IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Howlin Wolf Bret Hart just comes across as a whiner, to me. If you wanna be in a position where you get to have a say in the outcome of matches, then you become a booker. Wrestlers are there to wrestle. They get paid millions and their share of the limelight, so the least they can do is to do as their boss asks. Yes, it was unscrupulous of Vince to go back on their agreement - but Bret had already shown himself not to be a team player, thinking of his own reputation before making sacrifices to move the company forward. The key word is 'entertainment'; there's no such thing as integrity of character in a profession that is coordinated using pre- planned results. You look at the rare breed of performer who've had an unbroken run with one company - I bet during their tenure they've had angles they disliked or didn't totally jive with, but they've worked it out somehow and done as requested, because that's what they're paid for. Millions of ordinary civilian workers have aspects of their jobs that are tough to swallow, but they take it as part of the deal... Why should wrestlers expect to be treated differently?

couturegal11 I saw this documentary for the first time a few weeks ago when I learned that Bret Hart was coming back to work for the WWE (then WWF). This documentary was outstanding. Never has a famous person come across as so real and so vulnerable. Who can blame Bret for jumping to WCW? He had a family to worry about it and like any good man he did what he thought was best for his family. He did not want to leave Vince high-and-dry, but he was caught between a rock and a hard place. I have always been a pro wrestling fan, but I never realized how hard life is for these performers. The amount of politics that go on behind the scenes really is unbelievable. At the end of the day, Bret Hart faced a timeless moral dilemma: does he stick by the company that created him despite his moral objections to the direction that the company is taking, or does he turn his back on them and follow his heart, even if it means selling out and betraying friends? It is a decision that we all must make in one form or another, and it is this that makes Wrestling with Shadows not a documentary about pro wrestling, but instead a documentary about humanity. 11 out of 10 stars.

Blake In the world of pro wrestling there are two spaces in which to spin dramatic concepts. The first space contains what's immediately recognizable about the sport -- the juvenile soap operatics -- and is easily filled by the Hulk Hogans and Dwayne Johnsons; comic-book profiles, muscular and flashy, the business as a springboard into bad B-movies.The second space is an older one that predates the Vince McMahon empire, and is centered on the notion of athleticism in the service of storytelling, in which each match is a story unto itself. The competitors' choreography communicates a complex of beats and turning points making up an abstract narrative. After all, what are these faux-gladiatorial displays but a kind of ballet? There is most definitely an art lurking underneath the cheap theatrics.Hart came from this latter background. He understood the concept and exploited it with more acumen than anyone else. Between the time of pro wrestling's explosive popularity in the '80s and the period covered in this film, he championed this method of wrestling amidst all those silly plot lines that now dominate McMahon's machine. Given the status of rasslin' in popular culture, it is little wonder that outsiders are more familiar with the dim celebrities of Hogan and The Rock than they are with the more technical Hart. Where they have headlined cinematic dreck, he could have given us a finely directed film or a great screenplay.You see, Hart's original goal was to be a filmmaker. Not an actor. A filmmaker. You wouldn't know that just from seeing this. Family tradition led him into wrestling. So what we have here is a story commissioned using one of his filmmaker buddies, about the downfall of a born storyteller who misappropriated his own life and tried to make up for it, by experimenting with those concepts within his chosen profession that could extend beyond, into the realm of his curtailed ambition. There's a reference to "Shawshank Redemption," another story about a man who utilizes skills from outside his imprisonment to see him through to the end. In this documented segment of the Hit-man's journey we see him getting crushed by the carnival house atmosphere (creatively) that was always germane to the wrestling business, as well as by the ruthless business model that McMahon introduced to that corner of the sports world.As as far as topicality, this item is little more than a relic. Because wrestling has shifted so much in the decade since its release and this director relies so heavily on contemporaneous elements for his context, the feeling of immediacy that made this effective at the time is now gone. Oh well, at least the music is apt, and the long final sequence in Montreal is noteworthy in the way it reflexively twines its three visions -- the grandiose wrestling performance itself, the devolving backstage drama, and the idea of the film itself as framework and as a show about the show. In the big scheme of things, the tragedy of this man's life -- apart from all his trials and tribulations after the events contained here -- is us knowing we may have lost a considerably talented filmmaker to that four-cornered circus. The upshot is that it appears to have not completely destroyed him. He's escaped that world , and now maybe one of these days he'll finally make the full transition into film and reinvent himself, to his benefit and ours. Go for it, Bret.Blake's rating: 2 (out of 4)

bluesyxx I was absolutely amazed when I caught this documentary on cable. Up until his point the behind the scenes of pro wrestling were just that, behind the scenes. The wrestling business is famously protected, any peek we get into it's inner workings is absolutely Amazing. As a life long wrestling fan, I consider this documentary be a one of a kind, an other wrestling fans who see this would have to agree. Also a look at the white hot Sunny, in all her splendor. Now having put this over from a wrestling standard. Let us examine the now infamous events of Montreal,when Bret screwed Bret. The events are caught by the camera following Bret around for his last year in the WWF. Bret Hart tries his best to be the hero here, and I believe he is, but can't help but feel that Bret is a master of hi craft, Vinny Mac is a master of his craft, if these two, and a few others wanted to, they could fool he world. I will withhold my own personal opinion as to if the events as they are portrayed here transpired as this documentary says, or not. Was it all a work? Did Bret really screw Bret? "Hitman Hart:Wrestling with Shadows" is but a mere piece of the puzzle. Conspiracy wrestling hounds like myself love this sort of thing, but the non-wrestling fan might also enjoy it for the sheer human drama, I give it a 9 out of 10. I took away a point because I don't know if I can really trust Bret, the master worker, and I am also a huge Shawn Michaels mark, HBK 4 life.