Movie Review
Murderball (2005)
Rated R for language and sexual content
Runtime: 88 minutes
Yesterday I met with some friends to see the film Murderball. It’s a documentary that follows the story of 2004 United States wheelchair rugby team. This movie originally came to Ann Arbor over the summer and the Michigan Theater held a special screening of it again last night, but when the movie first came out I decided I didn’t really care to see it.
First of all, I wasn’t all that interested in wheelchair rugby by itself. There is a lot I do miss about playing sports, but I don’t think I necessarily want to get involved with sports if they’re just going to be a compromised version of something that I used to enjoy being able to do to its full extent. For example, I played intramural flag football while I attended the University of Michigan, but it was never as fun as playing an impromptu game of tackle football down at Elbel Field with my friends. This was mostly due to the fact that the over-abundance of rules in IM flag football restricting the contact between players removes aspects of football game play like determination, toughness, will, and hustle. Aspects of the game, which if you’re not necessarily blessed with great size and speed, still allow a person to be very competitive playing tackle football. Every time I hear someone comment that I can still enjoy doing the things I used to do, but that they just have to be done differently I have half a mind to say, “Well, then I’m not really doing what I used to do. Now I’m doing something different.” That’s kind of how I see a lot of adaptive activities. I played in a wheelchair football game a few weekends ago, but because of how distorted the game needed to be to facilitate the varying levels of ability of those involved (myself included), it wasn’t the game I used to enjoy being able to play.
Secondly, one of my other reservations about seeing Murderball is the fact that I’m already living this life. I equate it to a story a friend of mine told upon his return from basic training in the Army. Every so often, the recruits during basic training get to have a movie night. As he told it, a lot of these guys would suggest that the platoon should watch Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, or Saving Private Ryan. To which my buddy's reaction was something along the lines of, “Fellas, we’re IN the Army! We already know what it’s like to be in the Army. How about an escape from reality?” That’s how I felt about Murderball. I already know what life is like in a wheelchair. There wasn’t going to be anything in this film that would teach me something that I didn’t already know.
As it turns out Murderball is a very good movie. In terms of just simply being a documentary, Murderball is done well. The story of the team and their success is compelling, but it is the background information on the players as individuals with spinal cord injuries that I felt really drives the movie. If you’ve been following along with some of the previous postings I’ve written and found yourself with questions about spinal cord injuries this movie addresses a variety of issues that I or anybody else with a spinal cord injury deals with at some point. There were parts of some of the players’ stories that I closely identified with. Some parts that I found to be very emotional for me. It didn’t really make me want to get involved with wheelchair rugby at this point in time; although there were several players from a Michigan-based wheelchair rugby team answering questions about playing wheelchair rugby after the movie last night. I do think Murderball is worth your time and money. From what I’ve read it might be hard to find in theaters now, but its release to video and DVD is not too far off.
