On November 14th 1970, after suffering a three point loss to the East Carolina Pirates, the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team boarded their chartered D-C 9 and headed for Huntington West Virginia, their home.
While on the descent to their runway, the plane hit trees and went down killing all seventy five on board. In one of the simplest, yet most disturbing plane cashes I’ve seen on film, thirty seven members of the team, 6 coaches (including the head coach), the university Athletics Director, the trainers, the team announcer and almost two dozen fans were gone.
They left behind childless parents, teammates who could barely function with the loss and an assistant coach who felt responsible for a multitude of the dead. They left behind a crushed town.

We Are Marshall is the story of how a community lost and then rebuilt, how men... a university... a town rallied back from tragedy and refused to stop fighting, despite the pain. This movie is about honor and respect and healing.

Convinced by students and town members not to cancel the football program the President of the university Donald Dedmon (a shaking and uncertain David Strathairn) hires Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) as the new Head Coach. Together with the former Assistant Coach, Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), the two attempt to create something from nothing.
Lengyel may have it tough but the worst is experienced by Dawson and the few remaining players. They encounter whiplash grief around every corner and feel that because they didn’t die with their teammates, they have abandoned them.

After Dedmon begs the NCAA to allow freshman students at Marshall to play sports (an NCAA rule that was tossed out two years later) Lengyel and Dawson pull the best young talent they can find, pilfer top players from various other sports and rebuild a team that, while it may not be very good, has the heart of a lion. They get back on the horse and move on and the town learns to deal with its pain through the team’s example.

When I rented Deathproof and We Are Marshall last night I had my expectations reversed once again. I thought I would LOVE Deathproof and Marshall would be O.K. but I was wrong. Marshall will end up being bought and put in to my collection.
The story was gripping in a way that Hollywood would never be able to write. Granted, Jamie Linden the writer took a little artistic license with the facts (in reality, one reason why the NCAA kept refusing Marshall’s requests was because of the 140 violations Marshall had committed the previous year, and the chant WE ARE... MARSALL!!! began as a result of the crash and not prior to it) but over all it was surprisingly faithful to real life. Linden, to his credit, even chose to truthfully show that the Marshall team stunk for many, many years after the crash. The only way I feel it could have been improved would have been to broaden the focus of the film to include the town more. While I understand that Ian McShane’s character (grieving father and university board member Paul Griffen) is a representation of how bad the town was affected, I didn’t feel it was enough. The crash took out more than half the town’s doctors, a city councilman and a state legislator. Over a dozen children lost both their parents. It’s mentioned, but it could have been presented stronger.

The acting and casting were perfect. I’ve liked Matthew Fox since Party Of Five (or as my friend Chris likes to call it, Party Of Cries), and can’t really think of a bad movie for either Stathairn or McConaughey. I use to watch Ian McShane when he was still British and starring in Lovejoy and I’m really glad to see he has caught on in the mainstream American media. McConaughey is (surprisingly) the weakest link of the bunch. He has moments where his boyish charm and excitement can be annoying, but even having said that he is very good and a great lead horse for the work crew behind him.
The film runs like a dream car, there isn’t a slow moment in it.
The special features are pretty light, but interesting none the less. Just before the film (and not accessible through the special features function) is a prolonged commercial for West Virginia starring Fox, McConaughey and Strathairn. I have to say, having never been there the state looks beautiful. Also included are a small blip on Marshall University (almost a commercial), the theatrical trailer and short biographies on legendary coaches and how they deal with adversity.
Like I said, a bit light. I wouldn’t have minded seeing a making of for the movie, how the town and surviving folks from the time of the crash treated the shooting of the film and the actors. Not sure why they chose not to do this.

I rented this expecting a sports movie and got so much more. I think it would be impossible for anyone to watch this film and not (at the very least) mist up during a few of the scenes.
If it doesn’t motivate you to try, at the very least try, when faced with adversity, than little else will.

... and finally I am able to submit a film to CaptainD's Good Movies Write Off. Cheers Captain D, you can take me off your list now.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older