Delayed Reaction: Andre the Giant

The Pitch: How much of Andre's story is myth? How much is true?

A documentary about the life of Andre the Giant.

I was into wrestling for a few years. Very interested. Perhaps obsessive. My generation of fandom was the "Attitude era", a decade after Andre the Giant's time. I don't care much for wrestling anymore, but I'm still defensive about it. Of course it's "fake". Even when I was 10, I was aware that I was watching a soap opera with body slams. That's not the appeal. The fun of it is the evolution of characters and how the stories all plays out. That makes the few moments when you can peek behind the scenes even better. Wrestling, perhaps more than any "real"* sport, has a great reverence for its history. I know all about Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant even though I didn't live through it.

*I'm using the quotation marks, because what these performers do is still impressive and takes skill. Calling it fake is like coming out of a movie and calling it fake. That's missing the point.

Andre the Giant has a wider appeal than people may expect. Andre is a pretty singular character, who transcends his profession. People know him, even if it's just from The Princess Bride. But, so much of his story is wrapped in legend. I'm happy to watch an 85 minute doc about demystifying him.

Overall, I think the doc is pretty good. It tells Andre's story well. They got a great assortment of talking heads. Many of the people felt unguarded. Only Vince Macmahon appeared to be precise in his word choice. Hogan is performing throughout but he isn't staying in character. I like that this leaned into the myths about Andre and verified things as best they could. Stuff like his alcohol consumption, even taking the lower estimates is legendary.

The biggest issue I had with the doc is that it goes in a number of directions that I would've rather watched a doc about. I'd love to know more about the different regional wrestling federations and how the WWE swallowed them up because of cable. A more in depth look at the storylines leading up to the epic Wrestlemania III showdown would've been cool. More about the making of The Princess Bride is something I'd love. Andre's story is interesting. It just happens to bump into a lot of other interesting stories too.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend