True Blue

Taking it's lead from the true story of the 1986 Oxford-Cambridge boat race, 'True Blue' is an attempt to convert this seemingly inconsequential event into a meaningful experience. The film fails because the relevance is only apparent to those with an interest in the subject, or those directly involved. Sure, there's an all encompassing metaphor for our ability to overcome obstacles in our path, and fight against the odds, but for that you would be better off with 'Rocky', or 'Chariots Of Fire' (which this film shamelessly rips off on more than one occasion). I don't doubt that all those involved were deeply passionate about the real story here, the people who made the victory so convincingly their own, but the film flounders due to some erratic performances, and some banal dialogue - not to mention an incredible anti-American streak throughout. It's a peculiarly English film, like the boat race itself, that will appeal to those with a vested interest and no-one else.

Not only is it a poorly told story, with terrible directing and acting as others have pointed out, but the rowing in this movie is actually quite bad. There are a few helicopter/crane shots of actual Cambridge and Oxford crews rowing, but it's obvious that these were taken outside the context of the movie. While the actors seem to have had some coaching and practice before shooting started, it couldn't be more than a few weeks. Their technique is horrendous, even in the Boat Race sequence. For people that speak the language, expect missed catches, washing out, bodies flying everywhere, coxswains yelling "stroke! stroke!" . . . you name it, they mess it up, and all the while the boats are perfectly on keel. Anyone who would be in The Boat Race would look much better than these fools. This movie has been a running joke in boathouses and on rowing message boards for years. If you know anything about what a rowing stroke should look like, how a coxswain calls a race, the etiquette of conversation during a seat race, or the difference between 20 and 35 strokes a minute, you will not be able to keep from laughing at this movie.

"Aawks-furrd". According to the introductory voice-over, this is where True Blue is set. It seems this was a token attempt not to completely alienate an American audience. For this is a story where poor misguided Oxford rowers draft in wicked Americans to help beat the apparently unstoppable Force Of Nature that is Cambridge University, which has been so unsporting as to actually win the last Boat Race. We are thus drawn into a picturesque but insane world where the motto is "six months' torture for a lifetime's pride". Unfortunately, we have to take part in some of the torture as rowers and coaches bitch at each other about training too much.

If the film could impart some of the ambition and dedication of top athletes to an ideal of winning (as does the book True Blue), then it would be exciting and disturbing. Similarly, if it could give an impression of their personal sacrifices it would remind us of how remarkable the Boat Race actually is in the sport of rowing. Unfortunately, the film falls between the two stools. It fails to show the personal lives of the squad beyond caricatures where bitterness and childish pranks are the norm, and therefore fails to create any sympathy with the characters; yet it also fails to do justice to the sport, showing us actors desperately trying to row as they bat up and down the boat, failing to make any impression on the boat speed except throwing up a lot of water at the camera. Rowing should be a sport that is smooth and beautiful, not rushed and convulsive.

It is only when the film stops using actors and hires real rowers, drops the clunky script (who could forget such lines as "That's unconscionable!"?) and shows us an actual race that the director's skill can come through. He has been spending the rest of the film showing us beautiful but pointless shots of the sun rising over the dreaming spires of Oxford. In this way, the portrayal of the Boat Race itself almost makes up for the excruciating moroseness of the Blue Boat squad that has been flung at us for the last hour.

In the end, if you want to see some nice shots of Oxford, see some well-built rowers in Lycra and hear a pseudo-"Chariots of Fire" soundtrack, you could watch this film. Or you could do a ten-thousand metre work session on a rowing machine, which would be shorter and less painful.

Quite definitely the best film ever made about rowing (admittedly out of a poor field of competitors), 'True Blue' vividly conveys the striving for physical perfection and the stress of selection and training for the hardest rowing race in the word. The sheer bloody-mindedness, obstinacy and ambition needed to do well in such a sport spill over into the vicious personal relationships of this story, where the harsh sacrifices made mean that little quarter is given to those with whom you disagree and rival strongly opinionated tribes grow up, all with some right on their side. The bleak mood of the film is set straightaway with the picture of a lonely sculler training on a remote, snow-swept wind-blown loch. The film is visually poetic, using the real and truly beautiful venues used for the training in a matchless mix of colours and varying weather. Fairfax uses a good script, which nonetheless could have done with one more re-write to clarify the large cast of characters involved. The spectator comes away wondering also if some of the film's faults may not be due to back-pedaling over the real details of story to avoid legal action, which led to the changes of name of all but the two main characters. The soaring triumph of the spirit shown the final race in savage racing conditions is well worth waiting for, ably urged on by the sound track music. Some good cameo parts add to the overall pleasure of this film.

The real problem with this is that the full story--or whatever the book of "True Blue" purports to be--is already mind-bendingly complicated. There's no way this story was ever going to make it to film without being seriously mangled, and sadly, that's what happened. The script is plain awful, and the editing doesn't help.