Inspirational dramatization of a sports tragedy.

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2007)

Based on a devastating true life story that rocked the small town of Huntington West Virgina. In November of 1970, the Marshall University football team was almost home from losing their game against East Carolina University; the plane a mile from home hit treetops on a ridge and crashed into a gully. In the fiery plane perished thirty-seven Marshall players, head coach Tolly(Robert Patrick)and five members of his coaching staff, other school staff, flight crew and twenty-two boosters. School President Don Dedmond(David Stratharin)wanted to indefinitely suspend the football program. For the betterment of the community, Dedmon hires a young new head coach Jack Lengyel(Matthew McConaughey)to continue the program. Assistant coach Red Dawson(Matthew Fox) who missed the fateful flight agreed to help rebuild the Thundering Herd. The NCAA under the circumstances waived their rule of not allowing freshmen to play varsity ball. It would be a slow go for the school and town to recover. This movie tries to show the relationships between the injured players that did not travel on the tragic flight, the new coach and school board of directors and the town trying to heal. Marshall University would slowly rise from the ashes that chocked Huntington West Virginia. Also in the cast: Anthony Mackie, Ian McShane, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Arlen Escarpeta, January Jones and Brian Geraghty.