A week ago I attended the film, We Are Marshall. The true story based on the 1970 Marshall University football team that perished in a plane crash after playing a game against East Carolina University. The victims included almost all of the football staff and members of the athletic director's office. If a football team were to be started again they would have to start with four players and a receivers coach (played by Matthew Fox). The school hires Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) as head coach to pick up the pieces and begin the program again.
This movie was nicely laid out, but I felt the director McG (yes just three letters, one name) was trying to make the audience cry. I decided I was not going to cry no matter what was thrown at me. There is the plane crash, very abrupt and it is always sad to see the end of the incredible potential in the human element. It pulls at the heart strings, BUT I'm not going to cry. Then there are those that were left behind, fathers, mothers, teammates, and fiances and there struggle to cope with the sudden loss. Really pulling at the heart, BUT I'm not going to cry. Then there is the first home game with the brand new team made up of mostly freshmen (which were allowed to play thanks to an NCAA exemption) that pulled out a victory against Xavier, BUT again I'm not going to cry. After the celebration is over, McG pulls out one last stop to get the audience to cry. After the team has cleaned up and left the locker room. Coach Red (Fox) is left in the room by himself. He sits down and cries. Not just any cry, but a sincere overly emotional venting cry. This was a man who decided to let another coach get on the plane so he could catch his granddaughter's piano recital, which ultimately saved his life. This was also a man who only committed to one year of coaching after the crash and found redemption. He had finally found a cathartic release in this team's win. It was a very deep and moving last scene, but... I DID NOT CRY! Screw you, McG! I won. I held it together very well, but my friends did not fair so well. They let loose a towel's worth of tissue after we left the theater.
Folks its a football movie. Not Steel Magnolias. Sheesh!
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4 comments:
whatever billy. we all know you cried yourself to sleep that night.
this is completely unfounded. i held it in and held it in, until i found a re-run of "scrubs" to unleash my furious teardom...
I like how your screen name, when said fast, sound slike "burning fags". Though I don't know why you want to be like that. Hater
this only goes to show you still have those lines of bigotry, barb. really you've grown your hair out, your tattoos are gone, and you have sold the chopper. earth to barb: you are not in a biker gang anymore!
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