the Mat, which opens today at selected
theaters. The film exposes a side of wrestling rarely
open to fans, taking them into the personal lives of
the men and women who inhabit the colorful and
complex world that is professional wrestling.
Though it has become immensely popular in
recent years, critics say the spectacle of television

Dina Fuchs is an Atlanta-based freelance writer.

3/17
2000

"Beyond the Mat."

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