Les Diaboliques

Train to Busan vs World War Z

If thou openest not that I may enter I will smash the doorpost and unhinge the gate. I will lead up the dead, that they may eat the living.”    (Enheduanna). Excerpt from “Descent of Ishtar/Inanna to the Underworld.” Written somewhere between 3000 B.C. to 1900 B.C. Train to Busan and World War Z: A Comparative Approach Call them what you want: the undead, revenant (French word meaning come back or one who has returned), Zombi or Zombii in Haitian, or as many Western viewers know them, zombies. There are fast zombies (both of these movies) , slow zombies (George A. Romero’s classic 1968 film Night of the Living Dead), zombies who are under mind control through nefarious black magic or sorcery, and many more. Zombies are a very important concept in pop culture and society. Specifically, lots of movies have been made about them.   Two interesting films about zombies are World War Z (2013) and Train to Busan (2016). Even though World War Z is has more jump scares and fits into the

Fighting with My Family

 Tagline- Meet an Outsider who changed the Game.

Hello friends! Today i'm writing about the 2019 film Fighting with My Family. It is about the Bevis/Knight family of wrestlers and specifically about their daughter Saraya and her journey to wrestling fame and a place in WWE history. (As far as i can tell Bevis is the family's collective given name and Knight is their collective ring name. I'll try to remain consistent and refer to them as Bevis, or just use first names, but if i slip up and use Knight/Bevis interchangeably now you know why.) family in Norwich which is a city in the county of Norfolk, England.  Fun crazy fact that i didn't know or just didn't process until recently: The legendary, almost unbelievably successful naval commander Horatio Nelson was from Norfolk! 

Nelson won battle after battle against usually the French and Spanish but he also campaigned against the Danes too. These victories weren't without cost though, he lost most of his right arm in one battle, lost the sight in his right eye in another, shot directly in the face and survived with only a scar in a third, and finally he lost his life at Trafalgar in 1805, fatally wounded by a sniper on a enemy ship.

Anyway let's stop reviewing history and get back to reviewing the movie haha. Here's a synopsis: the film follows the Bevis family and the parents "Rowdy" Ricky Bevis and Julia "Sweet Saraya" Bevis have 3 children Roy, Zak, and Saraya, named after Julia's ring name. All the children are of course brought up in wrestling and they all have dreams of making it big on the global stage. Zak also teaches wrestling to local kids. They are all very popular and famous locally but Zak and Saraya go to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) tryouts and only Saraya gets accepted for further training. Zak and Saraya have a strong relationship which makes it even more sad when a rift opens between the two over this issue.

Saraya leaves Norwich to go to Florida and trains exhaustively. Her ring name (besides her real one, as said before Saraya was her mother's ring name) is Paige. But she can't seem to make friends with her fellow wrestlers and feels very lonely and when she goes home to Norwich, Zak is feeling very bitter about not being selected and he neglects his girlfriend and child in the process, drinking away his anger.  He reaches a boiling point after a "friendly" match between him and Saraya and after taking out his anger on her in the ring, he leaves and indiscriminately causes a violent bar fight. The family bails him out of jail and Saraya attempts to cheer him up with a pep talk about all the good things he has and has done. As she says: "Just because millions of people aren't cheering when you do it, it doesn't mean it's not important."

Saraya goes back to the States and finds out she's going to be competing against AJ Lee, the current WWE Diva's Champion. Zak gives her a pep talk saying things along the lines of "You don't have to be the next Rock (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) just be the first you". Saraya struggles against AJ at first but then gets the upper hand and wins! The film ends with clips interviewing the real Saraya and her family from the British documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family. 

Now i want to get something straight with you guys. WWE is a performance based sports entertainment idea with lots of rivalries (fictional and real) and complicated character backstories and subplots and quite a lot of matches are at least partially scripted and choreographed. The commentators know the expected outcome of many matches but not how the victor wins (but not all.) However as they say in the film "it's fixed not fake," the physicality is very real and some of the stunts are quite impressive. Numerous wrestlers (i stopped my research at about 19-20) have died in the ring from numerous causes such as injuries sustained during the match, sudden events like cardiovascular collapse and cardiac arrest (which are two different things apparently), or from accidents and unknown causes. Saraya/Paige herself retired at only 25, due to a neck injury in a previous bout.

Also pertaining to the commentator knowing what's going to happen issue, i like to think of this as an example: me accidentally seeing the final score of a important football (soccer) match but not seeing anything else. As i don't know how the plays lead to a goal, whether it's scored through a spectacular free kick or a relatively simple tap in, so too do the WWE commentators not know how the eventual winner will bring down the opponent.

Fighting with My Family was directed and written by Stephen Merchant. He's also an actor and i know him as Caliban in the movie Logan. The executive producer was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson himself who has about 10 minutes of screentime. Annoyingly i can't find a casting director but they did a very good job, and the stunt people list is so extensive i'll just tell you to look it up haha. Though most of the moves and techniques in the movie were learned by the actors, the potentially dangerous ones were performed by people like Tessa Blanchard who is a professional wrestler and is a stunt double for Florence Pugh who plays Saraya. 

The film has a very fantastic cast including Florence Pugh as Saraya/Paige Bevis, Lena Headey as Julia "Sweet Saraya" Bevis,  Nick Frost as Patrick "Ricky" Bevis,  Jack Lowden as Zak Bevis, Vince Vaughn as Hutch Morgan, and last but not least Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who plays himself. 

For several of the actors this film was relatively unexplored ground. For example, Lena Headey often is known for appearing in dramas (probably most notably playing Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones) and her character in this film has a lot of comedic elements compared to her stern, scheming, murderous character on Game of Thrones so it was nice to see a lighter side to her acting.  Conversely actor Nick Frost has made a name for himself appearing in comedies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and while Fighting with My Family certainly has comedy it also has a lot of heart and it was fun to see him show off his acting range.  Speaking of range, Florence Pugh as Saraya/Paige is the standout performance in the film. Pugh plays her with such passion and believability it's quite rewarding to see her journey to international stardom and winning recognition for her family as well.  

While Fighting with My Family was not Pugh's first film, it certainly was her breakthrough role for audiences in the U.S.  Pugh has since appeared in many films such as 2019's Midsommar playing Dani and Little Women, also in 2019, as Amy March. I'm intrigued and excited to see her as Yelena Belova in Marvel's upcoming film Black Widow. She is becoming quite a rising star.


In conclusion Fighting with My Family is a movie with a lot of heart but also depth of character as well. You can see it was done with lots of passion involved with the project (Not least because a former professional wrestler is the co-producer.) The cast and acting is great, the cinematography is great, stuntwork is amazing, and the movie has just the right balance of humor and seriousness. I'd definitely recommend this one.

Ok that's it for now, thanks for reading!

Till next time,

Conrad Smith






Comments

  1. Wow! so cool! I'll have to watch this one. I hadn't heard of it until now :)

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    1. Yeah it's a very good movie! It's on Hulu currently. Definitely give it a watch :)

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  2. Becoming a Florence Pugh fan, I'm interested in this one. Haven't seen it yet. Good review.

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    1. She's very talented for sure! There hasn't been a role of hers that i haven't liked yet. Yes it's quite good and funny. Thanks!

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