Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
This documentary follows superstar Bret Hart during his last year in the WWF. The film documents the tensions that resulted in The Montreal Screwjob, one of the most controversial events in the history of professional wrestling, in which Vince McMahon, Shawn Micheals, and others, legitimately conspired behind the scenes to go against the script and remove Bret Hart as champion.
A remarkable piece of documentary filmmaking that happened to capture one of the most extraordinary and unscripted real-life dramas in sports entertainment history. The Montreal Screwjob gives the film a genuinely shocking, unforgettable ending that no scriptwriter could have conceived. The novelty is exceptional — a fly-on-the-wall doc that inadvertently became a record of a genuine real-world conspiracy unfolding in plain sight, unique in the annals of sports documentaries. The plot structure benefits enormously from the escalating tension and Bret Hart's own compelling, conflicted persona. Acting is not really applicable in the traditional sense, though Hart and the personalities come across as authentic and unguarded. Cinematography is functional and utilitarian — standard documentary video work of the era with no particular visual ambition, keeping it below average in that regard.