Fairly standard fare but very touching, nonetheless

Rating: 6/10 (23 February 2007)

Marshall University, in West Virginia, experienced a tragic loss in 1971, with an airplane crash that killed its football team, coaches, and friends. This based-on-fact film opens with the final game played by the team in Carolina and the ensuing plane ride home. The flight goes down near Huntington, West VA, where the university resides. It is a fiery crash with no survivors, and the town and university are in subsequent turmoil. In the days ahead, the university's president (David Straithorn) has to decide, among other things, whether the football program should be suspended. However, a few remaining players who did not make the final game's trip, due to injuries, want very much to continue and so does the student body. Therefore, they hire Jack (Matthew McConaughay) to put the team back together. Coach Jack receives special permission to use freshmen in the season ahead and assembles a ragtag team of walk-ons as well. Assistant coach Red (Matthew Fox), who was not on the flight, makes a gut-wrenching decision to return to the team as well. Can this new team help relieve the sorrow of the university community and compete with more established teams? This is a very uplifting film, despite its rather mundane delivery. The cast has been well chosen, with Fox giving an outstanding performance as the lone surviving coach of the downed team. The football scenes are exciting and true to life. That said, the production values are okay but the look of the film is not always top of the line. Costumes are, appropriately, the now-funny garbs of the seventies and the setting in West Virginia a mixture of beauty and industrial ugliness. But, despite these quibbles, the story is a heart grabber many times over. The resolve of this new team to bring hope and encouragement to a community in turmoil is very touching. If you like football and true stories, do find this film. Tears may cover your face, at times, but you will take a new dose of courage and determination back to your own daily life.