I know very little about football. My girlfriend knows even less. Yet we were both captivated and delighted by this film.
Aside from getting caught up in the unfolding action of a football game that is more incredible than any fictionalized game I've seen, we really enjoyed the experience of the 60's that the film evoked through the stories told by the players. These are the most thoughtful, witty football players imaginable, and they drew us in with their frankness, insights, humor, and the reflectiveness that the 40 years of life-experience since the game have given them.
No matter who speaks in the movie, whether it's the guy who keeps wanting to hurt people to get them out of the game, the "aloof," introspective second string quarterback who can throw the ball 50 yards with either hand, Tommy Lee Jones, who was roommates with Al Gore and is about to hang up his helmet for good and move to Hollywood, or the Jewish player whose father tells him to play on the Sabbath, all the personal stories are beautifully edited together by the filmmaker to make an engrossing tale that's as much about interesting people living through a dramatic time as it is about a football game.
I think this film will continue to be around for a long time to come.
(this is Taylor's pick)
I just watched this movie, and to be perfectly honest I didn't love the film. The game itself was pretty incredible, more so than those fictionalized in movies, as the above description says. The differences between the game of football than and now were remarkable, such as the size of lineman, the lack of a color announcer, and the long, easy scrambles of the quarterbacks. Watching a broadcast that was so unadorned makes me wonder if today's coverage is really a vast improvement.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the lack of any music in the movie was odd. For me, the story lacked emotion, and some of that great Vietnam era music would have been a welcome addition in setting the stage for the game and adding power to the interviews. I also thought that the side stories didn't link together well and mostly fizzled out (oh Al Gore... well, once we cooked a turkey... *cue deadpan). A better documentary would have demonstrated why this game was more significant than any other game, how it helped shape the players' lives. Instead, it ends with a player remarking, "It was a football game and that's all it was." I almost started this comment by noting that Harvard-Yale is, in fact, one of the great rivalries in college football. That this film didn't manage to portray any real semblance of rivalry or bad blood between the schools was disappointing.
So all in all, I don't doubt that this game was one of the great ones all-time. It was interesting. I just feel like the film-maker could have done a better job of imbuing emotion and excitement and drama into the movie.