Documentary ‘Hitman Hart’ Grapples With Pro Wrestling

How did professional wrestlers gain such a powerful hold on the popular imagination? “Hitman Hart, Wrestling With Shadows” grapples with that question but can’t quite pin it down Sunday on A&E.;

The two-hour documentary on the coarsely charismatic Canadian Bret “Hitman” Hart traces his rise to stardom, anguish over changing from a plain-old good guy to a hip antihero, and “betrayal” in a fixed match. But insight is scant into what makes the buff characters of this “sports-entertainment” the undisputed cable TV ratings champs. We see plenty of body slams, bloody facial cuts, fireworks, rhinestone costumes--so what’s not to love?

Even non-fans may find the first half of director Paul Jay’s story oddly engaging as Hart dryly narrates a tale of growing up in a big, warm, gregarious family with a disturbing dysfunctional side: Dad Stu, a professional wrestler, was wont to take his sons to the basement to inflict torturous pain as a rite of passage.

Even so, all eight boys became wrestlers and all four girls--raised to the sound of screams ringing up through the heating registers--married wrestlers.

Jay’s narrative then bogs down in an unfocused mishmash of bulging muscles and invective-spewing fans. Dramatic tension that should build to a grand finale misfires in confusion such that Hitman is shown winning a world championship in a sequence capturing all the passion and athleticism of, say, a chamber of commerce installation.

The soul of professional wrestling is in its overwrought melodrama, and this burdens Jay’s portrayal of Hitman’s self-conscious struggles with various professional crises. It makes you wonder whether this production would more accurately be called a docudrama.

* “Hitman Hart, Wrestling With Shadows” premieres Sunday at 6 and 10 p.m. on A&E.;