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Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows | |
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Directed by | Paul Jay |
Written by | Paul Jay |
Produced by | Paul Jay Sally Blake David M. Ostriker Silva Basmajian (NFB) |
Starring | Bret Hart Vince McMahon Shawn Michaels Stu Hart Owen Hart Davey Boy Smith Jim Neidhart Stone Cold Steve Austin The Undertaker Triple H |
Cinematography | Joan Hutton |
Edited by | Manfred Becker |
Distributed by | Vidmark/Trimark |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows is a 1998 Canadian documentary film directed, produced and written by Paul Jay. It follows Bret "The Hitman" Hart during his last year in the WWF, from his World Wrestling Federation Championship victory at SummerSlam to his final match with the company and the infamous Montreal Screwjob at the pay-per-view Survivor Series on November 9, 1997. [1] [2]
In 1997, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF) is embroiled in a fierce corporate rivalry with Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which will come to be known as "The Monday Night War" among wrestling fans. Amid this rivalry, star WWF performer Bret "The Hitman" Hart finds his loyalties to his employers unexpectedly tested when he is offered a highly lucrative contract with WCW, their chief competitor. Although he is tempted by the prospect of a large salary with another company, he views Vince McMahon as a mentor and father figure, and he feels conflicted about leaving his longtime employer while they're struggling to overcome WCW in the ratings.
In the interim, Hart struggles with developing a marketable public image. While he takes great pride in playing the role of a beloved hero ("face", in wrestling parlance), his superiors at the WWF fear that his heroic persona is seen as outdated and old-fashioned by the current generation of wrestling fans, who are increasingly showing a predilection for morally ambiguous antiheroes—a trend exemplified by the ascendance of Hart's rival "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. At the urging of WWF management, Hart reluctantly agrees to adopt the role of an arrogant bully who antagonizes fans and spouts anti-American rhetoric, which greatly conflicts with his desire to act as a positive role model for young fans. He is allowed to continue playing the role of a hero while performing for audiences in his native Canada, where he is widely viewed as a cultural icon.
Despite his initial misgivings about leaving the WWF, Hart is ultimately left with no choice after McMahon chooses to rescind an earlier offer of a 20-year contract to stay with the company. But since Hart is the WWF's reigning World Heavyweight Champion at the time, his looming departure forces the company to choose a new World Heavyweight Champion to succeed him. As Hart prepares for his final match with the WWF in November 1997, it is determined that his last match will pit him against his longtime rival Shawn Michaels in a televised bout at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Quebec. In a recorded conversation discussing the predetermined outcome of the match, McMahon agrees that the match will end in Hart's disqualification (making it a draw), and that Hart won't be forced to lose to Michaels, whom he is widely known to personally dislike.
When the night of the match arrives, it takes an unexpected turn when referee Earl Hebner prematurely rings the bell while Michaels has Hart in a "Sharpshooter" submission hold (Hart's signature move), resulting in Michaels being declared the winner—even though Hart never submitted. Immediately realizing that McMahon broke his word, Hart angrily spits in the WWF chairman's face in full view of the audience before storming off-camera. Later, backstage footage shows Hart's wife Julie confronting Michaels and his tag-team partner Hunter Hearst Helmsley, accusing them of knowing in advance about McMahon's plan to change the outcome of the match, which both men deny. Furious at McMahon for betraying him, Hart eventually confronts his former mentor in the dressing room, leading to a physical altercation that ends with Hart punching him.
In the final scenes, Hart spends time at home with his family some time after starting work as a WCW entertainer, while his former rivals Michaels and Helmsley ridicule him in a televised comedic sketch on the WWF's Monday Night Raw . While still noticeably bitter about his mentor's betrayal, Hart claims that he is at peace, and ready to begin the next phase of his career. In a voiceover, he expresses pride in staying true to his ideals and refusing to compromise his integrity, but he opines that his in-ring alter ego "The Hitman" was murdered in Montreal, bringing his story to an end.
Wrestling with Shadows is co-produced by High Road Productions Inc. and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). [3] It was released on VHS format to both the United States and United Kingdom in 1999. It has been available on DVD in the UK since 2004. On February 3, 2009, Wrestling with Shadows: The 10th Anniversary Collectors Edition was released on DVD for the first time in the United States. This two-disc edition includes the movie, interviews with Bret Hart and director Paul Jay ten years later and " The Life and Death of Owen Hart " documentary.
