And here we are again, back to the list of "Greatest Guy Movies of All Time". We talked before how that list has amazing films, and absolute trash. This film didn't make it, along with Buckaroo Banzai and Unbreakable. Honestly, this film was probably never intended to be on the "Best of" anything list, but either accidentally or deliberately, Carl Reiner hit on genius.
To recap, "Guy Films" supposedly contain: sophomoric humor and raunchy dialogue (those are boy films), various kick arse fight sequences, copious amounts of violence and explosions (can’t argue with that), and sexual conquest over female and accompanying nudity (films that emphasize the fascination a 6th grader probably has with anatomy. Grow up).
Films like Magnificent 7, the Connery Bond Films, the Great Escape, the Good the Bad and the Ugly, and the Wild Bunch all belong on a Great Guy Films of All Time list. As do the French Connection, the Godfather, Enter the Dragon, Rollerball and Rocky. But if a list includes Caddyshack, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Porky’s, run away.
The One and Only was a serious effort by Henry Winkler to break out of the Fonzie mold. I have to say the guy is a legit actor. He plays Andy Schmidt, a college student who has huge aspirations to be an actor, but has to settle for being a Pro Wrestler. On the surface the movie is an innocuous little comedy that no one thought that it was much more that what it was. The subtext however is a cheese grater on the emotions. If you are a guy. Or if you are a guy who cares about anyone at all. Or if you are a guy who has had his dreams crushed, and wonder if you will ever be anything. Let me explain.
What you see- Andy trying to beak into acting, but Andy also being a self-absorbed schmuck. Him being the narcissist he is wouldn't matter if it were only him in the story, and no one wanted to be around him. The story would end there and Andy would be story-less. But we meet Mary (Kim Darby), who despite all of Andy's self-centeredness, falls for his affable (at times) sense of humor. She agrees to marry him, voluntarily, and we wonder why.
Andy plays off the self-centeredness as confidence and assurance, with dashes of humor to make it palatable, but we really don't like him. The question becomes: then why do we root for him? And the answer to that becomes Reiner's genius.
Back to the main points of the movie. Andy moves him and Mary to a ratty hotel in New York, because he will have work in a couple of weeks. He doesn't and Mary ends up supporting them while Andy tries to find acting work. Then Mary becomes pregnant. Andy really panics, before meeting Milton (played by Hervé Villechaize, the guy who played Tattoo on Fantasy Island). Milton introduces Andy to Pro Wrestling, and Andy gets the crap beat out of him in his first match.
Side note- the guy who beat Andy so badly was Chavo Guerrero Sr., in Chavo's only movie appearance. Also watch for a cameo by Rowdy Roddy Piper in his first film appearance (you thought it was Body Slam, didn't you?).
Andy figures out that he can act (wrestle) and make money too. But Mary disagrees and decides to go back to her parents in Ohio. And this is where the subtext really kicks in. Andy goes ballistic with a profane, blame-shifting tirade calling Mary a couple of extremely uncomfortable names, telling her that when it got too hot, she wanted out. The tirade brings all his insecurity and doubt to the surface, showing us what we already know: Andy is a man torn.
He can't quit acting, and he can't not take care of his family. The two things collide in him again and again, threatening to disembowel him in the process. He and Mary separate, and Andy goes on the road. Everything Andy had at that point that he considered problematic, at that point, was of his own making. He could have stayed in an addressed the issues inside himself and tried to find some genuine solutions. He didn't. He blew up. He blame-shifted. He accused. He insulted. And he bailed. Of course, none of that worked as the film displayed a gritty realism in avoiding personal issues.
We, as men, watch with an uncomfortable fascination wondering if Andy is going to unlock the secret to how you do what can't be done- chase your dreams and take care of your family at the same time. We want to look away at his tirade, but we can't because it's way too familiar. I've done it. If you're male, you probably have too. When we feel like things that are supposed to be in our control spiral, we end up taking it out on those closest to us. It's wrong, and we do it any way. Roger Ebert said, "The movie isn’t so much about wrestling as it is about ego," and he was right. But it's deeper than that. It's about that ache that trips up all of us: at what point do 'must' and 'cannot' intersect? And will we survive the journey? That's what it's about under the surface. It's not an easy film to get, and most people don't, but Reiner was a genius.
There is a schmaltzy ending, because this is actually listed as a Rom Com. It's not. It's a wrestling film not about wrestling, and a Rom Com not about romance. It's kind of about comedy.
IMDB gives the film a 5.8/10. As an innocuous wrestling comedy, 5.8 is a yes. But under the surface of The One and Only simmers a scalding evaluation of what is a man, and how can he be everything he is supposed to be when society threatens to rip him in half. It's an 8.5.
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