This is a record of the legendary wrestling death trip tour. The tour is a barnstorming road trip across Northern Canada during the dead of winter. Along the way they visit schools, towns, and First Nation reservations where they talk to kids and put on wrestling shows. It several weeks of long drives, little sleep and lots of wrestling. The film follows the tour’s 50th anniversary as another group of wrestlers prove that they have what it takes to do a crazy thing such as driving across Canada in the snow and cold.
First thing you need to know this is not a wrestling film as such. This is a film about the people on the tour, the wrestlers and crew, as well as the towns they visit. The film is firmly focused on the people and what they are experiencing. For the wrestlers that’s their lives and trying to survive the tour. For the towns it’s a break from their isolated lives. It’s a chance to laugh and smile in a life so isolated that on the suicide rate is through the roof. (It’s so bad that someone’s death threatens to derail several of the shows.)
The second thing you need to know is that this film is magnificent. This unexpected look at a bunch of people trying to get by and bringing joy is going to make you smile and tear up. Watching the kids react to the wrestling antics with wide grins and joy will make you smile. Watching the wrestlers calling their loved ones to tell them about being mobbed by kids who want to talk to them and tell them how their show changed them will make you get misty. I was wrecked several times as I was simply overwhelmed by emotion. I wanted to be there with everyone and see what they saw and feel the love.
What I absolutely love about the film is its low-key approach. The film just shows us the tour and the people. It isn’t creating any drama; it’s just showing this side of life. It allows everyone to be and to speak in turn and tell us, and show us, why they are making the trip. I love that the film isn’t in everyone’s face, it stands back and lets everyone talk to us as if we are part of the crew. It gloriously observes everyone, from organizers to wrestlers, to the audience. We get to see the joy of watching wrestling and the pain of learning that someone has died. There is life up on the screen and it bleeds off the screen and drifts into the seats.
This is truly great film, one that gets better and better the more I think about it.
See this film- it will lift your spirit and make you feel not just good but connected to life.
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