The Big Picture: Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130)

Published 2019-02-22; 0:54:30 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on 'Fighting With My Family' | Interview”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey. Guests: David Shoemaker, Stephen Merchant.

Subject films: Fighting with My Family (2019).

On the transcript: No speaker labels; Fennessey/Shoemaker turns in the first segment are often merged in one line, so attributions there are 0.55-0.9. Amanda Dobbins is only mentioned (closing) and is not present.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

subject (1)

Fighting with My Family

compared (16)

GLOW (TV series) · The Wrestler · Nacho Libre · Rocky · Wrestling with Shadows · 42nd Street · A Star Is Born · Hello Ladies (TV series) · The Office (TV series) · Billy Elliot · The Fighter · Rocky II · Creed · 8 Mile · Saturday Night Fever · Grease

passing (17)

Train Wreck · Guardians of the Galaxy · Rocky III · The Naked City · Rififi · The Umbrella Academy (TV series) · Actress · Kate Plays Christine · Bisbee 17 · Tooth Fairy · Fast and Furious (franchise) · Lady Macbeth · Die Hard · Predator · Red Desert · Winter's Bone · Jojo Rabbit

dismissed (2)

The Wrestler (1974) · Ready to Rumble

recommended (14)

No Holds Barred · Body Slam · Paradise Alley · The Foul King · Goldface, the Fantastic Superman · The Big Show-Off · Night and the City · Beyond the Mat · Fake It So Real · I'm from Hollywood · My Breakfast with Blassie · La Lutte · Lipstick and Dynamite · Leave No Trace

anecdote (1)

Batman (Tim Burton)

Claims (58)

