Many have tried. Few have succeeded. So credit “We Are Marshall” for pulling off a powerful twist on the “I am Spartacus” moment.
Outside an administration building at Marshall University, students and supporters gather in protest. The school’s president is set to suspend the football program in light of a plane crash that not only decimated the varsity squad, coaching staff and a number of boosters but also sent the town of Huntington, W.V., into a tailspin.
Benched by an injury, varsity player Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie) has organized the protest. He’s fighting survivor guilt the only way he knows how: demanding that the Thundering Herd trample on. He’s backed up by the crowd who declare their solidarity with the chant “We are Marshall.”
Matthew McConaughey plays Coach Jack Lengyel. An outsider, he plans to revive a program that not everyone is ready to see resuscitated.
As one of the townpeople reminds us in her voice-over, “this is a true story.”
On Nov. 14, 1970, the team was returning from a game against East Carolina University. Minutes outside the airport they were to land at, the chartered jet went down, killing all 75 on board.
Director McG (“Charlie’s Angels”) and screenwriter Jamie Linden exhibit a lovely decency handling the disaster. Too bad the film doesn’t sustain the mix of sorrow and hope the story requires.
It does succeed in making us care quickly about an ill-fated team with a sequence that is akin to a two-minute offense. First, the movie surprises us with a squeaker of a loss. Then it reminds us what we all take for granted: Life goes on.
A player calls the dorm and asks his best friend to buy a case of beer. Quarterback Chris Griffen (Wes Brown) tells his cheerleader girlfriend, Annie (Kate Mara), he’ll see her soon, and together they’ll break the news of their engagement and impending move to California to his father, Paul (Ian McShane).
In these melancholy moments, “We Are Marshall” resembles “United 93,” which gains much of its heartbreaking force from the audience knowing each interaction, every sweet sentence, carries intimations of mortality.
In the air, the coach reminds his players that teams are only remembered for wins. If only that were so.
There’s a jolt. Then blessedly, the screen goes black.
The movie, however, never quite recovers its vigor after the calamity. Instead, McG falls back on the genre’s playbook. What was particular becomes too familiar.
It’s not that “We Are Marshall” isn’t moving. At times, it’s rousing. A scene in which Coach Lengyel and assistant coach Jack Dawson visit Bobby Bowden’s West Virginia University team is sweet. And how often does one see Bowden and “sweet” in the same sentence?
With his flagrantly perfect teeth and jus’ folks style, the personable McConaughey plays Lengyel as a grinning but savvy jester. “I like the boys, I do,” he tells President Dedmon. “Only thing is I need 85 more.” But the actor seems to have distilled his character’s vitality down to an odd way of talking with his mouth twisted.
In fact, a different Matthew does the heavy lifting here:
Matthew Fox plays Red Dawson. An act of kindness saves the assistant coach from the random tragedy.
Ian McShane (“Deadwood”) plays Paul Griffen, a composite character who is the renewed program’s No. 1 detractor. Mc- Shane doesn’t have much choice dialogue, but he works his parental sorrow into every crease in his face.
If only “We Are Marshall” had the grit to face all the heartbreak and all the healing it takes on, it would have ended with Dawson in the locker- room, post-game.
It would have left us sitting beside the young coach, braving a moment of grief and release.
“We Are Marshall” | ** 1/2 RATING
PG for emotional thematic material, a crash scene and mild language|2 hours, 5 minutes|SPORT INSPIRATIONAL|Directed by McG; written by Jamie Linden; photography by Shane Hurlbut; starring Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, Kate Mara, January Jones, Brian Geraghty, David Strathairn|Opens today at area theaters.