In an interview featured on the two-disc special edition, Jay states that the filmmakers had a contract with McMahon to provide not only stock footage, but the waivers for the use of the names and likeness of the other wrestlers featured in the film. After the fallout from Montreal, McMahon feared how he would be portrayed in the film and refused both. The director goes on to state that WCW contacted the filmmakers and not only offered to pay for the lawsuit at an estimated cost of $750,000, but also offered a pay-per-view deal for the film and long-term distribution on the Turner network. Once McMahon became aware of this, the producers received a fax from Titan Sports Inc. saying that they would honor their original contract on the condition that the lawsuit be dropped and they could never sell the film to Turner. Jay said they were told they had a "slam-dunk" case but when asked about the film, they were told they would most likely be in court three to four years and "there would be no film" even if they won. Jay decided to make the film and drop the lawsuit. The director goes on to state that McMahon also used his reputation to kill some of the distribution deals in the U.S. and overseas.
During Wrestling Observer Live on October 26, 2022, Dave Meltzer announced he took part in the recording on a commentary track with Bret Hart for a 25th Anniversary release.
The film was well received at the time [4] and is today considered to be critically acclaimed. [5] It won numerous film festival awards and has aired several times on both A&E and the Documentary Channel as well as on BBC Two in the United Kingdom; after a 1999 airing on BBC Two, journalist Greg Wood of The Independent described it "a story beautifully told". [6]
Wrestling historian Dave Meltzer has stated that Wrestling with Shadows, together with Beyond the Mat , are the two most critically acclaimed wrestling documentaries. [7] The Canadian film study book North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980 declared the film to be one of the best National Film Board documentaries of the period and worthy of John Grierson's mission for the NFB. [8] Jordan Peterson has expressed that the film as one of the greatest documentaries that he had seen in his life, stating that it was "one of the best documentaries about anything ever". [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
The film won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary award at the 1999 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. [17]
A soundtrack album inspired by Bret Hart's music choices was released on Nettwerk Records under the Unforscene Music imprint on October 19, 1999. [18]
Bret Sergeant Hart is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. A major international draw within professional wrestling, he is credited with changing the perception of mainstream North American professional wrestling in the early 1990s by bringing technical wrestling to the fore. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time; Sky Sports noted that his legacy is that of "one of, if not the greatest, to have ever graced the squared circle". For the majority of his career, he used the nickname "The Hitman".
Michael Shawn Hickenbottom, better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he is the Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative and oversees the creative aspects of the NXT brand, the promotion's developmental territory. Regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is known by the nicknames "The Heartbreak Kid", "The Showstopper", and "Mr. WrestleMania".
The Kliq was a backstage group in the World Wrestling Federation during the mid-1990s, composed of Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H. Michaels, Nash, and Hall wielded a considerable amount of power within the company at the time, which they reportedly used to positively influence one another's careers and occasionally negatively influence the careers of others.
Curtis Michael Hennig, better known by the ring name Mr. Perfect, was an American professional wrestler. Considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time by many peers, critics, and fans, he performed under his real name for promotions including the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and NWA Total Nonstop Action. Hennig was the son of wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig and the father of wrestler Curtis Axel.
The Montreal Screwjob was a notorious unscripted professional wrestling incident that occurred on November 9, 1997, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. During the WWF Championship match between Shawn Michaels and champion Bret Hart, WWF owner Vince McMahon and select WWF employees covertly manipulated the predetermined outcome of the match in favor of Michaels; the screwjob occurred without Hart's knowledge, causing him to lose the championship.
Earl William Hebner is an American retired professional wrestling referee. He is best known for his time as senior referee for the World Wrestling Federation from 1988 to 2005. Hebner played a prominent role in the inaugural The Main Event card in 1988, in which André the Giant controversially defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, as well as the infamous "Montreal Screwjob" during the main event of the 1997 Survivor Series. He also participated in a number of storylines, including feuds involving The McMahon–Helmsley Faction and The Alliance. Hebner was also the senior referee for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) from 2005 to 2017, and was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2015.
David Smith was an English professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring names Davey Boy Smith and The British Bulldog.
D-Generation X (DX) is an American professional wrestling stable, and later a tag team, that consisted of various members, most notably Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, X-Pac, and the New Age Outlaws, a tag team consisting of Road Doggs and Billy Gunn.
James Henry Neidhart was an American professional wrestler known for his appearances in the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation as Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart, where he was a two-time WWF Tag Team Champion with his real-life brother-in-law Bret Hart in the Hart Foundation. He also won titles in Stampede Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, Mid-South Wrestling, Memphis Championship Wrestling and the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation. He was part of the Hart wrestling family through marriage to his wife Ellie Hart, teaming with various members throughout his career, and appearing with his daughter Natalya Neidhart on the reality television show Total Divas.
