Sports Documentary Murderball - More

Sports Documentary "Murderball"

Murderball - More than a Sports Documentary About Disabilities

There are documentaries about war, about politics, about healthcare, history, crime and more. And then there are sports documentaries that rarely get much attention because they are usually about one particular team's winning season. "How the Yankees won the World Series" or something of that sort. But the sports documentary "Murderball" is very different and highly compelling - and an argument can be made that it is one of the best sports documentaries in recent years. That is partly because of the excellence of the direction, and partly because it transcends "sports" and goes into the human drama that always takes place when serious disabilities are part of the story.

Frankly, this documentary - which has some crude language and violence - takes the viewer behind the scenes and deep into the lives of the players in a way that is personal, painful and brutally honest. "Murderball," in fact, is far more than a story about men in wheelchairs competing for pride and glory on basketball courts. it's much more than the documentary about wheelchair rugby and the rough and tumble of competition when highly trained, high-energy athletes roar around in wheelchairs slamming into one another and tossing rugby balls. And it's way more than another sports movie, or documentary with a sports theme and sports heroes.

This is a film, according to well-respected movie critic Roger Ebert that uses sport "as a way to see into lives, hopes and fears." These men have had plenty of fears, like anyone who wakes up in a hospital bed and has the doctor tell them they will never walk again.

But why get involved in a roughneck sport like wheelchair rugby? Just to prove you can still fight back even though you're a paraplegic? The way these men play the game shows the moviegoer that those questions don't matter. Guys who enjoy sport do so for their own personal reasons, and in this case, part of the reason is simply because okay, I had a tough injury that put me in a wheelchair, but no injury will ever keep me from being a competitor and from having fun.

There are lessons to be learned in every good documentary, and this documentary is no exception because it is considered a great documentary. The directors (Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro) take viewers well past how to play a game or what kind of intensity is necessary. The lessons shared by the stories within the story have to do with drinking to excess, and also driving while intoxicated. The lessons have to do with making smart choices. Indeed, part of the value of watching this film is learning the backgrounds of some of the players on the court, some of whom made poor decisions that led them to the life in a wheelchair. The story of Mark Zupan is poignant and dramatic. Zupan is considered among the top wheelchair rugby players in the world. He was once a normal young man at the age of 18. But one night he fell asleep in the back of a pickup truck and his friend took off in the truck without knowing that Mark Zupan was passed out in the truck's bed. When his friend (Christopher Igoe) drove the truck away, he was apparently under the influence of alcohol and lost control. The truck flipped, crashed, and Zupan was thrown a long way from the road, into a canal.

Zupan was not found for 13 hours. He was seriously injured and indeed lucky to be alive. Now, the documentary revealed, he and Igoe are good friends again. The documentary interviewer asked Zupan (after the film had been screened at a film festival) if he could, would he go back in time to that night and do something differently? It got very quiet before Zupan answered the question. Would he change things? "No, I don't think so," he replied. And bear in mind this is a man who was on a winning team, competing for a world championship in wheelchair rugby. He was part of a team of very close-knit players who loved each other and rooted for each other in the truest form of sportsmanship there is.

My injury has led me to opportunities and experiences and friendships I would never had had before," he answered. "And it has taught me about myself. In some ways, it's the best thing that ever happened to me."

Ebert (July 22, 2005) writes in his review of "Murderball" that Zupan's answer is "...hard to believe, but from him, I believe it." The team Zupan plays for us Team USA; the biggest rival for Team USA is Team Canada. And this rivalry becomes a central theme in the film. These players on the two teams definitely don't like each other at all. And Joe Soares, who was a great player for Team USA for many years, was let go because of his age and his declining skills. The film interviews Soares at length and viewers are given a close look at an angry man whose pride has been severely injured. But Soares - like all the competitors that are featured in the documentary - does not give up easily, and never quits. This is another story within the story, and Soares moves to Canada to become the head coach of Team Canada. He gets his revenge on Team USA for cutting him by leading Team Canada to a victory over Team USA. That win was the first time Team Canada had defeated Team USA in 12 years, so it was sweet for Soares and bitter for the Americans.

Meantime, the New York Times (McGrath, 2005) critics give details of how the game of wheelchair rugby is played. The paraplegics wear gloves (some wear garden gloves) with pine tar on the gloves to help them grasp the rugby ball; their wheelchairs are armored, McGrath writes, like "hybrids of the dodge-'em car and the Roman battle chariot." The film shows the wheelchairs "crashing into one another and toppling over," the Times' critic continues. "There is a Monty Python aspect to all this," McGrath continues. He amends that remark a bit; "...or there would be if the players did not also perform remarkable feats of wheeling and spinning, executing feints and lobbing courtwide passes to one another."

One should not go into this documentary thinking it is a nice friendly film about "wheelchair basketball." Quite the contrary, these players are out for blood; they hit each other's wheelchairs as hard as they can. Indeed, part of the game is to knock the opponent's chair onto the floor. The referees graciously pick the chairs up when they are knocked over. One of the directors, Henry Alex Rubin, was interviewed by the Times; he said "We're not sports guys, and we didn't want to make a sports film." Instead, what Rubin and Shapiro wanted to do was "make a movie about guys who had broken their necks."