A truly memorable film

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 2006)

On the same day, Nov. 14, 1970, that a chartered Southern Airways Dc-9 707 jet plowed into a foothill in Huntington, West Virginia, a cyclone-driven tidal wave swept through the Bay of Bengal, killing thousands of Pakistanis.
And even though only 75 aboard the jetliner perished, that story led the news for days after its occurrence. Of course, the real news was not the number of casualties on board, it was the specifics of who was lost that rainy evening.
Among the 75 dead that night was most of the Marshall University football team (only four injured varsity players did not make the trip); the squad was coming home from Greenville, North Carolina, after dropping an afternoon game to the East Carolina Pirates, 17-14.
Also killed were most of the club's coaching staff, including skipper Rick Tolley and Marshall Athletic Director Charles Kautz; as well as a state legislator, several Huntington city and civic leaders, six physicians and a group of prominent Marshall Thundering Herd boosters.
The National Transportation & Safety Board was unable to determine the reason for the crash, although the two most likely explanations were improper use of cockpit instrument data; or an altimeter system error. Whatever the reason, the school, the town and especially the families and loved ones of those left behind had to endure a searing, white hot grief that only comes which such a sudden and tragic loss.
Thirty-six years later, the pain is still intense in many areas of Huntington, and the newest Warner Bros. feature, "We Are Marshall," captures the mood and feeling of what it must to have been like on that memorable night of Nov. 14 so long ago.
Director Joseph McGinty Nichol (better known as "McG") does a brilliant job here, making a sports movie that transcends the game and becomes an instant classic. Fine attention is paid to period detail (just look at the DC-9 jet in the background scenes early in the picture; its the same model that actually crashed while descending into Tri-State Airport), and the enterprise smacks of amazing authenticity.
Then there's the acting. In my opinion, Academy Award nominations should go to Matthew McConaughey (who plays replacement coach Jack Lengyel) for lead actor; while David Strathairn ("Good Night and Good Luck"), who plays the university president Donald Dedmon, and Anthony Mackie, as injured player Nate Ruffin, should pick up supporting nods (I know this won't happen, but it should).
After the devastating crash, most people in the town (and on the university board) would prefer to suspend the program, but Ruffin and most of the students feel different. A reluctant Dedmon sides with the latter group, but faces an uphill battle when he can find neither a coach to take Tolley's place or a sympathetic NCAA willing to let freshman players start for the varsity.
Enter goofy, playful Lengyel, whose slow southern drawl hides a quick and complex mind. He not only convinces assistant coach Red Dawson (Matthew Fox) to come back to the team (Dawson had given up his seat to Kautz at the last-minute and suffered survivor's guilt ever since), but he persuades Dedmon to petition the NCAA to grant Marshall an exception to the freshman rule.
In a great scene, Lengyel also gets rival West Virgina coach Bobby Bowden to help the Thundering Herd learn the veer offense. "You're good," cracks Bowden. "You're really good." Still, with virtually no team, no chance to recruit quality players and the cloud of the disaster still hanging over the squad; this new group is expected to fail and only draw sympathy crowds for many seasons to come. Lengyel does his best to make sure that doesn't happen.
A truly memorable motion picture with fine direction and terrific performances. One of the best pictures of 2006, by far.