Very Good

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2008)

We Are Marshall (2006)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
True life story about the Marshall football program who lost all but three football players and all but one coach due to a plane crash in 1970. The following year the school, after much debate, decides to put another team on the field and hires a new coach (Matthew McConaughey) who must deal with the new team and those who knew people who were killed in the crash. I was really worried walking into this film due to the PG rating, which I thought was going to mean everything had been sugared down but that wasn't the case. The opening thirty-minutes and during several other scenes are incredibly sad and depressing without any sugar being added. The film pays great tribute to the men and women who died, which is all you can expect. The football scenes are clichÃ©d as hell but that doesn't really matter because the film's strength is in its heart and the emotion it shows. The theater group I watched this with were cheering and crying throughout the entire film so it certainly hit all the right notes. McConaughey gives a very good performance and the supporting cast, which includes Matthew Fox, David Strathairn, Robert Patrick and Anthony Mackie, are equally good.