  1. industry (industry): Todd Phillips → Hulk Hogan. Fennessey cites the news of a Todd Phillips and Chris Hemsworth Hogan biopic as evidence movies and wrestling are in the air.
    “Todd Phillips and Chris Hemsworth are going to be making a movie about the life of Hulk Hogan, movies and wrestling just seem to be in the air.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:02:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (contrast): The Wrestler → The Wrestler. Shoemaker separates Aronofsky's The Wrestler from the 1974 film of the same name, which he treats as completist-only.
    “I'm talking about the amazing Darren Aronovsky movie and not the 1974 movie”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:04:31 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. people (people): The Wrestler → Darren Aronofsky. Shoemaker attributes The Wrestler to Aronofsky.
    “the amazing Darren Aronovsky movie”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:04:31 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. contrast (contrast): The Wrestler → Nacho Libre. Shoemaker calls The Wrestler the best wrestling movie ever but not the one to show his kids; he would show them Nacho Libre instead.
    “far and away the best wrestling movie that's ever been made, but it's not the movie that I would like show my kids to explain to them what pro wrestling is.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:06:20 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  5. people (people): Hulk Hogan → No Holds Barred. Shoemaker recommends the Hogan vehicle as a silly wrestling movie, calling it insane and deeply wonderful.
    “no holds barred with Hulk Hogan is is just absolutely cocaine riddled and insane and just deeply wonderful in its way”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:06:57 · David Shoemaker (0.75 sure it was them)
  6. people (people): Hulk Hogan → Rocky III. Fennessey notes Hogan's wrestler-in-the-movies debut in the Rocky series (the Thunderlips role).
    “Maybe barring Hogan in the Rocky series.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:07:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. verdict (verdict): Rocky III → The Wrestler. Fennessey wonders whether Rocky III counts as a wrestling movie, in which case it might rank with The Wrestler.
    “whether or not Rocky 3 actually counted as a wrestling movie because if so, that's obviously like, that might be up there with the wrestler is the best wrestling thing ever made”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:07:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. people (people): Body Slam → Vince McMahon. Shoemaker says Dirk Benedict plays a smarmy Vince McMahon type in Body Slam, opposite Roddy Piper as the big-name wrestler.
    “Dirk Benedict sort of playing a smarmy Vince McMahon character”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:07:41 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  9. career (career): Paradise Alley → Rocky. Shoemaker presents Paradise Alley as the little-known pro wrestling movie Stallone made right after Rocky.
    “Paradise Alley, um, that Stallone made after the Rocky.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:08:03 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  10. people (people): Paradise Alley → Terry Funk. Fennessey asks if Terry Funk is in Paradise Alley; Shoemaker confirms he is a stock wrestler in it.
    “Isn't Terry Funk in that movie?”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:08:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  11. career (career): Paradise Alley → Sylvester Stallone. Shoemaker says Paradise Alley explains why Stallone's later career was so Rocky and Rambo heavy.
    “explains why Stallone's career was like heavily rocky and Rambo going forward”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:09:13 · David Shoemaker (0.80 sure it was them)
  12. what-if (what-if): Paradise Alley → Michael B. Jordan. Fennessey compares Stallone making a wrestling movie right after Rocky to Michael B. Jordan making a Junkyard Dog biopic now.
    “imagine Michael B. Jordan signing up for, you know, the junkyard dog biopic right now.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:09:47 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  13. people (people): Night and the City → Stanislaus Zbyszko. Shoemaker says the film has one of the best prolonged wrestling scenes, with Zbyszko of all people.
    “one of the best, like, prolonged wrestling scenes in any movie, um, with Stanislaw's Obisco”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:11:23 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  14. craft (craft): Jules Dassin → Night and the City. Fennessey notes Dassin set the tone for a lot of film noir and crime tropes, which is why this is a cool vibe for a pro wrestling film.
    “set the tone for a lot of film noir and crime tropes over through his career”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:11:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
  15. career (career): Night and the City → The Naked City. Shoemaker places Night and the City in Jules Dassin's career between The Naked City and Rififi.
    “made between the naked city and Rafifi”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:11:58 · David Shoemaker (0.80 sure it was them)
  16. career (career): Night and the City → Rififi. Same sentence: Dassin made Night and the City between The Naked City and Rififi, the films that made him known as a crime-caper noir director.
    “made between the naked city and Rafifi”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:11:58 · David Shoemaker (0.80 sure it was them)
  17. people (people): Night and the City → Richard Widmark. Shoemaker says it is really a crime movie with great performances from Widmark and Gene Tierney, though wrestling is vital to the plot.
    “It's just, it's just a crime movie in a lot of ways, but it's got great performances, Richard Woodmark and Gene Tierney.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:12:16 · David Shoemaker (0.80 sure it was them)
  18. industry (industry): Fighting with My Family → Ready to Rumble. Fennessey frames Fighting with My Family as the first stroke of a more refined version of the movie-wrestling crossover that Ready to Rumble attempted.
    “fighting with my family feels like the 1st stroke of maybe a slightly more refined vision of how movies and the pro wrestling world intersect.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:13:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  19. contrast (contrast): Ready to Rumble → Fighting with My Family. Shoemaker says the Ready to Rumble/Arquette attempt failed because a wrestling movie must strike exactly the right tone, the test Fighting with My Family now faces.
