Murderball
This may be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Yes, it’s a documentary, but it’s expertly crafted with compelling characters. The filmmakers spent 2½ years following quadriplegic rugby (a/k/a murderball) players on the road to the2002 World Championships and 2004 Athens Paralympic Games. The pacing was just right, having to explain what quadriplegia is and how the game is played while, at the same time introducing and telling the back story of the characters and telling the story itself. The two protagonists are Mark Zupan, a charasmatic, tattooed and very easy on the eyes (but then, I’m a sucker for tattoos and redheads) head of the 2004 Athens team; and Joe Soares, the former champion who is now past his prime and head coach of Team Canada. The other equally integral team members Andy Cohn, Scott Hogsett, and Bob Lujano all tell their stories throughout the film and each explains how Quad Rugby is the primary motivating factor in their post-injury life, and how they all went on to become world class athletes.
This is definitely not a movie-of-the-week chick flick although there are parts when you can’t help but tear up. These are rugby players, first and foremost. The life of a rugby player consists of: 1) Rugby, 2) Chicks, 3) Beer, 4) Everything else. And it’s all explored here. Especially the first four. What could easily have been played for any number of angles, is really presented as is. There is no glossing over of anything, there is no detectable slanting of any point of view, and the heartfelt moments are, indeed, heartfelt. Probably the most compelling moment of the film is when Zupan comes to a rehab center in New Jersey to explain about quad rugby to some of the patients, and Keith Cavill, who had been neck had been broken a few months earlier in an accident during a motocross race, see the Mad Max style chair and you can see his whole frame of mind change. And it’s not staged; you can see in his eyes that he suddenly realizes that there might be life even with this injury. That’s not to say it will be easy. The filmmakers follow him home after his discharge and are privy to what they describe as a very awkward and difficult moment as he also realizes that, even if he’s back at his former home in his former (modified) room, he’s there in a wheelchair and nothing will be the same and it sucks.
DVD extras are often hit or miss, but the ones on this disk are, I feel, indispensible. I watched the film three times in a row, first normally, then with the player’s (Zupan, Cohn, and Hogsett) commentary, then with the filmmaker’s commentary. It’s clear from the player’s commentary that the filmmakers got it exactly right, and it’s clear from the filmmaker’s commentary that there’s even more story going on beyond what they were able to include, much of which involves more about Soares who, even though he’s accurately portrayed as, um, difficult, he definitely has more than one dimension.
There is an hour long Larry King Live show, which is interesting but not essential, and, of all things, a Jackass with Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O (and Zupan, Cohn, and Hogsett) show that really ought to be required viewing. Regardless of what you think of those two or of Jackass, it is the one place where they’re presented as, well, jackasses. Not as martyrs, not as pitiful characters, but as drunken jerks doing stupid things.
It’s also a shame they don’t show the Paralympics on tv. I’ve given up watching the Olympics themselves as it seems to have devolved into a commercial morass. Same with baseball; it’s all about contract negotiations and ticket prices and not about the game. It would be nice to see an actual real game played for real game reasons. I mean, if they can put on things like championship hot dog eating, why not this?
I may have to start using an Hors Categorie rating, I’m not sure A is high enough.
Rating: A+; would own.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:39 am
[...] Murderball is for sale $7.99. The best movie I saw in 2005. [...]