8 Ups & 4 Downs From Beyond The Mat

Downs...

4. No Need For the Cinematic Touch

Jake the Snake does not look upon his portrayal favourably.

Without direct corroboration from all sources concerned, it's tricky to tell by watching the movie alone what was kept in against the will of certain parties, and what the closing relationship between filmmakers and subjects were after the cameras stopped rolling. Both sides have given testimonies on the matter, and the fact that Roberts was on a downward spiral at that point in his career was no secret.

There is one clear breach of morals, involving the scene where Jake takes cocaine in his hotel room after a dishearteningly negative encounter with his daughter. The ethics of adding this to the final cut is something people can debate on until the end of time. However, the truly questionable depiction of this moment comes from the fact that the filmmakers decided to add bad-acid-trip blur effects and music of the same ilk, layered upon a drugged-up Jake as he becomes increasingly anxious on his hotel bed.

Dumping in such tropes only displays juvenile sensationalism in a documentary that is actually anything but. You can't blame Roberts for being annoyed.