A Shock

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2016)

'Concussion' was somewhat hard to watch, not only because it depicted the sad decline and death of several football players I had watched over the years, but also because of the graphic nature of some scenes; apparently the only way to diagnose the disease/condition these players were afflicted with is through autopsy. The movie tries not to be anti- football, but for the sake of ramping up drama and for the sake of emotional impact, the NFL and its fans to an extent have to be made into villains (although probably no more so than in past motion pictures such as 'Any Given Sunday' and 'North Dallas Forty'). The story of the main character's struggle to get the NFL, medical world, and general public to recognize this condition makes for fairly gripping viewing. It seems counter-intuitive that a sport involving giant men smashing into each other repetitively could produce a condition that was largely unknown or unacknowledged until historically very recently, but I suppose this is a testament to the institution that tried so long to ignore or discredit any such connection.