I’ve never been too big on wrestling, but I’ve seen the occasional amount of it when hanging out with guy friends sometimes on TV, mostly on video games. I’ve never been one to discriminate by gender either, and with the little knowledge I had, I at least knew Trish Stratus because I had a mini collector card featuring her that I got free in a bag of chips. So female wrestlers were pretty common back then, the style of entertainment was supposedly more entertaining as well as I hear modern-day wrestling isn’t what it once was. I kind of experienced the strength of a female wrestler when I was rather young. She probably would prefer I don’t mention her, so let’s get on with this movie which is all about some history of the first female wrestler who wrangled her way into what was once a male-dominated sport. Queen of The Ring will deck any other film in all three rounds. Let the Review begin. Ding Ding!
Starting off many years ago in the 30’s, the film opens up with Mildred Burke (Emily Bett Rickards) narrating an explanation of how she started as a waitress and one particular night when she attends a wrestling match and sees Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas) who most people don’t seem the most fond of. Later on, Billy and his son G. Bill (Tyler Posey) stop by at the cafe she works at and Mildred tells Billy her dream of becoming a wrestler. At first Billy doubts her, but Mildred convicnes him and one intense training session is enough to impress him. From there, Billy gives her some intense training, and soon it’s time for first show at a carnival. It goes well when Mildred takes out a scrawny guy and then a big lug and even Billy is starting to develop feelings for Millie, as she is sometimes referred to. They travel together with their respective sons and Billy even gets a couple more female wrestlers named Mae Young (Francesca Mae Young) and Elvira Snodgrass (Marie Avgerpoulos). Elvira doesn’t have much training however and unexpectedly, Billy being too drunk gets too involved with her moves much to Mildred’s frustration and while that instantly gets patched up, Mildred faces off against a female Texan who fights dirty and puts Mildred out of commission for a few weeks with a leg injury. Mildred takes this time off to bond with her son Joe, but Billy starts getting chauvinistic forcing Mildred to move back to her mother’s and start her all woman wrestling organization. Billy eventually patches things up again, but Mildred only wants a business relationship with him, splitting the profits 50/50. Billy accepts and explains how she’ll be in a match that is staged, much like a lot of wrestling matches are, and tells her she’ll have to do so against Clara Mortenson (Toni Rossall) for one paritcular match. Things heat up at the end however and Mildred ends up winning, due to how things went betwen Billy and the competitors not holding up their end of the deal. Mildred stays faithful to Billy’s side for the most part and they end up marrying while continuing to face off more female wrestlers taking the country by storm. This of course leads to sexist protestors and for the first time in a long time, we see two male wrestlers face off: Gorgeous George (Adam Demos) who makes several other appearances throughout the film, and Jim Mitchell (Khalid Greenaway), who is not Father Jim Mitchell, but rather someone else, the ‘Black Panther’ as he was known back then.
We get even more racial balance in the film and the team as three black women join, and during the tour when a racist clerk refuses to get them rooms, Billy buys out the whole hotel and they not only relax at the lovely resort but have a photoshoot done as well. G. Bill shows Mildred he cares for her especially since her and Billy almost never seem to have personal time for each other, but Billy doesn’t approve of this and won’t let those two marry. Mildred is having problems of her own with her son Joe because everyone in school knows who his mother is and he wants to drop out with all the attention he’s getting. Mildred’s frustation gets worse and she finally decides to divorce Billy demanding steady profits AND the paperwork. Mildred moves on to start her own business with some of the other girls, and Billy’s own business gets out of hand especailly when one his wrestlers, Gladys (Deborah Ann Woll) dies from health complications. G. Bell suffers an injury himself, and while Bill continues to lose money, Mildred seems to have lost almost everything herself, but finally it all sums up to one last match in Atlanta when Mildred takes on June Byers and yet still struggles to keep her focus up.
As you can tell, this movie is long. And it’s also pretty intense too with the fighting, the arguments, the tension, and everything else. But even with all the intensity, there is some humour and it’s a great story that stays historically accurate for the most part. If Queen of the Ring is to win any title, it would win the title of Most Powerful Story. What makes it even more of a well made film is the actors featured and their performances, whether they wrestle or just get involved in a minor scuffle. A wide array of cast members and while we don’t see much character’s traits given certain amount of screentime, one does feel connections to a few or maybe even more characters, depending on what you see in them. The decor and setup of everything add an element making this great period content, the many types of music featured through the film are awesome hits from numerous times, and Emily Rickards seemed like a wrestling pro in this movie. Of course, she did train with pro’s, and it’s not only her but everyone else who really put their best foot forward. I have to point out how director Ash Advilson did a significant amount of research and told this female-based story from an amazing perspective without making it too dergatory. Josh Lucas did have some rough moments as the character of Billy but he showed some good variety of positive traits as well, making for a perfectly blended character. Even though I’ve never studied wrestlers or their history too much, I feel I’ve learned a tremendous amount from watching this movie. It’s so interesting to see what it took to get things to where they are today. I’m pretty sure there is still some discrimination towards female wrestlers, but not from me. Don’t mess with them is my advice. Ultimately, Queen of the Ring is a great film worth watching. Check it out at the VIFF Centre April 8 at 3:10PM or 8:30PM. It’s also screening April 10 8:45PM at the Rio.
