We Are Marshall

As sick as I am of football flicks this year I must admit I rather enjoyed this film. Mainly because of the great performance of its lead. He does a great job as the weird coach that is so offbeat and positive that this town that is healing from the biggest tragedy it has ever known,just does not know have to take him. Mcg also proves he can direct something that is not flashy and slick. It will be a great film for families to see together and it does a good job pulling on the old heartstrings. Matthew Fox also does great as the assistant coach who lived through it all and has many demons to face. WE ARE MARSHELL is the best film of its kind since Remember the Titans.

My family and I saw We Are Marshall Christmas night. I grew up in a Marshall family (Mom & Dad, M.U. grads; my oldest sister was in school at M.U. at the time of the plane crash, as well as her future husband). Dad worked in the newspaper business at the time; and my mom's father passed away the night of the crash (while we were glued to radio and T.V. reports from Huntington.)

A year later, I was fortunate enough to see the Xavier game portrayed in the film at Fairfield Stadium in person. It is still the single most heart-stirring moment in sports I've ever been around.

Attending Marshall myself just a few short years after the tragedy, we cheered for first downs by the Thundering Herd and agonized through fighting to be just competitive. Not all were mindful of the journey.

The film seems to capture the shock of the crash on the school and the community and the hopelessness both experienced in the times immediately following the crash. Due to time restrictions and to keep the story moving, the struggle to come up with representative football players was kind of oversimplified in the film, but the men who did play in those years are just as important as the heroes of the winning era at Marshall decades later. Not sure if the real Jack Lengyel was as tongue in cheek as portrayed in the movie, but it seems to work.

I think the movie will grow on people across the country not familiar with the story or who had no ties to Marshall/Huntington, in the vein of Hoosiers or Remember The Titans. My wife and sons have heard about it for years...that's why we wanted to experience the movie together.

The most incredible sports story I'll ever witness. I thought about the 75 when Marshall played in Detroit in the Motor City Bowl in 1999 and finished in the top 10 in the country. I think about them every time I visit the Marshall Student Center and see the 1970 team picture on the wall. I knew their names from the newspaper stories and the radio coverage of the era. It is quite a personal memory for me, and one I know I share with thousands, and now, many, many more.

I hate football, but I loved this movie! I went to see it because Nate Ruffin was my Supervisor for several years and was the most supportive, understanding human being I've ever known. He often told anyone who would listen how his life took a downward spiral after the crash because he felt so guilty for surviving. But he got his life together and decided the best way he could honor his former teammates was to be an inspiration to others, and he was more than that! Anthony Mackie portrayed Nate wonderfully and caught his spirit of leadership and caring! Nate knew from experience what hardship could do to a person's life and used his story to help many of us through major upheavals in our lives.

The movie matched much of what Nate told us throughout the years, and I think he would be ecstatic that the story was finally told and told this well!

I spent many summers with my aunt, uncle and cousin in Huntington, WV and was at the University of Virginia in Nov 1970 when the plane carrying most of Marshall's football team crashed. It crashed just a few miles from their home.

While my school was 300 miles from Huntington many weekends I'd make the trip to Huntington to see my aunt & uncle.

Just a week before the accident my uncle and I saw one of their games - a home game playing Kent State - and it was such an eerie feeling for me to know that virtually everyone I saw on the field that day was gone in an instant.

I don't think it would be possible for any director to truly capture the level of grief in Huntington at that time, but this movie gave a pretty good glimpse inside.

While this movie is about the rebuilding of a football team that all but vanished, the greater message to me is how they kept building through their intense grief, and why that effort was important.

Almost everyone in my circle knew someone - or had a loved one - killed. A poster mentioned that some in Huntington don't like the film - everyone I know - including my cousin, felt that it really captured the time.

The Huntington Quarterly devoted an issue to describe the making of the movie, and how the actors met - and mingled - with members of the community. I believe that the community embraced the production crew.

Kate Mara's character, according to my cousin, is a composite of several actual individuals and the restaurant has a different name but everything else is factual. Incidentally I loved Kate's character.

Matthew McConaughey has said that it is the most meaningful movie he has done.

I have recommended it to all my friends.

Wow...I just got back from a preview showing of "We Are Marshall," and I am still in shock I'll admit it, I originally only went to see this movie to see Matthew Fox. I mean I like football, but normally I wouldn't go to the theaters to see a movie on it. I expected it to be like a lot of sports movies--good, but repetitive and forgettable. However, I was completely wrong. The movie is excellent on so many levels. The acting is extremely good. Matthew Mcconaughey is extremely likable as the head coach, Matthew Fox is incredible as the assistant coach (especially his emotional scenes), and so is the supporting cast. The film itself is just extremely well-made as a whole, and extremely touching and moving.

Right now, I feel really bad that the movie hasn't gotten more buzz than it has. It was one of the best movies i've seen in a long time. I am surprised that it didn't get nominated for any Golden Globes because it really is probably better than a lot of the movies that got nominated. But really, it is an extremely good movie, and not just your typical, cliché, sports movie. It was such a nice surprise, and I am really glad i decided to see it.