Murderball
2005 Directed by Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro
Synopsis
A film about paraplegics who play full-contact rugby in Mad Max-style wheelchairs - overcoming unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.
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Sports documentaries are pretty hard to pull off, I believe, because the film needs to manufacture drama that's tangential to the drama of the sport itself. Otherwise, why watch the movie and not just the sport? With that in mind, "Murderball" succeeds in the same way that "Hoop Dreams" did -- it tells a great story about the indomitable force of the human spirit that just so happens to also be about an athletic competition.
Here, the sport is quadriplegic rugby, and while the scenes documenting the various international competitions are gripping, they're almost beside the point. The true thrust of this film is about how a group of men from different backgrounds and afflicted with different forms of paralysis…
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I don't care if it was manipulative or if it felt like it ended kind of suddenly, I was completely taken for the ride in this documentary full of impressive characters who overcome disability to compete in sport. It's full of interesting characters, humour, heartbreaking moments & it gets your adrenaline pumping like any good sports documentary should. I just really loved it.
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This was a great movie, it has it all in terms of a sports movie, and also documents a very interesting group of people. The main thing being that once their bodies suffer this injuries the only thing that can stop them from living is themselves, and it's fascinating to see them take it to the complete opposite extreme.
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Some really really interesting elements in this film. I just wish they'd focussed more on the sport and how it helps people recovering from accidents - that stuff was really fascinating. Instead, they felt the need to add a subplot about a rivalry between team members and the private life of one of the coaches.
None of that really interested me and took the focus away from a fascinating brutal sport
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I don't care if it was manipulative or if it felt like it ended kind of suddenly, I was completely taken for the ride in this documentary full of impressive characters who overcome disability to compete in sport. It's full of interesting characters, humour, heartbreaking moments & it gets your adrenaline pumping like any good sports documentary should. I just really loved it.
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Esto es un documental sobre paralíticos que juegan al rugby. Repito: paralíticos que juegan al rugby.
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I knew going in this would deliver fierce rivalries and tug at the heart strings (they are in wheelchairs after all) and it doesn't disappoint. I've never wanted the USA to win anything as much as I wanted them to win the final game in the movie - and there was still a surprise ending. Recommended.
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A perfect blend of documentary and dramatic struggle for dignity. Terrific people and situation. Be sure to see it, especially if you don't normally watch documentaries.
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κοίτα να δεις που μεγάλες αθλητικές κόντρες υπάρχουν και στα παραολυμπιακά αθλήματα, who knew
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“Murderball” ist eine fesselnde Dokumentation mit ungewöhnlichem Inhalt. Von der ersten Minute an war ich von dem ungewöhnlichen Sport fasziniert und zugleich ein wenig schockiert mit welcher Wucht die Spieler in einer Partie Rollstuhlrugby ineinander fahren. Von außen betrachtet sieht der Sport ganz schön brutal und gefährlich aus, aber im Laufe der Dokumentation bekommt man einen immer tieferen Einblick in diese Sportart und versteht bald, dass es schlimmer aussieht als es ist.
Beeindruckend an “Murderball” fand ich eine Szene, in der einige der Rollstuhlrugbyspieler in einer Schule andern Rollstuhlfahrern von ihrer Sportart erzählen. Das faszinierende an der Szene ist, dass die angesprochenen Rollstuhlfahrer sehr schnell von dem Sport begeistert sind und Rollstuhlrugby ausprobieren wollen, während die nicht behinderten Zuhörer eher…
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Either wear your heart on your sleeve or put the audience in the place of these guys - you can't do both if you're constantly underlining how we're to feel with manipulative songs and a tight, reoccurring set of cry moments every ten or fifteen minutes: Our imagination is handicapped. Milking every moment for its most extreme drama, Murderball, more often than not, is less a documentary per se than an absurdly compassionate foray into the reality television pool of MTV. Characters take on harmoniously larger-than-life roles in dovetailing profiles of Learning to Cope With Your Disability and Channeling Rage Into A Competitive Deathsport as seen on TLC. Irony follows. Zupan, in particular, makes a compelling case for positive recovery…