    “there's a reason why they're ready to rumble David Arquette thing was a failure, because you have to, you have to strike the exact right tone.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:13:24 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  20. career (career): Ready to Rumble → David Arquette. Shoemaker calls the movie terrible and Arquette's WCW title reign forgettable, contrasting it with Arquette's later redemption as a real indie wrestler.
    “Ready to Rumble was a terrible movie and him being WCW champion is just a laughable at best forgettable moment of pro wrestling history”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:14:02 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  21. theme (comparison): David Arquette → New Jack. Fennessey says Arquette's bloody indie death matches turned him into New Jack.
    “He like turned himself into New Jack.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:14:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  22. theme (comparison): David Arquette → The Umbrella Academy (TV series). Fennessey compares seeing shirtless Arquette in spandex to the unbelievable gorilla-bodied character on The Umbrella Academy.
    “unbelievable as seeing the guy with the gorilla body and umbrella academy”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:15:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  23. career (career): Fake It So Real → Robert Greene. Shoemaker says Fake It So Real's director Robert Greene went on to make intellectually interesting documentaries.
    “the director is Robert Green, who's gone on to make some of, certainly the most intellectually, like, interesting documentaries in the world since then”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:16:00 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  24. career (career): Robert Greene → Actress. Shoemaker lists Actress among Greene's later work.
    “He's made like actress, Kate Place Christine.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:16:17 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  25. career (career): Robert Greene → Kate Plays Christine. Shoemaker lists Kate Plays Christine (as transcribed) among Greene's later work.
    “He's made like actress, Kate Place Christine.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:16:17 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  26. career (career): Robert Greene → Bisbee 17. Shoemaker says Greene's most recent film is Bisbee 17, a reenactment of a dark moment in American history.
    “most recently he made a movie called Bisbee 17”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:16:22 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  27. theme (theme): Robert Greene → Fake It So Real. Shoemaker says Greene came to documentary through wrestling and kayfabe, the tension between staged and true that Fake It So Real explores.
    “He came to like documentary through wrestling”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:16:46 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  28. lineage (lineage): La Lutte → Roland Barthes. Shoemaker says the 1960 Quebec art-film documentary was deeply influenced by Barthes's obsession with wrestling.
    “deeply influenced by Rowan Bart and his like obsession with wrestling”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:18:17 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  29. contrast (contrast): La Lutte → Wrestling with Shadows. Shoemaker contrasts La Lutte's art-film approach with the plainer, gritty wrestling documentaries Wrestling with Shadows and Beyond the Mat.
    “such a different movie than like wrestling with shadows or beyond the mat or these things that are just like the sort of like so gritty, their plain sort of wrestling documentaries”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:18:26 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  30. contrast (contrast): La Lutte → Beyond the Mat. Same sentence: La Lutte differs from the gritty wrestling documentaries like Beyond the Mat.
    “such a different movie than like wrestling with shadows or beyond the mat or these things that are just like the sort of like so gritty, their plain sort of wrestling documentaries”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:18:26 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  31. what-if (what-if): Ryan Coogler → Michael B. Jordan. Shoemaker says a Junkyard Dog biopic from Coogler and Jordan would be really cool.
    “Ryan Kugler and Michael B. Jordan doing that would be really cool.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:19:56 · David Shoemaker (0.70 sure it was them)
  32. people (people): Dwayne Johnson → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says his friend Dwayne Johnson sent him the documentary that became the film.
    “my dear friend Dwayne The Rock Johnson sent me this documentary about a family of British wrestlers”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:22:34 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  33. career (career): Dwayne Johnson → Tooth Fairy. Merchant knew Johnson from the Tooth Fairy days.
    “He did a film called Tooth Fairy, and we'd stayed in touch over the years.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:23:27 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  34. career (career): Dwayne Johnson → Fast and Furious (franchise). Merchant says Johnson was shooting a Fast and Furious film in England when he saw the documentary.
    “He was filming one of his Fast and Furious films.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:23:33 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  35. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → Rocky. Merchant says the documentary had a Rocky style underdog story at its core.
    “there was a sort of rocky style underdog story at the core of it”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:24:09 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  36. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → 42nd Street. Merchant says he saw the film as about becoming a star and entertainer, like old backstage musicals such as 42nd Street.
    “those old kind of um, musical, like 42nd Street, right?”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:27:31 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  37. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → A Star Is Born. Merchant says he thought about A Star Is Born, the rags to riches story, as much as the sports side.
    “I was thinking as much about films like, you know, like a Star is Born”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:27:47 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  38. career (career): Fighting with My Family → The Office (TV series). Fennessey says Paige is positioned not far from David Brent or Merchant's Hello Ladies character, with a presumed sense of accomplishment.
    “not so far from David Brent or your character in Hello Ladies”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:28:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  39. theme (theme): The Office (TV series) → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says there is always a coming-of-age element in his work, whether the Office or this film.
