It's about healing. Football helps.

Rating: 8/10 (25 March 2014)

The events that inspired the film We Are Marshall are definitely enough to inspire a great story. The trick is avoiding the many sports movie clichés that are potentially lurking behind every turn of the page of any possible screenplay. To its credit, this film avoids a lot of them, and uses its characters and its atmosphere to make the ones we see a little more forgivable. The tragic 1970 plane crash that took the lives of most Marshall University football players, boosters, and athletic department personnel is a story most sports fans are familiar with. This film doesn't provide us with any insight into its cause, or give us many of the details we didn't already know. What it does, and quite effectively, is focus on the survivors and how they attempt to move on. The school very nearly ended its football program, and nobody could have blamed them if they had never played another game. Funny thing about football... its just too much a part of our national passion to ever give it up.
This film could have easily been a feel-good vehicle for Matthew McConaughey, but luckily they had the sense to dial his presence down a tad. He certainly still stands out and gives a charismatic performance, but he isn't even introduced until well into the film as Jack Lengyel, the coach who will be the first to lead the Thundering Herd back onto the field. Matthew Fox as the only surviving assistant from the past coaching staff also does fine as the conflicted coach who takes a great deal of convincing before he joins the new staff. Film does a great job detailing the difficulty of blending new players with the few surviving ones who were not on the plane. Even in the heart of a tragedy, boys will still be boys... especially when they play football at a major university.
Of course we get the "big game" climax at the film's conclusion, but since this one is based on fact, the cliché is a lot easier to take. The film is visually impressive and seems to give great attention to detail. West Virginia is quite a beautiful place, and there are some scenes where the surroundings on the horizon take on a character of their own. I was generally surprised at how much I liked this film. I was expecting something a little more artificial. Not only is it thoughtful and nostalgic, but it shows us how many lives can be lost and transformed in one instant. 8 of 10 stars.
The Hound.