INTRODUCTION: FILM ANALYSIS - Fighting With My Family (2019)

Introduction: Analysis of Film

FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (2019)

Using the Internet Movie Database (www.imbd.com) web-based resource:

1.      The overall user rating for this film is 7.3 out of 10 (based on 20,242 IMDb users)

2.      The film did very well at the box office in it’s opening weekend in the US. It took $138,780 (14 February 2019).

3.      Overall fans have responded well to the film - not all of them are wrestling fans yet they have still enjoyed watching Fighting With My Family for the well written storyline, the humour, the well-selected cast and the strong family bond element that runs throughout. The quote entitled ‘It made me laugh’ was the one that I most agreed with: “The film was hilarious and it made me laugh constantly, I'm not familiar with the true story so I can't talk about that but I went to the cinema to watch a film that would make me laugh and it did just that.”

4.      External reviewers (also known as critics) responded positively to the film. One quote from Film Threat was, “It’s a touching and funny tale about a family chasing their unconventional dreams in the world of sports entertainment. It has such a magnificent cast, and the story is interesting enough to entertain both wrestling fans and non-wrestling fans alike.” Another quote from The Film Stage sees Jordan Raup writing, “Fighting with My Family doesn’t pull too many unexpected punches, but as someone who has never watched a split-second of wrestling in their life, the fact that I was engaged with this underdog story is a testament to the success of Merchant’s first solo directing effort.”

5.      This film falls under the genres of biography, comedy, sport and drama.

6.      There are three taglines for the film Fighting With My Family and they are ‘Based on the Incredible True Story’, ‘Meet an Outsider who changed the Game’ and ‘A Comedy About a Family That Fights a Little Differently.’

7.      The film is directed by Stephen Merchant who also directed Hello Ladies: The Movie (2014) and Cemetery Junction (2010).

8.      Here are the main stars of the film and a list of what they are currently working on:

DWAYNE JOHNSON (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson)

 Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (post-production) 2019 - role of Luke Hobbs

Untitled Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Sequel (post-production) 2019

Jungle Cruise (post-production) 2020 - role of Frank

Red Notice (pre-production) 2010

Black Adam (pre-production) - role of Black Adam

NICK FROST (Ricky Knight)

 Horrible Histories: The Movie (post-production) 2019 - role of Arghus

Vert (Short) (post-production) - role of Jeff Arghus

Stardog and Turbocat (filming) 2019 - voice of Buddy

Pugwash (pre-production) - role of Captain Pugwash

LENA HEADEY (Julia Knight)

 The Flood (post production) 2019/II - role of Wendy

Gunpowder Milkshake (pre-production) 2020 - role of Scarlet

Crooks (pre-production)

FLORENCE PUGH (Saraya ’Paige’ Knight)

 Midsommar (post-production) 2019/I - role of Dani

Little Women (post-production) 2019 - role of Amy March

Black Widow (pre-production)

JACK LOWDEN (Zak Knight)

 Fonzo (post-production) - role of Crawford

Corvidae (pre-production) - role of Thomas

VINCE VAUGHN (Hutch)

Arkansas (post-production) - role of Frog

9.      A list of some of the other films that these actors have starred in including ones that I have and haven’t heard of.

DWAYNE JOHNSON

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Skyscraper, Rampage, The Faye of the Furious, San Andreas, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Baywatch, Central Intelligence, Moana (voice), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Hercules, Snitch, The Scorpion King, The Mummy Returns, Race to Witch Mountain.

Dwayne Johnson has been in at least 44 films with popular titles. I prefer those that show his humour.

NICK FROST

Slaughterhouse Rulez, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Spaced, Paul, Attack the Block, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Ice Age: Continental Drift

Nick Frost has been in at least 23 films. I enjoy his humour.

LENA HEADEY

300, 300: Rise of the Empire, The Purge, Dredd, The Brothers Grimm,

Lena Headey has been in at least 38 films. This actress is new to me so I am unfamiliar with her work.

