Return Of The Thundering Herd
Written: Jan 14 '07
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: A moving story about loss and rediscovery
Cons: I didn't find any with this film
The Bottom Line: Winning isn't necessarily reflected on a scoreboard.
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| pmills1210's Full Review: We Are Marshall |
The Marshall Thundering Herd football program has sent a number of players to the NFL. Among the best known former Herd players are Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, and Byron Leftwich. In 1970, though, the University lost nearly its entire football team in a West Virginia plane crash that made national headlines. The only survivors were the members of the team who didn't make the flight. The movie We Are Marshall tells the story of the first year of the rebuilding process, concluding with their first home game in 1971. At first, University President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) wants to end the program. However, Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie), one of the few surviving players, shows Dedmon that the campus community would like to see football return. Ruffin feels that this is the best way to honor his fallen teammates.
Dedmon realizes that rebuilding is easier said than done. He goes through a list of potential replacements for head coach Rick Tolley (Robert Patrick), but none want the job. Tolley's one surviving assistant, Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), doesn't even want to coach anymore. The only man who wants the job is Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey), an Ohio college football coach who believes rebuilding is the only thing to do. Convinced of Lengyel's sincerity, Dedmon hires him. Lengyel also convinces Dawson to help with the rebuilding. They recruit athletes from other sports to join the team, but Dedmon still has to clear one more hurdle. After months of trying, he convinces the NCAA to let Marshall play freshmen, which ran contrary to the NCAA rules of the time. The expectations for the team were not high, but they gave fans a memorable game in their first home game in Huntington.
We Are Marshall may have one main story, but it is full of other moving and humorous stories. One of the other stories involves Paul Griffen (Ian McShane), a Marshall board member who lost his son in the crash. The boy was engaged to marry Annie Cantrell (Kate Mara), who was a cheerleader for the Thundering Herd. Paul tries to treat Annie as if she were family, but both know something they take a long time to say. Red and one of the other players, Tom Bogdan (Brian Geraghty), deal with survivor's guilt. Lengyel brings an easy-going approach and an outsider's perspective and applies it to a game that he and the Marshall community enjoy. He also teaches his new team a poignant lesson about their presence on the team. First-time screenwriter Jamie Linden gives all of the stories the depth and importance they deserve. The director known simply as McG (Joseph McGinty Nicholl) shows he can create a far different spectacle than the train wreck known as the Charlie's Angels franchise. He shows the slow change from tragedy to triumph as a school sends a new squad to the gridiron.
We Are Marshall marks one of McConaughey's best performances. Jack Lengyel is a coach who, like any other coach, believes in winning and discipline. Yet, he wisely recognizes that the Marshall job is a way to reach out to the Thundering Herd fans and remind them that football can still be fun. During the interview that Dedmon comes to Ohio to conduct, Dedmon is shown the playing skills of Jack's children, who aren't afraid of contact, even with immobile objects. The role gives McConaughey the opportunity to show both a serious and a humorous side. For those who saw McConaughey as the slacker ex-jock in Dazed And Confused, Jack may seem very much like an older version of David Wooderson, though Jack has found his niche in life. Strathairn, Fox, McShane, Mackie, and Mara bring fine support as people who represent various facets of the tragedy and its aftermath. They all know nothing will ever be the same for them, but they want to be a part of the action on Saturdays in autumn when football returns. Many of the actual people depicted in this movie are seen in photos during the end credits. Those shots include Coaches Lengyel and Dawson, posing with the actors who portrayed them (Dedmon died in 1998, and Ruffin died in 2001).
Some people will watch a football game and say that it's just a game. Those who would say that are correct to a certain extent. Football, however, was as much a part of the Marshall community as the players and coaches who took the sidelines and the field. The players and coaches of the 1971 Thundering Herd knew they could not replace the men and women who lost their lives one November night. Another part of Marshall would have died, too, if the football program had not continued. We Are Marshall is a moving and reverent statement about life not offering guarantees, as well as about rediscovering goodness when goodness seems hard to find. Losing a game is nothing compared to losing a sport, or losing 75 people in an instant. Some lost heart, but others fought through their sorrow and found a way to make a community cheer once again.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Feel-good Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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pmills1210
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Member: Pat Mills
Location: East Chicago, In.
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"Nothing in moderation." - Ernie Kovacs. Read and enjoy!
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