I Didn't Lose It At the Movies

But I was fully expecting to.

I went and saw "We Are Marshall" last night, and expected to get at least a little man-weepy. But the movie TRIED SO HARD to drain every little bit of emotion from every scene it could that it failed.

And this, from a movie that used every cliche in the book.

In other words, the director lacked both skill and self-confidence, the latter being the unforgivable crime. Such as: one scene has the team leader assembling a group of people outside the regents closed meeting at a specific time. Initially, they starkly stand there, like statues or trees. Powerful scene. The crowd has assembled to demonstrate that the school body wants the football program to continue, despite the board's desire to suspend the program for a while so that the school and town can properly grieve and regroup [not an unreasonable idea. They'd just lost 95% of the starters, most of the coaches, many boosters and the broadcaster in a horrible plane crash.] So this assembled throng stands there, like a barren forest ... but that's not enough for McG, the director. They start barking "We ... Are ... Marshall" in the sort of unison that would make Chinese placard wavers proud. And it ruins the moment.

The "We Are Marshall" chant was not even used at the college at the time.

Another scene, this one actually has some truth in it. Bobby Bowden, the coach at West Virginia in 1971, actually did put the Marshall University initials and a cross on the back of his teams' helmets that season. In the movie, this is revealed by having a couple of players come in with their helmets, as they leave this is revealed when they turn to leave. Bowden mentions it, and the Marshall coach, played by flat-stomached and flat-affected Matthew McConaughey, says something like "First class, Coach", like they were just treated to a steak dinner. Dumb dialogue. Silence again would have served the scene so much better.

And the national consciousness of the event was much greater than hinted at in the movie [There was a nationally televised benefit with Bill Cosby, Kate Smith and others for example.]

And really, the movie felt like an unset omelette: threads of ideas not connected to other ideas, story lines that petered out, scenes whose impact was diluted by being out of context with the emotional tone of the movie.

I wanted to like the movie, despite the presence of non-actor McConaughey. To be fair, even though he stunk as usual, he was given some of the worst dialogue ever for a movie lead. You'd have to look to a Steven Seagal movie for better bad dialogue.

But I liked the supporting actors, and the look/feel of the movie was very good.

The real highlights were the football scenes, which - oddly - McG has a real feel for. He paced them, shot them and edited them with the kind of skill that was lacking in the dramatic scenes. Not dwelling too long on each play, catching the action without making it cartoonish. It felt real.

So it was a kind of a C+ movie, and I was hoping for a B.