Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Darren Aronofsky‘s The Wrestler signaled a few major events for the careers of those involved. For Aronofsky, the stripped-down character study was a response to his financially disappointing, vastly overlooked romantic epic The Fountain. For Mickey Rourke, the film was a much-needed resurgence, even if his forthcoming results still leave much to be desired.
Now that it’s prime time to revisit the film, as we await Aronofsky’s biggest project yet next spring, something that should nudge you in that direction is Within the Ring, a 45-minute documentary going behind the scenes of The Wrestler. Included on the Blu-ray, but recently put online, the film tracks the barebones production that lasted just 35 days in 37 locations. In it, we can hear Aronofsky (whose debut Pi celebrates its 15th anniversary today) in discuss challenging Rourke and even carrying that through on set, as well as insight from the actual wrestlers featured in the film and much more. Check out the complete documentary below, split up in three parts, and pick up the Blu-ray here.
As a fun side note, attending the Toronto Film Festival premiere of the film also resulted in one of the first articles this very site posted.
Is The Wrestler one of your favorite films from Aronofsky?