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Steve Johnson, Tribune Television Critic
11/16/1999
Chicago Tribune

(Copyright 1999 by the Chicago Tribune)
"Biography: The Life and Death of Owen Hart": In Tuesday's episode of the A&E bio series (7 p.m.), Canadian filmmakers Sally Blake and Paul Jay, the pair behind last year's surprisingly great "Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows," revisit the storied Canadian Hart clan in the wake of this past spring's tragedy in the wrestling ring.
One could argue that all of wrestling, with its chokehold on segments of the culture, is a tragedy, but this was the real thing. Owen Hart, mid-level wrestler in Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, plunged to his death last May when preparing to enter a ring on a guy wire at a match in Kansas City. It was for the sake of a cheap joke, and Hart's widow alleges in a lawsuit against McMahon and WWF that the rigging that suspended him some 75 feet above the ring was inadequate to support his 230-lb. bulk.
"Hitman Hart," a documentary about Owen's superstar brother Bret leaving the WWF for the rival WCW, was an astonishingly powerful piece of work, rich with classical themes of ambition, loyalty and betrayal, set against this garish cartoon backdrop.
The "Biography" episode is the more straightforward tale of who Owen Hart was and how and why he died. But Blake and Jay have exceptional access to the family and its archives, and they know this strange world well. Fueled by the personality of Owen Hart, convincingly portrayed as a loving family man who wrestled only for the money and recoiled at some the WWF's sexual and violent excesses, this is an undeniably poignant tale.
PHOTO; Caption: PHOTO: Owen Hart.
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