REVIEW: Ted "The Million Dollar Man" DiBiase - The Price of Fame
Much of the wrestling world skipped out on Ted DiBiase's new film The Price of Fame in lieu of ESPN's 30 for 30 Ric Flair special. Taking nothing away from Flair's 30 for 30 which documented the WWE Hall of Famer's tumultuous life and in-ring wrestling career, wrestling fans that were unable to catch The Price of Fame missed out on something truly remarkable. Featuring a plethora of WWE Superstars like; Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase Jr., Lex Luger, the late "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the late George "the Animal" Steele, and "The Million Dollar Man" himself, the film left no stone unturned in the life of one Ted DiBiase. No matter how murky the waters were, director Peter Ferriero, was fearless in his pursuit of revealing the real DiBiase. Viewers learn of Mike DiBiase, Ted's father, and the impact he had on Ted's life. Mike DiBiase prematurely and unexpectedly passed away inside the wrestling ring, leaving Ted fatherless with a mother that drank too much. Mike's passing left Ted with more questions than answers and left a vulnerable young man to the dog-eat-dog world of professional wrestling, with no father figure. Ted DiBiase wasn't supposed to follow in his father's footsteps. He was an accomplished student athlete that went to college on a scholarship; but, the love he had for his father led him down the very same career path. It was love that led Ted to pursue professional wrestling and love that led him to exchange a potentially cushy life for the life of long travels, low pay, sweaty lock ups, and internal and external bruises, some that heal and some that likely never will. The film; however, wasn't just about wrestling. It was about a broken man finding healing in the arms of his family and his God. It was about finding hope in darkness, finding love when it is undeserved and unexpected. The Price of Fame isn't just about Ted. It's about a woman who endured infidelity and the beautiful forgiveness she shared with her husband, the legacy she leaves to her own children and grandchildren. It is about two heroes: Ted (obviously flawed in his battle with adultery and alcoholism) and his wife, Melanie, hero to the three boys she tenderly raised, one of which wasn't even biologically her own. The film is about sons and the anger they feel toward their fathers who fail them. It is about the forgiveness they struggle to find for those very same fathers. It is about our own father's foot steps and the struggles we find when walking in them, too often sinking and giving way to the ground that yields below us. The film is about a son who weeps at his father's grave, praying into the darkness, hoping that somehow someway somewhere his father would hear his cries to be proud of him. In Ted DiBiase, we see our own fathers, failing to live up to our heightened expectations; flawed even to the point of brokenness; but, even with their limp, still our heroes. As DiBiase wept at the grave of his own father, those tears may as well have been our own, or our father's: the Earth is wet with them. Where men walk, men weep. Where we live and laugh and pray and dance there is still sorrow. The heroes we watch on television are men too, just like us. They walk through the valley of the shadow of death hindered by the same weaknesses that befall each of us. They break. They scar. They limp. The film is about wrestlers, fractured and battle weary, who find their way in the message of unconditional love and forgiveness. It's about fathers and their sons: Ted DiBiase and his own boys, whose undying love for each other is very obviously unbreakable and unconditional. The Price of Fame is about a man that keeps giving to the wrestling business, in ways that most wrestling fans growing up in the 1980s could never have imagined. We learn that DiBiase was instrumental in the late George "the Animal" Steele's personal faith walk. We learn of his uncanny influence upon the career of one of wrestling's greatest in ring performers of all time, Shawn Michaels. It was DiBiase who helped convince Shawn to keep pursuing his craft, even when times seemed bleak enough to walk away. It was DiBiase who was there for former protégé Sean Waltman, when the wrestler endured so much personal turmoil that he even considered suicide. We see hugs and tears and love: so much love. Under the lights and through the lens of the camera, wrestling fans are given a glimpse of DiBiase never seen before. Stripped of the Million Dollar Title, the fancy suits, the limousine, we see a man dependent on family and grace and God, a man who after struggling through his own moral bankruptcy finds his own million dollar heart. Although it was only a one night event, the film was simply too outstanding not to be seen again. Whether it is given another night in theaters or eventually released to DVD there must be another opportunity. Do yourself a favor and give it a chance: you might just be one of the many lives Ted DiBiase touches.
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