We Are Marshall Review

During the 1990s and 2000s, the Marshall University football program has produced a number of players who have made their way to the NFL. Among the best known former players from the Thundering Herd are Randy Moss (New England Patriots), Chad Pennington (New York Jets), and Byron Leftwich (Atlanta Falcons). In 1970, however, the University lost almost all of its team in a West Virginia plane crash that made national headlines.The only survivors were the ones who didn't travel with the team for the round trip flight. The movie We Are Marshall tells about the first year of the rebuilding process, concluding with their first home game of the 1971 season. At first, Marshall President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) wants to end the football program. However, Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie), one of the few surviving players, shows Dedmon that the campus community would like to see the program return. Ruffin feels that that is the best way to honor his fallen teammates. The show of support sways the trustees' vote in favor of continuing.

Dedmon quickly learns that this rebuilding is easier said than done. He goes through a potential list of replacements for head coach Rick Tolley (Robert Patrick), but none of these candidates wants a rebuilding job. Tolley's one surviving assistant, Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), doesn't even want to be involved in coaching anymore. The only man who wants the job is Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey), an Ohio collegiate coach who firmly believes rebuilding is the only thing to do. Convinced of Lengyel's sincerity, and lacking any other candidates, Dedmon hires him. Lengyel pays a personal visit to Dawson, and ultimately convinces Dawson to help with the rebuilding. They recruit players from other Marshall sports to join the team, but Dedmon still has to clear one more hurdle. That hurdle is cleared when Dedmon, after many months of trying, convinces the NCAA to let Marshall play freshmen, which ran contrary to the NCAA rules of the time. The expectations for the team were not high, but the 1971 Thundering Herd gave fans a memorable and exciting game against Xavier University in the Herd's season home opener in Huntington.

We Are Marshall may have one main story, but the movie is full of moving and humorous tales. One of the other tales involves Paul Griffen (Ian McShane), a Marshall board member who lost his son in the crash. The boy was engaged to marry Annie Cantrell (Kate Mara), who was a cheerleader for the Thundering Herd. The widowed Paul still tries to treat Annie as if she were family, but both know something that they take a long time to say. Red and another of Ruffin's teammates, Tom Bogdan (Brian Geraghty), deal with survivor's guilt. Lengyel brings an easy-going, but goal-oriented, approach, as well as an outsider's perspective. He uses these techniques and applies them to a situation that is no one's envy. He is there for his love of the game, a love that is shared by many at Marshall. Coach Lengyel also teaches his new squad a poignant lesson about their presence on the team. First-time screenwriter Jamie Linden gives all of the stories the depth and the importance they deserve. The director simply known as McG (Joseph McGinty Nicholl) shows he can create a far different spectacle than the train wreck known as the Charlie's Angels film franchise. He shows the slow transition from overwhelming tragedy to small triumph as a school sends a new group of young men to their gridiron.

We Are Marshall also marks one of McConaughey's best performances. Jack Lengyel is a coach who, like any other coach, beleives in winning and in discipline. Yet, he wisely recognizes that the Marshall position is a way to reach out to reach out to the fans of the Thundering Herd and reminds them that football is not only possible, but it still can be fun to see football players put forth their best efforts. During the interview that Dedmon comes to Ohio to conduct, Dedmon gets a look at the playing skills of Jack's young children, who demonstrate they aren't afraid of contact, even when the objects are immovable. For those who saw McConaughey as the slacker ex-jock in Dazed And Confused, Jack Lengyel may seem very much like an older version of David Wooderson, though Jack has found his niche in life. Strathairn, Fox, McShane, Mackie, and Mara provide exceptional support as people who represent various facets of the tragedy and its aftermath. All of them know that nothing will ever be the same for them, but they want to be a part of the action on Saturdays in the fall when football makes its return. Many of the real people depicted in this film are seen in both photos and in archive footage during the end credits. The photos include both Coach Lengyel and Coach Dawson, posing with the actors who portrayed them (Dedmon died in 1998, and Ruffin died in 2001).

The DVD has just a few extras. The main one is a 37-minute documentary entitled Legenary Coaches, which is introduced by McG and features Lengyel and Bobby Bowden, who, in 1971, was the head football coach at the University Of West Virginia (Bowden is portrayed in the We Are Marshall by Mike Pniewski, and shows a willingness to share plays with Marshall, since the two schools were not rivals). The documentary also includes talk about success in the college ranks from several other coaches, including Pat Summitt and John Wooden. Each of them has interesting anecdotes about their involvement in sports, but the documentary becomes repetitive as each coach emphasizes a commitment to team, fundamentals, and understanding each player as an individual. Each also talks in some way about the importance of adversity and overcoming it. Legendary Coaches writer-director John Long presents facts and opinions, but he fails to inject any sort of personality into this short. The theatrical trailer and ad for West Virginia tourism featuring McConaughey, Fox, and Strathairn are more exciting than Long's portraits of college coaches who are known for their success in the sports they coach. The DVD also includes trailers for Fred Claus, other sports videos, and a public service announcement for Marshall University.

Some people will watch a football game and say that it is just a game. Anybody who would say that is correct, but only to a certain extent. Football, however, was as much a part of the Marshall community as the players and the coaches who were on the sidelines and on the field. The players and the coaches of the 1971 Thundering Herd knew they could not replace the men and the women who lost their lives on that fateful November night. Yet, Jack Lengyel and his squad also understood that another part of Marshall would have died if the football program had not been continued. We Are Marshall is a moving and reverent statement about life not offering guarantees, as well as about rediscovering something good when something good seems so hard to find. Losing a game is nothing compared to losing a sport, or to losing 75 players, coaches, and boosters in an instant. Some lost heart, but others fought through sorrow. Together, with the help of many new faces, the new Marshall Thundering Herd found a way to make an entire football community cheer once again on Saturday afternoons.

Portions of this review first appeared on Epinions in January 2007.