Review: We are Marshall

Here's one Anne recommended and Zach wanted to see too, so it got bumped up higher on our list. Actually sat on the shelf once it arrived for about a week, between days when Zach was working odd hours and I was too tired to watch such an emotional movie. But finally, we found the time, so here it is: We are Marshall.

The story is pretty simple with this one, and based on true events. A plane crash in 1970 killed the Marshall University football team, coaching staff and many fans and boosters involved with the program. This movie follows the attempts to reestablish a program the following year: the students' efforts to convince the board to have a program, the president's efforts to find a coaching staff, the coaches' efforts to find players, the player's efforts to win a game.

I really wasn't sure I'd like this one, but I did. I still don't know if it's one I'd watch over and over, but it was a good movie. Several scenes in particular were very well done. The crash, for example, was nicely handled, I felt. No scenes of everyone panicking on the plane, no shots of the actual crash, but nicely edited from scenes on the flight to ones of rescue vehicles and fire trucks and confused, worried citizens hurrying to the site of the crash. Just black and quiet in between. More effective than an overblown Hollywood crash sequence. At least in this humble opinion :) I've been noticing that more and more in movies, how silence and dark scenes and good editing can be so much more effective in creating particular emotions, leaving it all up to our imaginations to fill in the gaps.

And this is an emotional movie. It's a sports movie, but not - more about human spirit and recovery and rising above. Sports is just the setting. Emotional in a good way, but yes, I did get choked up. I read an article by a movie critic once, about "guy chick flicks." You know, those movies that guys watch to be emotional, often (but not necessarily) sports related. I remember "Brian's Song" was one, but I can't remember the others on the list. This was that type of movie. And, silly me, I can't get worked up over chick flicks. Someone dying of cancer, ho hum. Not nearly as big a catch in my throat (if at all) as compared to a guy chick flick. The "Beaches"-type cancer deaths are sad yes, but just not what gets to me. Dunno - maybe it's just me :) But yes, definitely a grab-a-tissue movie.

The acting was hit-or-miss. I think Matthew McConaughey is one of those guys I never quite appreciate fully. He did well here, but just a little over-the-top at times. However, the character was a little eccentric, so maybe that's why he just struck me as odd sometimes. The coach had to be eccentric though - putting himself in that position, coaching at a school he didn't need to be at, in such a devastating environment, simply because he "wanted to help." It was interesting to watch the interviews with the coaching staff in the DVD extras, hear the men's opinions and thoughts on what they entered into. Coach Lengyel did have some good lines though ("Redbook's only gettin' me so far - I need names!") David Strathairn is awesome, as usual. Have loved his work since I first saw him in Sneakers. :) Personally, he needs to do more mainstream work, so I am more able to appreciate it. Matthew Fox I actually liked. I wasn't sure, having never seen "Lost", and didn't know if he was just another hunky face cast in the movie, but he did a good job. Still bothered me that they kept calling him "Red" - yes, I know it was the character's name, but he's definitely a brunette. Another nice performance was Anthony Mackie, playing Nate Ruffin, one of the few surviving members of the 1970 Thundering Herd. Ruffin had been injured, so had not been at the away game from which the crashed plane was returning. Mackie did a great job playing a very difficult role - a lot of survivor's guilt and determination and frustration to portray, and also interestingly, one of the few leads who wasn't able to talk with their real-life inspiration (the real Ruffin died several years ago). A good up-and-coming actor, and here's hoping we see more good work from him in years to come!

Overall, 4 of 5. Very nice handling of a community's uplifting recovery from a devastating tragedy. Definitely a take-a-tissue movie, but a very positive feeling to it. The movie could easily have become overwrought and sappy, but handled things very well. Definitely worth a viewing.