Fiction about Fact
This weekend I went to see The Master. Like other Paul Thomas Anderson movies, Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, the movie takes historic events and rewrites them as fiction for the benefit of the story. All of these movies take facts and fiction to tell a good story.
There is a famous scene in Boogie Nights that is a take off on the Wonderland Murders. I once heard Paul Thomas say on an interview that he was inspired by the Wonderland Murders, but he got the fact all wrong. What he thought he knew was not true and what he thought he was making up actually happened.
Jason Mann and Stan Morris talked about Jerry Lawler being a Superhero face. This set some wheel spinning in my head. One of my favorite all time feuds was Bret Hart v. Jerry Lawler. I thought it was a great story. The attack at King of the Ring 1993 is just awesome. Both of them do a great job selling the feud. Bret was the perfect frustrated hero. Jerry plays the perfect jealous aging super star. There is so much subtext in Lawler's performance.
This raises the question, was the feud between Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart about the relationship between Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart. At King of the Ring 1993 Hulk Hogan leaves the WWF, without dropping the title to Bret Hart. People see the ending of Wrestlemania IX was a screw job to Brett. I have always heard stories that Hogan never wanted to put Brett over. It sounds like Hogan and Bret never really got along.
I know that Jerry Lawler was not playing the role of Hulk Hogan. He was not the over pumped up body builder. The story was about who was the "King" of the WWF. It was about Brett Hart's Skill v. Jerry Lawler's guile. It was about how Bret had to fight someone who would not fight fair. It would be easy to say this story reflected what happened back stage.
I might be totally off base here, but it is something to think about. I love looking at how fact influences fiction.
There is a famous scene in Boogie Nights that is a take off on the Wonderland Murders. I once heard Paul Thomas say on an interview that he was inspired by the Wonderland Murders, but he got the fact all wrong. What he thought he knew was not true and what he thought he was making up actually happened.
Jason Mann and Stan Morris talked about Jerry Lawler being a Superhero face. This set some wheel spinning in my head. One of my favorite all time feuds was Bret Hart v. Jerry Lawler. I thought it was a great story. The attack at King of the Ring 1993 is just awesome. Both of them do a great job selling the feud. Bret was the perfect frustrated hero. Jerry plays the perfect jealous aging super star. There is so much subtext in Lawler's performance.
This raises the question, was the feud between Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart about the relationship between Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart. At King of the Ring 1993 Hulk Hogan leaves the WWF, without dropping the title to Bret Hart. People see the ending of Wrestlemania IX was a screw job to Brett. I have always heard stories that Hogan never wanted to put Brett over. It sounds like Hogan and Bret never really got along.
I know that Jerry Lawler was not playing the role of Hulk Hogan. He was not the over pumped up body builder. The story was about who was the "King" of the WWF. It was about Brett Hart's Skill v. Jerry Lawler's guile. It was about how Bret had to fight someone who would not fight fair. It would be easy to say this story reflected what happened back stage.
I might be totally off base here, but it is something to think about. I love looking at how fact influences fiction.
Comments