DVD Review: We Are Marshall

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We Are Marshall (2006)–***1/2
DVD Review

Does a sports film have to transcend genre to be great? If you watch We Are Marshall you will know the answer is a definitive “no.”

Director McG’s football movie succeeds because it is about football. Sure, you have a film that deals with mourning and survivor’s guilt. At the core, though, is the decision to continue to play the game after a tragedy. I’m not a fan of that game, either. In spite of my own bias and in spite of an onslaught of sports film clichés, We Are Marshall achieves the status of being one of the greatest football films I’ve ever seen.

The film’s title comes from the team cry, “We Are Marshall!” It’s shouted in huddles. It’s shouted as a sign of camaraderie across the campus. It’s also shouted on Marshall University’s chartered airplane before it crashes. The tragic accident kills everyone on board, leaving four football players and an assistant coach (all grounded at the time of the flight) as the sole surviving members of the Marshall football team.

The town of Huntington, West Virginia is devastated, but the team co-captain Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie) urges the University to rebuild the program. And they do after Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) volunteers to be the head coach.

Rebuilding is a struggle, with University President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) petitioning the NCAA in person for his school to be allowed to play freshmen players. When the first game of the new season turns into a massacre, emotions from returning players begin to boil over. It’s then that Lengyel decides to show the team that it’s not whether you win or loose or even how you play the game, it’s just about playing the game.

I love it when McConaughey as Lengyel first gives that speech. He gives it to one guy, the surviving assistant coach, Red (Matthew Fox). It’s the only time that Lengyel steps ever so slightly away from football and coaches someone on survival.

McConaughey gives an invigorating and comically heartfelt performance as the coach who only knows football. It’s oddly reminiscent of the post-9/11 George W. Bush whose single-minded determination was refreshing in a complex time. His terribly hokey lines as the coach are often silly and sometimes insensitive, but McConaughey’s exaggerated drawl and uncomplicated effervescence inject liveliness into a character who must in turn inject life into a small town.

First time screenwriter Jamie Linden and director McG (yes, the Charlie’s Angels guy) do focus on moments that, like the characters, are strikingly superficial. Of course, that may be why McG was perfect for the job. A better director would have muddled the film, much like Oliver Stone did in World Trade Center. Sometimes simple is best, and the filmmakers here made a film that is simply great.

Extras:
The most notable extra on the DVD release is a featurette entitled “Legendary Coaches – How Coaches Overcome Adversity,” but even without any extras, the film is worth watching.