    “whether it's the office or any of the other things are done, there's always a sort of coming of age element to it”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:29:44 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  40. theme (theme): Hello Ladies (TV series) → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says his Hello Ladies character, like Paige and Brent, finally stops trying so hard.
    “true of my Hello Lady's character”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:30:16 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)
  41. theme (theme): Fighting with My Family → Billy Elliot. Merchant wanted a film that works for non-fans, as Billy Elliot makes you root for a ballet dancer despite no interest in ballet.
    “I kept thinking about movies like Billy Elliott.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:33:50 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  42. craft (craft): Tim Burton → Batman (Tim Burton). Merchant recalls Burton making the Joker the killer of Batman's parents, which he first hated as a comics fan.
    “Burton makes the Joker, the person who killed Batman's parents”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:35:16 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  43. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → Batman (Tim Burton). Merchant says his furious teenage reaction to Burton's Joker change taught him that a 90-minute movie must simplify its source, as he did with wrestling storylines.
    “the more that Tim Burton's decision to do that makes perfect sense to me as a 90 minute movie”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:35:54 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  44. career (career): Florence Pugh → Lady Macbeth. Merchant says he had only seen Pugh in Lady Macbeth, a contained performance, and needed someone who could let loose.
    “I'd only really seen her in this film called Lady Macbeth, which is a much more contained controlled performance”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:38:30 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  45. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → The Fighter. Merchant borrowed The Fighter's low-budget trick of using HBO boxing cameramen so the wrestling would look like a real broadcast.
    “They used HBO boxing cameramen to shoot a lot of their fight scenes.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:41:16 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  46. industry (industry): Film4 → Fighting with My Family. Merchant says he developed the project from the ground up with Dwayne Johnson and Film4.
    “I developed it with Dwayne and with film 4”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:43:44 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  47. industry (industry): HBO → Hello Ladies (TV series). Merchant says Hello Ladies began as stand-up and HBO suggested making it a sitcom, so ideas can come from anywhere.
    “Hello, ladies, for instance, was a stand-up act and it was HBO who said if you thought about this as a sitcom”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:44:00 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  48. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → Rocky. Merchant says you cannot make a sports movie without watching Rocky and all its sequels.
    “make any kind of sports a movie without watching Rocky or indeed all of the Rockies”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:45:46 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  49. craft (craft): Rocky → Fighting with My Family. Merchant calls Rocky a template because it beds in character so you root for him before the fight, a lesson he applied.
    “a template in the sense that it really beds in character”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:00 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  50. lineage (lineage): Creed → Rocky. Merchant says Creed repeated Rocky's trick of making you care about the character before the fighting.
    “when they rebooted it with Creed, I think they did the same thing”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:07 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  51. lineage (lineage): Fighting with My Family → 8 Mile. Merchant lists 8 Mile among films he thought about while making it.
    “The other things I thought about are 8 mile, the Eminem film.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:49 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  52. contrast (contrast): Saturday Night Fever → Grease. Merchant says people think of Saturday Night Fever as a Grease-like musical, but it is a much tougher, grittier film.
    “like a companion piece to Greece, but it's actually a much tougher, grittier film”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:47:32 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  53. craft (craft): Fighting with My Family → Saturday Night Fever. Merchant treats the wrestling matches like the dance numbers in Saturday Night Fever, each with different moves building to a big finale.
    “the way that the wrestling sequences are almost little dance numbers.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:47:51 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  54. career (career): Leave No Trace → Winter's Bone. Merchant notes Leave No Trace is from the director of Winter's Bone.
    “from the director of Wintersbone”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:48 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  55. people (people): Thomasin McKenzie → Leave No Trace. Merchant praises McKenzie's performance in Leave No Trace.
    “Great performance from Thomas and Mackenzie”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:52 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  56. people (people): Thomasin McKenzie → Jojo Rabbit. Merchant says McKenzie is also in Jojo Rabbit, in which he had a part.
    “I did a part in, in a movie called Jojo Rabbit with Taiko Waititi, and she's in there”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:52 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)
  57. programming (programming): Leave No Trace → Fighting with My Family. Fennessey proposes Leave No Trace as an unlikely but reasonable double feature with Fighting with My Family.
    “That would make an unlikely but not unreasonable double feature with fighting with my family.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:53:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.95 sure it was them)
  58. contrast (contrast): Fighting with My Family → Leave No Trace. Merchant says Leave No Trace is heavy and Fighting with My Family could be the antidote or sorbet.
    “There's a heaviness to leave no trace that perhaps we could be an antidote.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:53:41 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)

