Better known as Wheelchair Rugby, Murderball is a game created by quadriplegic athletes that is every bit as aggressive as the name would lead one to expect; played with bone-breaking intensity, a typical game of Wheelchair Rugby involves plenty of trash-talking, a few head-on collisions, and the occasional player being thrown from his modified wheelchair. The game has become an official event at the Paralympics, a worldwide competition for handicapped athletes, and the United States and Canada
have become fierce rivals in the event. When Joe Soares was dropped from the top-seated American team, he angrily retaliated by signing on as coach for the Canadian team, which he led to an upset victory for Team Canada in the games. In 2004, filmmaker Henry Alex Rubin and journalist Dana Adam Shapiro followed both teams as they traveled to Athens, Greece, for the 2004 Paralympics, documenting the fierce competition between the two teams (especially the Americans, bitterly stung by what they saw as Soares' betrayal). Murderball offers an up-close look at the 2004 Wheelchair Rugby tournament, as well as the personal stories of the athletes who are passionate, driven, and determined to win -- as one of them says, "I'm not here for a hug, I'm here for a medal." Murderball earned an enthusiastic reception in its premier screenings at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The frank lack of condescension and mean moments of Murderball make it more than a film about sports or quadriplegics: It becomes a movie about life, about struggle, about pain, bitterness and pushing forward.
I don't know whether directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dan Adam Shapiro set out to show the jock mentality with such clarity, but that's precisely what their gripping movie does.
There's little room for tears in the testosterone-riddled territory of quadriplegic rugby. "Murderball" spat on that power of the human spirit stuff and rolled along to a kick-ass showcase of not what spinal injury excluded, but what it enabled.
The quadriplegic rugby sport referred to as "Murderball" is lovingly examined in a well-crafted documentary that goes a long way toward showing the mental and physical fortitude of these wheelchair bound athletes who insist on living life to the fullest.
Filmmakers Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro wisely chose a high-energy aesthetic to portray quadriplegic rugby (a.k.a. "Murderball") through the story of Mark Zupan and his American teammates battling for Paralympic gold.
Even when the movie tries to shoe-horn its stories into the standard documentary mold, it serves to drive home the point: these guys aspire to the same clichés as the rest of us.
Além de revelador e interessante, sua inteligente montagem prende a atenção do espectador através do desenvolvimento de seus "personagens" e do conflito entre os dois times principais.
Murderball is a good sports documentary and a great look at living with a disability. On the surface, this film unabashedly celebrates defiant machismo and the competitive spirit but underneath I sensed a more speculative investigation of human motivation, in many different arenas.
Murderball is very well
structured and edited - a minor complaint - the filming of the wheelchair rugby game sequences left me confused about this relatively unknown sport. That's a minor quibble because most of this inspirational film takes place off the court.
"I use everything I have to get through life, We all have to use everything we have."
This is a very interesting and memorable documentary blending sports, humanity, and living with being handicapped. These guys may be in wheelchairs, but they take they are badass, and take their brand of rugby, or rather, wheelchair rugby, very seriously. In fact, the film's title comes from the sport's nickname-
that's how hardcore these guys are.They're not totally jerk jocks, though. These guys are also family men who just try to continue living life as normally as possible given the circumstances, and this film is just a nice little look into their lives as well as their sport. Good stuff all around. I highly recommend it.
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