Moving story of triumph over tragedy

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2018)

I just saw "We Are Marshall" again on cable, and again I wept.
I vaguely remember seeing the story in our local newspaper on page 1, below the fold (I was 10 at the time) and remember being stunned by the idea that a football team was there one moment and largely gone the next. A few years later I had classmates who had moved from Huntington to our home town, but I never thought to ask them about it until recently.
One scene I would like to acknowledge among many outstanding ones is a conversation between Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie) and Coach Lengyel (Matt McConnaughey), where Coach Lengyel was trying to convince the team captain that his playing time was done. Mackie, in a performance that should have garnered him at least an Oscar nomination, had been the too-brave face of the survivors, but Lengyel, who cared deeply for his players, the team, and the University, finally broke Ruffin, as he dissolved into tears in grief and frustration and anger. I felt both characters' all-consuming pain as Lengyel kept smacking Ruffin's injured shoulder when Ruffin would insist that "(his) shoulder's fine".
In my lifetime, I have seen good sports movies and bad ones--and this is a great one--perhaps one of the best ever made.