The Slaughter Rule

2002
R
1h 52m

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

2.8K

YOUR RATING

David Morse and Ryan Gosling in The Slaughter Rule (2002)

Home Video Trailer from Sundance Channel

Play trailer1:02

1 Video

11 Photos

Coming-of-Age Drama Sport

A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.

Directors
- Alex Smith
- Andrew J. Smith
Writers
- Alex Smith
- Andrew J. Smith
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

2.8K

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Alex Smith
- Andrew J. Smith
Writers
- Alex Smith
- Andrew J. Smith
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations total

User reviews32

Featured review

8/10

An interesting study of relationships

"The Slaughter Rule" is an interesting, moving study of male relationships, with the movie portraying how the limits of male bonding are tested through past and natural emotion. Ryan Gosling is deep and effective as a teenage jock who's life has seen it's rocky roads, and then he meets a quiet, mystifying older man who wants to recruit him for a six man football team. What Gosling doesn't know is about the Man's past, which turns out to test their growing relationship. It's an often slow but alluring tale, absorbing you in to the story of characters that are both familiar and alien, and ending up with an odd but truthful ending that pulls out all the raw, closeted emotions that the two men have for each other, and it's home-movie-style video shoot and beautiful country scenery brings it to life.

Silence91
May 6, 2003
Permalink

Trivia
Screenplay was developed in the Sundance Lab.

Goofs
The microphone that the yodeling band gather round is a Sennheiser MD441, which has a tight, end-on pickup pattern. Singing into it sideways as they are, the would hardly have been picked up.