by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Grade B- PG 127 min.
In 1970, almost all of the Marshall football team, along with the majority of the coaching staff and many of financial boosters died in a plane crash. The movie portrays the true story of how those who were left behind struggled to rebuild the team and cope with the horrific loss. I couldn’t help but feel that they could have done a better job with this story than they did, especially measuring it up against this year’s Invincible. Maybe it’s the fact that the film is spread too thin, with too many characters to cover and not enough of a focus on a single character. We are Marshall just isn’t a great film. It would like to be, but it isn’t. Ambition isn’t a bad thing, and this film has plenty of it. Most audience members will come away feeling they got their money’s worth. The plane accident comes pretty quickly in the story. There’s no gruesome rendering of the player’s last moments, just a sudden darkness and the aftermath. The historic incident devastated the small town of Huntington, West Virginia.
Nate Ruffin, played by Anthony Mackie, was left behind because of a shoulder injury. The team was about to be shelved because of the crash when he decides to organize the student body to protest the impending decision. Mackie plays the part with a sense of responsibility and weight. His portrayal is the standout performance of the movie.
Ian McShane plays a college school board member whose son (also the star quarterback) dies in the crash. He struggles through losing his son and fights the reinstatement of the team. By the end of the movie, it’s he who urges his son’s grieving fiancé to move on with her life.
The rather stiff but likable President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) doesn’t seem to know much about footfall, but he understands how much it means to people. Once the decision is made to move forward with the team, he has the unenviable task of calling to find a coach for a team that only had three varsity players left. He’s disheartened as he crosses name after name on the list, until he gets a phone call from Jack Lengyel, who is willing to take the job as head coach. Lengyel, played with an off-beat weirdness by Matthew McConaughey, helps get the team back on track. McConaughey’s Lengyel is strangely cheerful in the face of grieving players and a grieving town. I wondered why more characters weren’t put off by his strange manner and seeming disrespect. His intentions are good, but he comes across at times as someone with very little emotional understanding, despite his skills at influencing people to get what he wants. He’s an outsider trying to get the job done and looking for the most practical way to do it.
When Lengyel takes the job, he gives Dedmon the task of asking the NCAA to grant Marshall an exception, allowing them to let freshman play. Without this exception, building any kind of team may well be impossible. After many, many letters of rejection and unreturned phone calls President Dedmon tells Lengyel that he’s done everything he can. McConaughey questions him, with a sideways smile, asking if Dedmon proposed to his wife in person or by letter. Dedmon takes the hint and returns from Philly with an exception in hand. Suddenly, the Marshall team has a recruiting edge no other team has: they can offer playing time on the field for freshman. Nevertheless, they are desperate for players and soon get creative in recruiting them. They recruit a soccer player as a kicker and look in other unlikely sports, such as baseball, to build their team. Lengyel soon realizes that the weak offense and defense needs a different strategy. He decides to adopt “the veer,” a play that West Virginia had often used in the past. He and the assistant coach, played by Matthew Fox, go to UWV to ask to view their play films, something that would normally be ridiculous request, but the coach of UWV says yes. Later they see that the UWV football helmets of the players have a small cross with the Marshall colors and letters.
Football fans, Marshall alumni and people who enjoy crying to Lifetime Movies will be among those who should see this film in theaters. The action on the playing field isn’t all that compelling, but it’s a good, solid, heartrending sports flick with a gripping real-life story as a backbone.
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