On December 10, 1997, the day after one of the most transformative moments in wrestling history, Bret Hart fumed while Paul Jay, the documentarian who had been with him for several months, smiled.
Published at 1:15 am. Updated at 7:00 a.m.
“Paul told me, 'You won't believe how much I captured everything,'” the legendary Canadian wrestler recalled in an interview with La Presse. I felt like there was no way my side of the story could be told well enough for everyone to understand what happened to me. I was afraid that no one would believe me. And when I saw the first clip of the film, I was blown away. Paul was right: he had captured everything. »
What did Paul Jay know about wrestling before he began filming the documentary Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998), which celebrated its 25th anniversary on December 20? “I knew as much about the world of wrestling as I knew about the moon,” replies the journalist, whose previous film, “Never-Endum Referendum,” focused on the 1995 Quebec referendum.
So why devote so much energy to this universe? That was because the Toronto director had quickly come across an interview by Bret Hart in Germany – “He was one of the best-known Canadians abroad, but the majority of Canadians didn't know him” – and further Roland Barthes' essential essay The World Where We Catch (1957). The French semiologist notes that “wrestling is part of the nature of great solar spectacles – Greek theater and bull racing: here and there a light without shadow produces an emotion without retreat.” »
PHOTO JEFF MCINTOSH, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVE
Bret Hart in 2016
This inspired Paul Jay to come up with the title of his film, in which Bret Hart not only fights against adversaries like the handsome Shawn Michaels and the villain Steve Austin, but above all against the darkest parts of his industry.
“It is a film that is difficult to watch again because it evokes all sorts of more or less pleasant emotions,” admits the now 66-year-old Hitman. But I remain proud of the integrity I demonstrated at that moment in my career, when I faced opposing forces and during the time I was deceived and lied to. »
“Show what you want!” »
In 1997, Bret Hart was one of the biggest stars in the WWF at the time. But nothing looks good in his heart; a substantial offer from rival company WCW fuels a heartbreaking conflict of loyalty within him. The all-powerful head of the WWF, Vince McMahon, will decide for him and let him go to the competition, which ultimately seemed to suit him.
But on November 9, 1997, at the Molson Center, despite McMahon's assurances that he could have control over the outcome of his final game, which was stipulated in his contract, Hart was stripped of his championship belt and his smiling frankness as the referee rings the bell while his Archenemy Shawn Michaels gives him his own finishing hold. A conclusion that Bret didn't agree with. A conclusion that must not violate the wrestlers' code of honor.
This pivotal moment in the industry's history, dubbed the Montreal ScrewJob, will forever blur the previously watertight line between fiction and reality.
Until then, few wrestling documentaries had shown the other side of the curtain to the extent that is now almost commonplace. Vince McMahon gave Bret this freedom of action like a kind of grandma during one of their discussions about his contract.
“And I had a verbal agreement with Paul that if there was something that I wasn’t happy with that didn’t portray wrestling in a positive light, it could be removed,” Hart specifies. Coming from a Calgary wrestling dynasty, Bret had been told since childhood that the predetermined nature of spectator sport must be silenced at all costs. “I think Vince thought I was too old-fashioned and too protective of the industry to want to talk publicly about what they did to me in Montreal. »
Vince McMahon couldn't have been more wrong. After the incident, “Bret was so angry,” Paul Jay recalls, “that he said to me, 'Show me what you want, I don't care!' »
Bret's only regret: who punched his employer in the face a few minutes after the ScrewJob? “I shouldn’t have chased Paul and his team out of the locker room before I passed out. to Vince. »
The God of the WWF
Aware that the world of wrestling could serve as a metaphor for him, Paul Jay was very adept at highlighting all the power that lies in the hands of Vince McMahon, whom Bret describes in voiceover as a “father figure.” Expression that has been used by many stars over the years.
Did the founder of the world's most lucrative wrestling company take advantage of the debt his protégés believed they owed him? On the other end of the line, Bret laughs quietly. “I mean… it definitely is!” We can compare him to a father, but I would also compare him to God. Vince might look at you one day and decide to change your life… and your life really has changed. I was his favorite student for a long time. I felt like I owed him everything, so I was loyal to him. »
PHOTO MASAHIKO YAMAMOTO, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE
Vince McMahon in 2004
“And that's why the film reached people who weren't interested in wrestling,” says Paul Jay. It pits someone like Vince, who only thinks about money, against someone like Bret, who sticks to his values. He asks the question: Is it naive to hold on to your values? »
Live in honor of them
Brian Pillman, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Jim Neidhart. Painful observation when rewatching Wrestling with Shadows: Of all the members of the Hart Foundation, his clan on screen and in everyday life, Bret Hart is the only one who hasn't crossed over to the other side. Long silence on the line.
“I think about Owen every day,” he says of his late younger brother, who died in 1999 at the age of 34 after a tragic accident during a WWE gala. “Owen was very good at hanging pictures, and today when I can't find my phone or forget my keys in my car with the doors locked, I feel like it's Owen pulling on my ear. »
“I always believed that the ScrewJob and Owen's death led to my stroke,” he continues of his serious health problems in 2002. “And the truth is that at that time I was carrying a lot of bad energy, dark and angry thoughts. I had to work to get rid of them. »
Bret Hart is therefore quite content with his past and is flattered to still be among the wrestlers most revered by those who imagine wrestling's present.
“My plan is to live to be at least 100 years old,” he promises. I want to live each of the days that are given to me in the name of all these friends whose journey was cut short too soon. Living as fully as possible is my way of paying homage to them. »
documentary
Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows
PaulJay