"They Don't Know Your Heart"

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2006)

Forget the PG rating because some bad words are spoken. This film is one to take the family to. I have to say I was most inspired by the story of a whole university community coming together in the wake of a mind numbing tragedy.
On November 14, 1970 the chartered plane carrying the football team of Marshall University, together with a whole lot of alumni boosters and prominent citizens of Huntington, West Virginia crashed killing the 75 or so people on board. We Are Marshall is the story of how the community and the college found the strength to rebound.
The thing that impressed me the most was how a whole lot of ordinarily disinterested people helped out in the situation. The NCAA is an organization normally criticized for hidebound interpretation of arcane rules. Nevertheless they enabled Marshall University to field a team by granting an exception and allowing them to play freshmen on the varsity squad for the 1971 season.
During the course of the film it's mentioned in passing that Bear Bryant tells the new Marshall football coach Jack Lengyel about a running back he ought to look at. A small, but telling tribute to a college football legend himself who just as easily could have signed that prospect for his own Crimson Tide.
In fact my favorite moment is when Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox go to the University of West Virginia to view some football films for some play ideas for the new squad they're putting together. The coach let's them view them even though he's giving away some of his bag of tricks. At one point two of the West Virginia players come into the room and on their helmets is a tribute to the late Marshall team. Very understatedly moving indeed.
Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel who takes on the Herculean challenge of putting together a team for the next season. He cobbles it together from all kinds of sources, Bear Bryant being one of them. If I was a college jock, McConaughey's the kind of coach I'd hope to be playing for. I'm sure McConaughey's own football background didn't hurt with this performance.
Other performances to watch are Matthew Fox as the surviving assistant coach who did not make the fatal trip, David Strathairn as the Marshall University president who's not a sports fan, but instinctively knows how important it is to carry on and most importantly Anthony Mackie. Mackie is one of the original varsity squad who did not make the fatal trip because of injuries and starts the 1971 season still not 100%. Mackie becomes the prime mover in rallying the school to demand of the board of trustees that football continue.
We Are Marshall transcends just being a sports film. It's one of the best of that genre ever made. But it's a story about the will to carry on even after life deals you a below the belt blow. As such you don't have to be a college football fan to appreciate how the town of Huntington, West Virginia and Marshall University showed their heart and spirit.