FLORENCE PUGH

Malevolent, Outlaw King, King Lear, The Commuter, Lady Macbeth, The Falling.

Florence Pugh has been in at least 10 films. This actress is new to me so I am unfamiliar with her work.

JACK LOWDEN

Dunkirk, Mary Queen of Scotts, England is Mine, Calibre, A United Kingdom.

Jack Lowden has been in at least 10 films and I recognised him from Dunkirk and in a TV Series entitled The Long Song.

VINCE VAUGHN

Hacksaw Ridge, Brawl in Cell Block 99, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Term Life, Unfinished Business, Deliveryman, The Internship, The Break-Up, Wedding Crashers.

Vince Vaughn has been in at least 42 films yet I have only heard of a few, my favourite being Hacksaw Ridge as I enjoy his delivery of humour.

10.  Under ‘Fun Stuff’ (as taken from the IMDb website) several goofs took place during the filming such as:

In the opening scene where Zak and Saraya are fighting over what to watch on TV, it's on a modern flat-panel Hi-Definition TV. The scene was in 2000, when most HD television sets were in cabinets similar to old rear projection TVs, and flat-panel TVs that existed then were as expensive as a small car. An expense a family running a struggling wrestling promotion would hardly be able to afford.

Zak is seen as a young child holding a cardboard version of the WWE championship, in what appears to be 2000 from the clip he's watching. However the belt he creates is the belt introduced in 2005. You can see from the clip he's watching The Rock is holding a totally different belt (the Attitude Era World Title belt used between 1998 - 2002).

Paige is seen as a young girl holding a homemade cardboard version of the WWE Divas title, however this title wasn't introduced until 2008, by which time Paige was 16.

The movie appears to speed past anything about Paige's time in NXT, or fail to mention that she was then-current NXT Women's Champion when she won the Diva's Championship the Raw after WrestleMania in 2014.

The Diva's championship replaced the women's title in 2011. The film tries to pass off that the Diva's title was the main women's title when Paige grew up, though this was not the case.

Zak was originally the first person in the family to have try-outs with WWE.

During Paige's debut match on Raw, the movie depicts the crowd as being silent and not knowing who she was. In the real match Paige was met with loud cheers by the crowd as she was very well known to wrestling fans due to her time in NXT.

The film makes it seem as though Paige was brought up from basic training in NXT and made Divas Champion practically overnight. When in fact, Paige has been the NXT Women's Champion for quite some time and made her main roster debut while still holding the NXT Women's title. So to the many die hard wrestling fans in the building that night, she was not at all an unknown performer.

Paige never gave any heartfelt in-ring speech about winning for her family or outcasts. She exited the ring and headed towards the stage entrance giving no speech at all.

The movie makes out that Paige had moments of stage fright on the microphone. This never happened. Paige was the NXT champion and had been for several months when she made her RAW debut to loud cheering fans chanting her name, knowing exactly who she was. A.J. Lee knew who she was too, and did not say "Who are you?" She said "What are you doing here" to which Paige replied quick and confident on the microphone why she was there. Also during this event A.J. Lee was accompanied by Tamania Snuka, who is nowhere to be seen in the film. Paige also wore a purple two piece outfit, not her traditional black stockings or attire as shown in the film.

Everything in the movie regarding Paige's journey to the WWE takes place between 2010 and 2014, but the WWE logo shown is the modern straight lined logo that was introduced when the WWE Network went on the air in February 2014, but was not made the official logo of the company until after SummerSlam that same year. This whole time, they should've been showing the "scratch" logo that was the official logo from 2003 until then.

In the film, Paige is recruited to NXT in Orlando. But at the time Paige was actually signed, NXT didn't exist yet. WWE's developmental league was called FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling) and was based out of Tampa. NXT and the WWE performance center opened in Orlando well after Paige was first signed.

When Paige went to O2 for tryouts the staging states 'Smackdown Live' but Smackdown didn't turn into Smackdown Live until March 2009.