The Wrestler Relaunches Rourke Revival
Darren Aronofsky's Tale Gives Mickey Rourke A Second Lease on Life
Feb 13, 2009
Mickey Rourke emerged on Hollywood's radar in the early 1980's and was labelled with the ominous title of "the next big thing." With films like 9 1/2 Weeks and Rumble Fish he looked to have a promising career ahead of him, and was often compared to Marlon Brando.
Career Declines And Rourke Eventually Quits
Like the iconic Brando, somewhere along the line, it all went wrong for Mickey Rourke. Several poor career choices and a debilitating drug habit, and a decade later, either by accident or by design, Mickey Rourke was a nobody. A has-been of the American dream. A promising young talent, cut down in the prime of his career. A rising star who fell from grace under a blanket of drugged highs and disillusionment.
Indeed, in 1991 Rourke quit acting altogether and became a professional boxer. As Will Leitch, in his September 21st 2008 article Shades Of Brando informs us, Rourke suffered a broken nose, several broken ribs, and a compressed cheekbone, and eventually returned to acting in 1995.
Transitional Period
Rourke's love affair with Hollywood was bright and brief, and he began to appear in (often poor) films that reflected his dissatisfaction with the film industry. Ultimately, these decisions, and run of poor films led to Rourke almost quitting acting for good.
Were it not for the gravity of the injuries he sustained during his stint as a professional boxer, he may well have neveer returned to acting.
And so it was that Mickey Rourke faded into obscurity for 14 years, until, in 2005, Robert Rodriguez cast him in the hit comic book adaptation, Sin City and the world began to sit up and take note again. Rourke's portrayal of Marv, the street thug with a heart, was the best thing in the film, and gave him a second chance, ressurecting his career and his one time love for acting.
Present Day, The Wrestler And Re-Acceptance
And so this brings us up to date with Mickey Rourke's latest outing in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. Rourke is in good hands with Aronofsky, formally of The Fountain and Requiem For A Dream fame, who sensibly builds the film around his troubled lead, affording Rourke the freedom to go where he pleases with the character, and allow aspects of his own life to shape the character of Randy "The Ram" Robinson - a broken down, aging wrestler who was so near to greatness but never quite made it. Cut down in his prime. Sound familiar?
Rourke throws every fibre of his being into "The Ram". Mind, body and soul, as if his very career, life even, rested on the shoulders of the once great wrestler.
It is this that makes for a performance as close to perfection as Rourke is ever likely to get and this is what makes him maybe the only actor who could do justice to the character of "The Ram".
Rourke was a promising young star who became a lost soul, heading down a road to nowhere. But Mickey Rourke has clawed his way out of obscurity and back into the limelight.
