Documentary Filmmaking

The Resurrection of Jake the Snake (trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNIgD-PcR3k)

The documentary that I have chosen to research is a one that I've only watched it once but I know is the best one for me to research and write about, and that is The Resurrection of Jake the Snake. It is about a famous pro wrestler who is living with the struggles of alcohol and drug addiction after being a wrestler for thirty years. It is also about Jake battling his past demons and reclaim his life and family that have given up on him. The documentary that I have chosen is convincing because it shows someones real life struggles with addiction and how they overcome it.


The person that directed it is called Steven Yu and on his IMDB page this was the only thing that he had done, on this documentary he was the director, in charge of electrical and camera equipment, editor, producer and also starred in it. The story is about Jake trying to recover using a different kind of yoga that his best friend (Diamond Dallas Page a fellow pro wrestler turned motivational speaker starting up DDP Yoga) said that should try to get himself (Jake) in good shape and staying away from alcohol and drug use.

It starts off with footage of a snake, then transitions into showing a ring and then Jake talking to the camera about his drug and alcohol habits. The documentary then shows some footage of Jake at his best, wrestling in the early to late 80's and various wrestlers and former wrestlers, commentators and interviewers. They talk about how good he was at promos (talking to the camera and trying to excite the crowd to believe what they are saying) and how good of a wrestler he was and also how he has a great mind for the business (how he was/is able to help out younger wrestlers to help better their own skills and how they can get better.)

After the wrestlers and such getting interviewed and saying how good he was/is they start talking in a sombre tone and talk about the bad things that happened during his drug and alcohol troubles with footage playing of him stumbling around the ring and getting beat (losing the match) in 30 seconds and then TMZ has a video titled Jake "The Snake" Implodes with the caption underneath reading "Forget everything you knew about wrestling legend Jake Roberts - all that remains is Jake the Junkie."

As the footage from TMZ ends it cuts to DDP talking to a camera about how his yoga is going to fix Jake and how he's going to help Jake get over his troubles. After DDP finishes talking to the camera directly and Jake, it cuts to Jake talking about how "I've wasted what could be my last shot of getting my family back." For the majority of the documentary it's about how Jake doesn't want to do DDP Yoga because he is convinced that it won't help him while Dallas Page (DDP) tells him that it is his only chance and that alcohol and drug abuse isn't going to get his family back either so trying DDP Yoga is all that he's got.

A little while after that, while doing DDP Yoga Jake injures his left shoulder damaging the rotator-cuff which would end up requiring surgery. Since Jake didn't have any insurance or any money a gofundme page was set up to get to the goal of $9,200, in the first day the page got up to $7,000 which surprised everyone that was on camera (Dallas, Jake, Brandie and some others.) The footage cuts to Jake talking to the camera giving a thank you message to everyone that donated. After this it cuts to Jake talking to someone about his goal being in the Royal Rumble (a match where two people start in the ring, then every 90 seconds someone else comes down this then continues until there is only one person left standing.) This match was made in the WWE and other wrestling companies have made their own version, the reason why this is special is because the fans don't know who is going to come out next it could be legend that they haven't seen in a while or someone else from the roster.

After Jake talking about being in the Rumble, Dallas gets a message from Sean Waltman (another former wrestler and close friend) talking about one of his close friends in Scott Hall (wrestler who wasn't doing so good at the time with being kicked out of bars for drunken behaviour) and how Dallas would be able to "build his life from the ground up." After Dallas and Jake see Scott in the airport they soon realise that a lot of work is needed to help Scott back to his usually self of being able to walk without being in a lot of pain and without needing help.

Soon after this, Dallas takes a trip away for a few days and after the first day of being away Jake starts to act out again by drinking when he said he was clean and supposedly taking a pill that would make you violently ill if you were drinking but unknown to Steven Jake had spit the pill into the sink and washed it away with water. When Dallas returned Jake told him everything that had went down in his absence including him having a drink. After this incident Dallas says that he isn't comfortable leaving Jake where he can get alcohol but Jake promises him that he isn't going to drink anymore and pushes himself to do better at DDP Yoga and not let Dallas down again.

After all of this happens Dallas gets a phone call from Triple H (the Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative at WWE) to see how Jake is and if he wants to show up for Old School RAW (a special episode of Monday Night Raw that features legends of the past) with Dallas which to answer this Dallas says yes and then this leads to a conversation about Jake possibly being put into the WWE Hall of Fame (a hall of fame for professional wrestling personalities maintained by the WWE)