WWF One Night Only was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation and aired exclusively in Canada and the United Kingdom. It took place on September 20, 1997, at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England. The event featured eight matches, with two main events. In the first main event, The Undertaker challenged Bret Hart for the WWF Championship where Hart retained. In the second main event match, which closed the show, Shawn Michaels defeated The British Bulldog to win the WWF European Championship.
Diana Joyce Hart is a Canadian-American writer, model, valet and wrestling personality. She is the youngest daughter of Canadian wrestling promoter Stu Hart and was the second to last child born to Stu and his wife Helen. She is best known for her several appearances for Stampede Wrestling and WWE often with her brothers Bret and Owen Hart as well as her husband Davey Boy Smith, and for her book, Under the Mat.
Bret "Hit Man" Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be also known as The Bret Hart Story: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be is a 2005 documentary film released as part of a three-DVD set on November 15, 2005, by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The documentary chronicles the career of popular WWE wrestler Bret Hart. Hart collaborated with WWE to make the documentary, contributing hours of interview content to the film. This collaboration marked the first time Hart had worked in an on camera capacity with WWE since the Montreal Screwjob, which was Hart's last in-ring appearance with the company until his return on January 4, 2010. The documentary chronicles Bret Hart's wrestling career, from how he broke into the business as a member of the Hart family to his run in World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
Owen James Hart was a Canadian-American professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He received most of his success in the WWF, where he wrestled under both his own name and the ring names The Blue Angel and The Blue Blazer.
The 1997 SummerSlam was the 10th annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on August 3, 1997, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Seven matches were contested at the event. This event was second to be held in New Jersey with the first previous event in 1989.
The 1997 Survivor Series was the 11th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It was the third and final Survivor Series event to be presented by Milton Bradley's Karate Fighters. The event took place on Sunday, November 9, 1997, at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The event's tagline "Gang Rulz" refers to the various wrestling stables that feuded with each other heading into this event. Seven matches were contested on the event's card.
The Attitude Era was a major era of professional wrestling within the World Wrestling Federation. The term "WWF Attitude" was used to describe its programming from November 9, 1997, to May 6, 2002. It began during the Monday Night War, a period in which WWF's Monday Night Raw went head-to-head with World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Monday Nitro in a battle for Nielsen ratings each week from September 4, 1995, to March 26, 2001. The era officially started on November 9, 1997, at Survivor Series 1997, when a video package aired ending with the first use of the "WWF Attitude" scratch logo; this was immediately before the main event featuring Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, which retrospectively would be known as the Montreal Screwjob due to the match's controversial finish. WWF's programming in this era featured adult-oriented content, which included increased depicted violence, profanity, and sexual content. This era was part of a wider surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and Canada as television ratings and pay-per-view buy rates for the WWF and its rival promotions saw record highs.
In Your House 13: Final Four was the 13th In Your House professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. The event was presented by Western Union and took place on February 16, 1997, at the UTC Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Five matches were broadcast on the PPV portion, with one match held before the event as a dark match.
In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede was the 16th In Your House professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on July 6, 1997, at the Canadian Airlines Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The event's card consisted of four matches with one match held on the Free for All pre-show.
The Monday Night War or the Monday Night Wars, was an era of mainstream televised American professional wrestling, from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, in which the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw and World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Monday Nitro were broadcast opposite each other in a battle for Nielsen ratings each week. It largely overlapped with the Attitude Era, a period in which the WWF used the term "WWF Attitude" to describe its programming from November 9, 1997 to May 6, 2002.
Bret Hart: Survival of the Hitman also known as just Survival of the Hitman is a 2010 television documentary film chronicling Canadian professional wrestler Bret Hart's life as he prepared for his in-ring return at WrestleMania XXVI after a ten-year absence from the ring after a career ending concussion. It also covers the rise of Hart's career and his split with World Wrestling Federation in 1997. It is a Fight Network original documentary and first aired March 22, 2010. The documentary was produced by John Pollock, Jorge Barbosa and Wai Ting. The documentary features interviews with Bret, members of Hart's family, former head of WWE Canada Carl De Marco, former sports agent Gord Kirke and producer of Wrestling with Shadows, Paul Jay. It also features archive footage of wrestlers, Dynamite Kid, Bad News Allen, Curt Hennig and Ric Flair.
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