| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
A- |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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Inspiring
by Stef (movies profile)
Apr 18, 2007
22
of
36 people found this review helpful
"It doesn't matter if we win or lose, it's that we play the game."
I was twelve years from even being born when the plane crash that killed almost all of the Marshall football team happened...the crash that frames this story. My parents remember it, though, and I am grateful that McG and friends got together to make this movie for those who remember, like my folks, and those who don't/can't, like me.
Matthew McConaughey did what I thought to be an excellent job in the role of Jack Lengyel, the coach who replaced the one who was killed in the crash. I appreciated his love for his family and his willingness to take on a most undesirable job and make the best of it that he could. The scene after the team won its first game in the 1971 season was so awesome...I was so happy for him and for the players.
This movie showed me that it is up to us individually to choose how tragedy affects us. It can either incapacitate us, as it did the one player who didn't go on the trip to East Carolina & who didn't come back to play football the following year...or like Coach Lengyel and the captain of the team (Nate...his last name escapes me), who chose to honor the memory of those lost by continuing to play the game the fallen players loved so much.
It was wonderful to see that the school (especially Pres. Donald Dedmon), the team, and the town did what it took to make sure football continued at Marshall.
It is possible to come back from unthinkably bad experiences. |
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