Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
1/4/07
I love a good inspirational
sports movie, which makes this a very good time for me to be a moviegoer.
Since the success of Remember the Titans (which, ironically, I didn't
much care for) back in 2000, Hollywood has been scouring the microfiche
in every newspaper's vaults looking for anything they can find with an
underdog and a referee. Most involve some improbably guy making it
as a pro, or an amateur team overcoming impossible odds to play for the
state championship. While it follows the formula in many ways, We
Are Marshall is something different. It's a story of existence
as victory, of being able to go on as overcoming the odds. And it's
got valuable lessons for our society, which often confuses quitting with
respect.
In 1970, Marshall University
was stunned when a plane carrying almost their entire football team, coaching
staff and many community leaders crashed, killing everyone aboard.
Only four varsity players had remined behind, and Assistant Coach Red Dawson
(Matthew Fox), who skipped the flight for a recruiting trip, wanted nothing
to do with the team. With University President Donald Dedmon (David
Strathairn) under tremendous pressure to shut down the football program,
enter the only coach willing to take a chance on the job: Jack Lengyel
(Matthew McConaughey). The job seems insurmountable: recruit
virtually an entire new team, teach them to play together, and in some
cases to learn the sport from scratch. Dawson agrees to come back
for one year only and Varsity Captain Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie) rallies
the players not to give up, but how can this overmatched team inspire the
traumatized University?
In times of tragedy, the
debate always rages between those who require a long, silent period of
mourning and those who hunger for continuity and signs that the work of
the deceased goes on. We Are Marshall makes no secret of which
camp it sides with. A strong performance by Deadwood's Ian
McShane as the town's leading mourner does lend balance, but those inclined
to think of not playing as the respectful thing will find little to please
them here. McG, whose only previous feature credits are the Charlie's
Angels movies, proves a surprisingly good choice for the material,
keeping the mood upbeat without allowing the tragedy at the film's heart
to be dismissed. Credit too goes to the lead performances.
McConaughey does what he does best: goes completely over the side
as a wild-eyed maniac of a coach too determined to allow anything to stand
in his way (the real-life Lengyel was nowhere near as colorful, but just
as courageous). His Big Speech before the Big Game is a classic.
Fox, in his first major movie role, does what he's done so well on TV from
Party
of Five to Lost: bears the weight of the world on his
shoulders while always seeming this close to breaking. No actor cries
better. Strathairn uses his trademark intelligence and bearing to
make what could have been a stock buffoon (“Look at that stuffed shirt,
he doesn't even know what the score is!”) into a delightful identifiable
outsider, giving us a sense of the guts it took for a man who didn't even
really understand football to know what it meant to his University and
stand up for it. And keep an eye on Kate Mara, who bounces back from
this Summer's debacle Zoom to make a big impression as the heartbroken
finance of one of the deceased players.
We Are Marshall does
what all great Inspirational Sports Movies do: it gives us reason
to believe in what determined people can accomplish and a chance to cry
like babies (if you're that kind of moviegoer: me, I've just got
something in my eye...). Plus, it's another good sports history lesson
for those who'd never heard the story. If you're interested in learning
more, I strongly recommend the massive coverage of the movie and story
at the Huntington
Herald-Dispatch web site. |
