Whenever I sit down to watch a documentary, I take it as an opportunity to learn about a subject I’m familiar with in order to educate myself. I’m not looking for documentaries with a clear agenda but the chance to sit back for 90 minutes and hear a good story. Walking into the first ever production of Elbow Productions, I wanted to know more about this wacky character known as Jimmy Valient. Valient has had a wide and varied career. He reinvented himself multiple times in order to stay with the times and was one of the real pioneers of the rock ‘n’ wrestling period. While the documentary presented a very good basic framework for his career, I ultimately walked away from the film without knowing who the real man was.
In the era of Internet wrestling, the curtain has been pulled back to the point where fans freely use what were once considered “insider” terms like babyface or heel. A lot of the old school performers such as Jim Cornette have begrudgingly accepted this and made good money off shoot interviews. Then there’s someone like Jimmy Valient who spent this entire documentary speaking as if it was 1985 and wrestling still real (dammit). I can’t see he was insulting the intelligence of the viewer because I don’t believe there was malice in what he was doing. Valient seems like a fairly nice guy with a long career. I did not walk away from this film with any sense of who he was as a human being. I felt no real insight was included.
Valient hints at a number of issues, particularly as it pertains to recreational drugs. No specifics were addressed, just a lot of general information and vague implications. I don’t expect to know how a person shoved a needle or popped a bunch of pills, but to gloss over Valient’s problems felt dishonest and wrong. I refer to glossing over negative facts as “disneyfying” someone’s life. To me, the documentarians seemed far more interested in providing a simple look at the man’s career and not in painting a full picture of his life.
Another important problem with the documentary was the fact that they never showed the names of those who were talking. For example, say Jim Cornette was discussing an important moment in his career. We would see the man talking but wouldn’t know who he was unless we had heard of him before the documentary. This wouldn’t have been so bad if Valient and Cornette were the only ones who talked. Multiple people for whom I had no idea who they were spoke about Valient glowingly. In particular, one individual had the audacity to say Valient’s career was bigger than Ric Flair in the south and bigger than Jerry Lawler in Memphis. However, I can’t really do that since I had no idea who he was.
As many negative as there are to the film, I is worth noting that there are lot of really fun stories told and clips shown. While the real Jimmy Valient never revealed himself, Handsome and Boogie Woogie Jimmy Valient jumped out of the screen with arms and legs blazing. While we may not know what the it factor is, Valient certainly possessed a great deal of charisma. Despite not having giant muscles and a tan, Valient still achieved success in a long career where he successfully worked in a tag team before moving to Memphis and then feuding with Paul Jones for five years in the Mid-Atlantic area. The documentary clearly illustrates what made Valient such a special performer. I only wish we could have seen a deeper look at who Valient was.
Instead of feeling I got the whole Jimmy Valient experience, I felt like I got a Wikipedia entry. I learned about his professional life, followed by his personal, and finally his accomplishments as a wrestler. It was never more complicated than that. I cannot say this was a thumbs up documentary, but if you know nothing about Jimmy Valient and are looking to simply learn about his wrestling career, this may work for you.
For more information on Elbow Productions, check out their website. You can also purchase the documentary from the site as well.
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Valiant’s been a methhead for years; I’m not surprised everyone involved would be reticent to admit it. Valiant might’ve been quite popular, but saying he was more popular in the South than Lawler is a lie. And, not that this is relevant, but boy did he ever SUCK in the ring. He was a just a puncher, but his punches looked atrocious.