Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

1More Film Blog

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Wrestling for Jesus (Clarke, 2011)

Wrestling for Jesus (Clarke, 2011)

Last updated on: February 27, 2015 at 10:33 pm by Kenneth R. Morefield

Wrestling for Jesus (Clarke, 2011) 2015-02-27T22:33:43-05:00 Kenneth R. Morefield

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Wrestling for Jesus

When asked to describe his film, director Nathan Clarke said in an interview, he likes to say it is “everything you expect from the title and everything you don’t.”

The part that I expected was the kitschy, local color documentary about guys who embodied the paradox of trying to combine the uber-testosterone filled personas of theatrical wrestling with the meeker, quieter demeanor outside the ring associated with evangelical Christianity.

The part I did not expect was the subtle, probing examination of modern American Christianity and the tendency of its adherents to conflate performance with true spirituality.

That’s not to imply that Wrestling for Jesus is a particularly editorial film. It’s not. Clarke stated that audiences at various screenings have responded quite differently to the film’s principals, speculating that the reason for this may lie in his attempts to let the participants speak for themselves. There is one moment in the film where you hear Clarke’s voice. When Gary Rucker (who wrestles under the name Matt Cruz) shows his trophies and pulls out one he was awarded from his peers for being “most-Christlike,” Clarke asks him what it means to be Christlike. Rucker’s answer is what is commonly referred to as “documentary gold.”

Viewers don’t have to be particularly astute to ponder how his response reflects on Rucker, but it wasn’t until I had finished watching the film that I really thought about what it said about those who gave the award to him. Rucker’s persona in the wrestling league is one of hero–the film explains that professional wrestling is scripted around obvious heroes and villains–and it is hard to look back on the scene in retrospect and not come away with a notion that, paradoxically, it is the performers themselves who have the hardest time discerning between what is authentic and what is make believe.

The difficulty in distinguishing person from performance is less overt but just as striking in the representation of Timothy Blackmon who wrestles under the name of T-Money. Through most of the film’s first half his Christian script is as polished as his wrestling script. We see him in couple’s Bible study, praying before matches, urging potential participants in the Wrestling for Jesus league to sublimate career and self-advancement to a higher purpose. When his personal life takes a turn for the worse, though, his rhetoric becomes as confused as Rucker’s. Life has shown him that apparently all the “stuff” he has been preached does not “really work.”

Still, if all the film were doing was giving Blackmon enough proverbial rope to hang himself, it wouldn’t be nearly so thought provoking. The question of whether or not Blackmon’s pre-crisis faith was authentic, shallow, or an outright facade is not nearly as interesting is not really as interesting as are the implications for whatever answer we make to it.

In one of the film’s most interesting, if opaque moments, a post-match altar call brings people to the side of the wrestling ring to give (or, more commonly, to “rededicate”) their lives to Jesus. While heads are bowed, a young boy looks up and stares into the camera. He holds the gaze of the camera for a good ten seconds or so, quite long enough for the viewer to become a little uncomfortable, before bowing his head again.

Here again, Clarke’s light editorial touch allows us the grapple (no pun intended) with questions rather than getting slammed with prefabricated answers. Why are we uncomfortable at his looking into the camera? Is it not because we have our own, unarticulated scripts that people are supposed to follow that make it easier or harder for us to judge whether their faith is authentic?

Through most of the first half of the film, I wanted to be on these guys’ side. I’m different, I thought, than the midwestern lady Clarke described in an interview who called them all “monsters.” One shouldn’t have to give up everything he enjoys to conform to a suburban, middle-class conception of Christianity. But then Blackmon moves with the space of a year or so from being ready to “die” for his wife and family because it’s a man’s role to love his wife as Christ loved the church to saying that sometimes you just need to “start over” and it’s best to “move on” Then, I thought, well, maybe my script is more inclusive than another’s, but doesn’t there have to be something other than performance–other than saying the right things and being convincing when you do–that is the hallmark of a Christian life?

Clarke said in an interview that the first five year’s of his work as a documentary film maker were about learning techniques and technology. Years six through ten were about understanding the importance of story. What he is learning in his second decade as a documentarian is how to recognize or bring out “honesty” and “authenticity.” The director, particularly of documentaries, has a lot of power to shape the material, but Clarke’s vision is to capture those moments, not manufacture them.

Sometimes, of course, those moments of truth can be painful. Clarke described the film as being analogous to looking in a fun house mirror for many Christians. The more I think about that analogy, the more I like it. The image reflected may be distorted, elongated, out of whack, easy enough to dismiss and giggle at.

But it’s also slightly disturbing, because we know that while it is distorted, it’s still, well…us.

Disclosure: Clarke works for Christianity Today, and the writer is a frequent contributor to that company’s film reviews. This review was not solicited by CT.

Disclosure--DVDS

Film Festivals

Reviews

Virginia Film Festival 2011

Nathan Clarke

Wrestling for Jesus

Previous Post

October 28, 2011

The Rum Diary (Robinson, 2011)

Next Post

November 5, 2011 The Other F Word (Nevins, 2011)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Years Later 1999 Top 5 2007 Top 10 2008 Favorite Discoveries 2008 Top 10 2009 Favorite Discoveries 2009 Top 10 2010 Favorite Discoveries 2010 Top 10 2011 Top 10 2012 Top Ten 2013 Top Ten 2014 Top Ten Best Picture Winners Christian Spotlight on Entertainment Christianity Today Coming Soon Disclosure Disclosure--AS Disclosure--Book Disclosure--DVDS Disclosure--SEOL Disclosure--Travel Dissenting Opinion Elsewhere Emergenetics Essays Featured Film Fest DC--2014 Film Festivals Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2011 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2014 Headline Interviews Laura on the Oscar Winners Podcasts Quick Impressions Reviews RiverRun Film Festival 2014 Television The Criterion Collection The Thin Place To Stream or Not to Stream? Top 10s and Other Lists Toronto International Film Festival 2009 Toronto International Film Festival 2010 Toronto International Film Festival 2011 Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Toronto International Film Festival 2014 Uncategorized Video Virginia Film Festival 2011 Virginia Film Festival 2013 Women's Film Festival 2012

Select a Month February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Gideon Moses Joshua Solomon