Product Description

Football is a game that knocks you down, then expects you to get back up. Life hit the West Virginia town of Huntington and its Marshall University even harder. When it did, Jack Lengyel came by to help pull them onto their feet by taking the job no one wanted: rebuilding the Marshall football program only months after a plane crash wiped out Marshall's beloved Thundering Herd. Matthew McConaughey portrays Lengyel, the energetic, compassionate coach of inexperienced players whose chances of victory are slim and none. They'll go with the slim. And as they do, their true-life story of heart, healing, and football will thrill and inspire you. It's game day. Time to play till the whistle blows!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5365 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2007-09-18
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .0 pounds
• Running time: 124 minutes

Features

• Officially Licensed
• Highest Quality Recording

Amazon.com
There seems to be no end to beating-the-odds football movies these days, and if they all peak with a breathless moment of anticipation during a clutch play, then We Are Marshall, based on a true story, has plenty of (mostly good) company. Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel, who becomes head coach--more or less by default--of Marshall University's rebuilding varsity football team in Huntington, W. Va., after the school's 37-member team and coaches (and a number of others) die in a plane crash in the Appalachian Mountains on Nov. 14, 1970. Facing an indifferent college president (David Strathairn) ready to shut the football program down, a morose assistant coach (Matthew Fox), and a charged-up player (Anthony Mackie) who missed the doomed flight due to an injury, Lengyel is faced with fielding a new team and putting the players through their paces. There are the usual, perhaps too-familiar, training montages and field action, but screenwriter Jamie Linden and director McG (Charlie's Angels) also draw some very good peformances from the likes of Kate Mara and Ian McShane, contributing to an emotional tapestry conveying a powerful sense of how such a sizable loss affects a small community. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

We Are Marshall - a really good movie.
I purchased the Blu-ray version of We Are Marshall and thought it was just excellent. Reminds me some of Remember the Titans which is one of my all-time favorite movies. Fortunately for me there was no gore at the crash scene - it's not really about the crash, but more about how the college and town recover after such a heart-wrenching tragedy. Well worth the watch!

Surprised me
Maybe I'm just too emotional lately, but this movie actually squeezed out a few tears. I don't quite buy McConaughey performance-he tends to be playing the same person to me in every movie. Just show up and flash the audience his tight body and deep dimples and we'll fall for his "Aw shucks" routine. What works is the director's ability to capture this town's deep loss and incredible heart. Even though the Marshalls don't get their baring for another decade, their never say die fight is encouraging and most of all touching.

Not enough football - too much melancholy
"We are Marshall" is the true story of the rebuilding of the Marshall football team after the tragic 1970 plane crash that killed most of the team. Matthew McConaughey stars as the gutsy coach who takes the position and Jack from Lost costars as his assistant coach.

On the outset, this looks like a great movie - true story about college football - it looks like Remember the Titans all over again. However, the big difference here is that a central part of the story revolves around the town and team dealing with the death of the team and playing in their shadow. Thus, the focus of the movie is not really football like you might have hoped for, but rather death and moving on. It was actually kind of depressing.

The end did have some decent football, but it was too little and far too slow in coming. There was also a fun scene involving a young Bobby Bowden, but his role is limited. Overall, I would not recommend this movie.

Side Note: The movie is directed by someone who just refers to himself as "McG". That should have been a warning sign to me.