Trailer
You Cannot Kill David Arquette is the documentary of Hollywood actor and former WCW champion David Arquette’s shocking return to the world of professional wrestling. Directed by David Darg and Price James, we see the once lauded star of such 90s hits as Scream and Never Been Kissed return to the ring to redeem himself after being hailed as the most hated man in wrestling after winning the WCW Championship in the year 2000.
With appearances from Patricia Arquette, Rosanna Arquette, and Courteney Cox and with wrestling legends Ric Flair, Diamond Dallas Page, Eric Bischoff, and The Nasty Boys – You Cannot Kill David Arquette will be available to purchase as a Digital Download from 23rd November.
The film starts with the metaphoric bookends of Arquette’s career in wrestling so far. We see his impending adversary Ken Anderson preparing and delivering quite an animated promo to the camera interspersed with footage of his time in WCW. We are told in no uncertain terms that ‘In the year 2000, David entered the world of professional wrestling to promote the film “Ready To Rumble”
For those unaware, Ready to Rumble was a poorly received and poorly performing about two wrestling fans played by David Arquette and Scott Caan who train to become professional wrestlers.
The documentary continues – “It was determined that Arquette would win the belt and become World Heavyweight Champion.”
Those savvy wrestling fans among us will always have known that Arquette wasn’t to blame for him winning the WCW Championship. Yes, he won a match and thus the belt that was on the line but, as referenced in the film, wrestling is predetermined. Arquette was written into that position and did the job just as any other wrestler would have done, a sentiment that is later echoed by wrestling legend Diamond Dallas Page. If you were in the same position, you wouldn’t have said no either.
This retrospective sets up the documentary perfectly and details Arquette’s want/need to rectify the resentment he was subject to following his time as WCW Champion.
Jump forward to present times and we see Arquette as a family man but he feels like crossing over into wrestling caused directors or the industry to stop taking him seriously.
There’s a rather telling sequence that puts him in line with actors of the same generation such as Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio, but now he’s best remembered as the goofball cop from Scream with no real follow up of that perception due to him facing ten years of rejections and nothing consistent in terms of work or roles.
Despite Arquette’s willingness to return to wrestling is quickly scuppered by two things – one, his reputation among those who consider the sport their sole source of income including Brian Knobbs of The Nasty Boys who aggressively refuses Arquette a spot on his ‘Legends Of Wrestling’ show and two, the myriad of health issues that plague the former champion including stents in his heart, taking blood thinners, alcoholism and the many mental health conditions that would undoubtedly come with years for inner turmoil.
But it’s clear that David Arquette feels like he has something to prove. He can no longer just like wrestling or witness it as a fan, he has to be a part of it. He can’t let go of the black mass left by his previous foray into wrestling. He wants to train properly and, as he puts it “If your part of the joke, it’s not as painful as if you are the joke”
Arquette trains for his first match, which rather unglamorously takes place in someone’s backyard, and discusses some sort of magic man persona which extremely over the top gimmicks such as making sticks appear and shooting confetti out into the audience. While all this seems in keeping with the pomp and circumstance of professional wrestling, I found it difficult to truly believe how seriously he is taking his return to the squared circle. Why create a persona that comes across as laughable if you are determined to be perceived as a legitimate competitor in the sport?
Admittedly, that reservation was soon forgotten as Arquette embarks on some more intense training with luchadors in Mexico – in which he pops out a rather decent hurricanrana – before taking on RJ City in a match for a Los Angeles based promotion. A match in which he manages to sport one hell of a shiner thus addressing the “wrestling is fake” conversation albeit briefly.
There’s a very specific choice that Arquette makes in perhaps the most uncomfortable and emotionally charged sequence of the film that comes about 15 mins before the film’s closing moments. I won’t go into specific details so you can go in and discover it for yourself but, there’s a long-running knowing that no matter what, a wrestler will always try and get to the finish of a match so it doesn’t end abruptly for the fans and the story being told reaches its natural endpoint. David Arquette manages to adhere to this and thus shows that he has the mentality of a wrestler — he’s not just doing it, taking bumps and having matches for the sake of it.
If you’re a wrestling fan, this documentary will successfully turn your opinion of Arquette from the man who killed WCW to a man who is actually quite passionate about the industry and was a victim of some poor promotional tactics in the early 2000s.
If you’re not a wrestling fan, the film will prove to be more of a personal study of someone who is perceived to be a certain thing and his struggle or relentless mission to overcome and take control of that aspect of his life.
It’s very much a story of survival and there’s a real emotional heft to the film that cannot be understated. Everyone is worried for him; we worry for him as he looks like a desperate man very much in need of this new creative outlet.
Once again, You Cannot Kill David Arquette is will be available to purchase as a Digital Download from Monday 23rd November.
Special thanks to everyone at Blue Finch Films for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the film.
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