Murderball
Directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro

When the acclaimed documentary “Murderball” came out, I didn’t really care to see it. To me, a sports movie about quadriplegics wasn’t any more appealing to me than a regular sports movie. Eventually I found out that the movie was about a lot more than that, about the daily lives and struggles these men face, their personal stories of how they came to find Murderball, the contact sport where quads in souped up wheelchairs play a modified version of rugby. I didn’t really feel I needed a movie to tell me that their lives are difficult, that their cases are individual, that the personalities of these people are just as varied as everyone else…

While I still don’t feel I really needed to see this movie to understand the empowerment these athletes have acheived, it is indeed a well made, artfully shot movie with a good soundtrack and some interesting stories. I can’t say anything to pick it apart. Thankfully, it is never really a sob story (which may not tell the full tale of what its like to be quadriplegic, but that’s not the film’s intent). I expected there to be some underlying message about prejudice, but it’s not really preachy either. It’s simply a story about a rivalry between two teams coupled with stories of how they live. The story focuses mainly on three people. Mark Zupan, a charismatic guy with a big goatee (looks like Jason Newsted of Metallica) who is essentially the big star of the sport, Joe Soares, former team US star, now coach of Team Canada and a ‘traitor’, and a man who only recently became disabled who is being introduced to Murderball…. Of the three I enjoyed the moments with the Team Canada coach the best. At times he seemed to be painted like a villain, but its because he seemed the most passionate about what he does, even to the point of being a dick about it, that carrying his story into the personal life of his family was the most interesting to me.

This is when I watched the special features. This is one of the best, most packed single disc DVDs to come along in a long time. As documentary DVDs go, only Capturing the Friedmans maybe, maybe…. surpasses it in the sense of supplemental features actually HELPING the film. In a 40 minute interview with Larry King, we get to know the Team USA players more, get a bit more background on where they are now and some of the more boring details that are important to know but didn’t get into the film, like about the teams they play for during the year, their views on stem cell research, and more. They each seem less like the dicks they can come across as at times in the heat of competition, especially Zupan. Two feature length commentaries are available, one with the filmmakers and one with the players of Team USA. There’s lots of dead air in these tracks, but when they’re on, they’re interesting and lively. “Murderball: Behind the Game” runs 20 minutes and filters the footage down to just talking heads interviews about the game itself. And finally, an episode of Jackass that was made to tie in with the film, which I didn’t really care for (man I hate Steve-O) but I’m sure many will enjoy. Also, some deleted and extended scenes.

I highly recommend this movie as a rental as least, I wasn’t nearly as blown away with it as some of the other members of Spacejunk, but it’s definitely a very good film, and the DVD is a fantastic package – Goon

SCORE:

Recommended If You Like: documentaries: Rock School, Fast Cheap & Out of Control, Spellbound - sports movies: uh... Prefontaine, Brian's Song?

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