Fun items (27)

  1. fun, about Wrestling movies in general: Shoemaker's thesis: fiction wrestling films get silly because it is hard to portray a fake sport in a fake world.
    “it's really hard to treat a fake sport in an utterly fake world”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:03:07 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about GLOW (TV series): Shoemaker says Netflix's GLOW has done wrestling fiction about as well as anything.
    “Glow, the Netflix series has done it just about as well as anything else”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:03:26 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about The Wrestler / Darren Aronofsky: Shoemaker saw Aronofsky behind him at a wrestling-manager one-man show about six months before The Wrestler was announced.
    “what in the hell is Darren Aronovsky doing here?”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:05:44 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about No Holds Barred: Shoemaker's silly-wrestling-movie pick: Hogan's No Holds Barred, absolutely cocaine riddled and wonderful.
    “absolutely cocaine riddled and insane and just deeply wonderful in its way”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:06:57 · David Shoemaker (0.75 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Paradise Alley: Stallone spent his post-Rocky political capital on a wrestling movie few people know exists.
    “He basically used like all of his all of his like political capital.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:08:10 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about The Foul King: Korean movie that nails Shoemaker's lifelong nightmare of showing up for a match and finding it is real.
    “my like lifelong nightmare of becoming a pro wrestler and showing up for the match only to realize that it was real”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:10:14 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about The Big Show-Off: 1945 comedy where Arthur Lake courts Dale Evans, who is obsessed with pro wrestling.
    “Arthur Lake is trying to get Dale Evans and she's obsessed with pro wrestling.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:10:49 · David Shoemaker (0.80 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Night and the City: In 1940s-50s seedy New York noirs wrestling was an easy backdrop, but here it is more central than in most.
    “it's more central night in the city than most of those movies”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:12:43 · David Shoemaker (0.80 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about David Arquette: Arquette, in his late 40s or early 50s, now wrestles real indie shows and gets bloodied for love of the game, redeeming Ready to Rumble.
    “just getting literally bloodied up and broken, just for the love of the game”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:13:48 · David Shoemaker (0.85 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Fake It So Real / documentary: Greene's kayfabe insight: a documentary cannot capture absolute truth once a camera is on you.
    “there's no truth when there's a camera in your face, right?”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:16:46 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about La Lutte: Quebec 1960 art-film wrestling documentary reportedly free online from the Canadian government.
    “I believe is still available online for free from like the Canadian government”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:17:50 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Sputnik Monroe: Shoemaker's wrestling icon; legend says he helped desegregate the Memphis arena, a biopic idea.
    “Sputnik Monroe who wrestled in Memphis and and legend, the legend has it had a hand in desegregating”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:20:14 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about The Gold Dust Trio: Shoemaker's time-travel dream: go back with a video camera to when wrestling became fake in the 1920s.
    “if I could go back in time with a video camera.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:21:05 · David Shoemaker (0.90 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Fighting with My Family: Merchant's only wrestling exposure growing up was fat British wrestlers like Giant Haystacks.
    “There was a guy called Giant Haystacks.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:22:19 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Fighting with My Family / Dwayne Johnson: Merchant's running gag about opening with his friendship with Johnson.
    “Did I mention I'm friends with Dwayne Johnson?”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:24:42 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Fighting with My Family: Wrestling summed up as soap opera in spandex, the line that made it click for Merchant.
    “Someone described it as soap opera in spandex.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:25:10 · Stephen Merchant (0.90 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Fighting with My Family: Merchant says WWE let him in like magicians: you have to win their trust.
    “It was a little bit like I imagine if you spend time with magicians.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:26:22 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about Fighting with My Family: WWE rule Merchant learned: say WWE, not the WWE.
    “you should refer to it as WWE and not the WWE.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:26:37 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Batman (Tim Burton): Teen Merchant was furious that Burton made the Joker the killer of Batman's parents.
    “Anyone who's read the comics knows it was Joe Chilli.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:35:23 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about Dwayne Johnson: At WrestleMania the Rock lit a nine-foot sign of his name with a flamethrower and held the crowd for minutes without a word.
    “he managed to string that out for about 7 or 8 minutes without saying a word”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:37:32 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about Fighting with My Family: The Staples Center scene was shot on day four with 20,000 fans after a Raw taping, with one hour allowed by WWE.
    “The WWE had allowed us one hour to shoot a scene.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:39:15 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about Florence Pugh: A nervous Merchant was asked by Pugh to leave the room before the Staples Center scene.
    “can you just leave the room because you're making me nervous”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:42:02 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Rocky II: Merchant's pick of the Rockys.
    “I'm I'm very partial to Rocky 2.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:45:54 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  24. fun, about Saturday Night Fever: Merchant says the original cut is a brutal working-class story, not the pop touchstone people remember.
    “is a very brutal, tough working class story of a guy who's sort of going nowhere and just living for the weekends”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:59 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  25. fun, about Stephen Merchant's 500 movies list: Merchant made a chronological list of 500 favorite movies after seeing one by Edgar Wright.
    “I made a list recently of my favorite 500 movies because, you know, I got time on my hands.”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:51:29 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  26. fun, about Die Hard / Red Desert: His list runs from Fellini and Antonioni to Predator and Die Hard; Fennessey sums it up as Die Hard 8 or a Red Desert remake.
    “either Die Hard 8 or a remake of Red Desert”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)
  27. fun, about Leave No Trace: Merchant's last great thing seen: Leave No Trace, cruelly overlooked this awards season.
    “an excellent movie I saw called Leave No Trace”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:52:38 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)

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