DVD Review: We Are Marshall

Does a sports film have to transcend genre to be great? If you watch We Are Marshall you will know the answer is a definitive “no.”

Director McG’s football movie succeeds because it is about football. Sure, you have a film that deals with mourning and survivor’s guilt. At the core, though, is the decision to continue to play the game after a tragedy. I’m not a fan of that game, either. In spite of my own bias and in spite of an onslaught of sports film clichés, We Are Marshall achieves the status of being one of the greatest football films I’ve ever seen.

The film’s title comes from the team cry, “We Are Marshall!” It’s shouted in huddles. It’s shouted as a sign of camaraderie across the campus. It’s also shouted on Marshall University’s chartered airplane before it crashes. The tragic accident kills everyone on board, leaving four football players and an assistant coach (all grounded at the time of the flight) as the sole surviving members of the Marshall football team.

The town of Huntington, West Virginia is devastated, but the team co-captain Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie) urges the University to rebuild the program. And they do after Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) volunteers to be the head coach.

Rebuilding is a struggle, with University President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) petitioning the NCAA in person for his school to be allowed to play freshmen players. When the first game of the new season turns into a massacre, emotions from returning players begin to boil over. It’s then that Lengyel decides to show the team that it’s not whether you win or loose or even how you play the game, it’s just about playing the game.

I love it when McConaughey as Lengyel first gives that speech. He gives it to one guy, the surviving assistant coach, Red (Matthew Fox). It’s the only time that Lengyel steps ever so slightly away from football and coaches someone on survival.

Article Author: Daniel J. Stasiewski

Daniel J. Stasiewski resides in Cleveland where he is the webmaster and editor of The Film Chair. He has an unhealthy obsession with movies and popular culture, for which his therapist suggested joining Blogcritics.

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