Movie Review: Over The Top

Over the weekend, one of my personal favorite movies of all time was shown several times on some of the various HBO channels. This film is highly underrated and clearly belongs on the list of top #100 films of all-time. You have the heartwarming story of an arm-wrestling truck driver named Lincoln Hawk who is asked by his terminally-ill ex-wife to pick up his son from Military Academy and drive cross country to visit her in the hospital. The main antagonist, her father, hates Hawk and wants him to have nothing to do with the boy.

The reason why Hawk left his wealthy wife and abandoned his son are unclear, but Hawk admits that leaving”…was a mistake, I admit that.” He later makes references to how her father was “tearing us apart,” but like so many other great films, it is what it doesn’t tell you that leaves you wanting more.

As they drive to meet their gravely ill loved one, Hawk and son have spats, but soon bond as Hawk bets money on his son beating a mullet wearing kid at arm-wrestling at a diner and allows him to drive his huge rig on the road. The good times end however, when they arrive at the hospital to find that she has already died.

The child is then abducted by his grandfather, and an enraged Hawk drives his rig straight through an iron gate and into the mansion where the boy was being kept. After his subsequent arrest, Hawk is offered a one-time only deal: sign custody over to gramps and leave town and all charges will be dropped. Hawk has no choice but to agree, and then does what any sane man would do: drives to Vegas, sells his truck for $7,000 and bets it all on himself at 20:1 odds on winning the World Championship of Arm Wrestling.

There at the Championships, Hawk meets the Four-Time defending champion Paul Hurley who has not lost in Five years and whose arms look like massive tree trunks. Undeterred, Hawk wins several matches in the double-elimination format before finally losing to a competitor named John Grizzly who drank motor oil, ate a lit cigar, and was wearing a camo t-shirt with the word “FUBAR” on it, which off course is the abbreviation for “Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.” Such subtle wordplay is part of what makes this movie such a true classic. That and moments like when the black competitor who was representing the Teamsters lost to Hawk in one second and then cried about how he was being cheated and tried to fight Hawk. Great stuff.

Although all of these scenes were great enough on their own, my personal favorite parts were the candid interviews they spliced in with the competitors as the event went on. Most of the competitors were surprisingly articulate, including Hurley who described how what he likes to do is drive trucks and break arms, “its what I like to do, its what I do best.” Hawk likened himself to a “machine… a truck,” when he turned his hat backwards and began a match.

In the climactic showdown between Hawk and Hurley, the dimunitive Hawk improbably defeated the Goliath-like Hurley, thus adding to the legend of the film with a shrouded Biblical reference. Like King David before him, Hawk ruled his kingdom from then on with his son at his side, only Hawk’s kingdom is that of greasy drivers, open roads, and meth-addled rednecks who like to arm-wrestle.