Movie Review – We Are Marshall

This afternoon I had a chance to see the new movie “We Are Marshall” starring Matthew McConaughey and in a word its PHENOMENAL!

The movie documents the rebirth of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team after the tragic 1970 plane crash that killed 75 players, coaches, staff and boosters returning from a football game in North Carolina. But its not just a football movie, the movie also addresses the city of Huntington’s grief over losing so many of it’s citizens.

I’ll be honest however I was a little skeptical going into the movie. I was very familiar with the whole story long before the movie came out and wasn’t so sure how the story could be told “successfully” on film. I guess I was a little afraid it would be “Disney-ized” as was the real story behind “Remember the Titans” (but a movie I loved nonetheless). But my skepticism was quickly washed away mere minute into the film. The film documents the moments leading up to the crash and quickly switches to the town and school’s reaction to the crash as well as the subsequent grief.

McConaughey’s turn as head coach Jack Lengyel was very good as was David Strathairn’s role as University President Dr. Donald Dedmon. Ian McShane does a good job at grieving father/ university booster Paul Griffen, though I think I’m so used to McShane as Al Swearangen in HBO’s Deadwood that I forget he’s such a versatile actor.

But the real stars in this film (for my money) are Matthew Fox as Red Dawson, the only surviving member of the coaching staff and Anthony Mackie as Nate Ruffin a upperclassman player who was injured and didn’t travel to the game in North Carolina and was integral as the team captain of the rebuilt 1971 team. Both actors had hard emotional roles to portray and did tremendous jobs getting that across in screen.

All in all I felt that the movie was well shot, well written, well acted and has a great soundtrack. The movie also makes use of a great deal of music and television footage from the time period as a means to bring the story even more realism. But overall it’s the emotional aspects of the movie that drive it home. You feel the pain and anguish of the city and the surviving players and you want to cheer at the moments of triumph and joy. But most of all you understand why sports is such an important part of our culture, and even more, why loyalties to our alma mater’s or hometown college teams are so visceral and emotional.

For me this movie is easily in my Top 5 “Serious Sports Movies” list and is certainly “DVD-worthy”

For those not familiar with the story I highly recommend the great website put together by the Huntington Herald-Dispatch newspaper. Also Marshall University has a great site dedicated to the tragedy.