"We Are Marshall"

Some WVU fans found a few other factual flaws.
http://westvirginia.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=33&mid=86629115&sid=891&tid=86629115&style=1

 

I'm surprised at the general tone of the people here. I thought you people would rip it to shreds. I'm from Huntington, grew up a Marshall fan and I loved the movie. Thought it was fantastic. But I really didn't think anyone who was not either a Huntington native or MU fan/alumnus would like it.

It seemed kinda cheesy. Every conversation in the movie was a dramatic, life-or-death conversation -- kinda laying it on a little thick.

But like I said, I loved it and can't wait for the DVD.

 

I empathize with the writer here.

But here's the thing: It doesn't matter how "historically accurate" a moviemaker wants to be. That's not his job.

His job is to make a successful movie. An entertaining movie, a movie that makes money, a movie with great box-office appeal, not great historians' appeal.

And while I'll get as worked up as anybody about Joe Jackson batting right-handed in "Field of Dreams" (a more cringe-worthy error than in any other sports-related movie ever made) ... the point is, the movie was great. And it was successful.

And that's all it's supposed to be. Anything extra is gravy.

"Marshall" is a good movie. And it's a successful movie, so far. And that's all it's supposed to be.

 

I thought I might rip it, too. Not a huge MM fan here, by any means, but it was hard not to like the movie.

And Fenian, the kid who overslept, he did make one more appearance in the flick at the end, which was enough for those watching the movie to come to their own conclusions about him.

 

I loved the movie. But when I began to read the Daily Mail story, I expected to see they had uncovered 4 or 5 minor factual inaccuracies. This was a laundry list, and some pretty darn important things. It left me disappointed.

 

I won't. But that's not to say it still wasn't a good movie.

 

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I loved the movie. But when I began to read the Daily Mail story, I expected to see they had uncovered 4 or 5 minor factual inaccuracies. This was a laundry list, and some pretty darn important things. It left me disappointed.
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Those were my thoughts exactly.
I assumed Chuck was just nitpicking a bunch of small stuff.
I was at an MU hoops game a few weeks ago and Ernie Salavatore (a Huntington Sports Institution) was listneing to another old sports writer point out the fact that the depth chart in the movie (on the blackboard) incorrectly listed one of the players a RB, when in fact he was a WR.
There's quite a few things the movie changed - I knew about the final play and understood changing that - that would have worked just as well had they left it alone.

 

It wasn't presented as a depth chart; it was "offensive recruits" and "defensive recruits."

The thing about the writer sitting in the stands irked me, but all the other stuff he listed in the column I had no idea about. Assuming all the things he listed were true, it does seem insensitive -- particularly fabricating three characters into it -- to the victims' families.

I've been to the stadium where they filmed the stadium stuff and I was curious why they didn't make some more changes. It has a big wall at one end of it that is pretty distinctive, and it just seemed they could have digitally enhanced it to make it look more like Marshall's actual stadium.

The kid who overslept was shown during the second half of the Xavier game and then again at the end.

I don't know how accurate this was, but it stuck with me how many black assistant coaches were on the sidelines in the game shots. It was 1970. I just didn't think there would have been many.

None of these things really affected my enjoyment of the movie. McConaughey was a tad over the top, but it was still really good. The off-kilter details didn't bother me near as much as the ones in, say, Friday Night Lights.

The most stunning visual to me was Kate Mara, who could have been pulled straight out of a circa-1970s magazine.

 

They made just as many factual inaccuracies with "Glory Road" last year, too. If it wasn't for Josh Lucas's performance, that one would be just painful to watch.

"Miracle", in my estimation, is the only Disney-fied sports movie that they've done a good job with recently. But even then, it was only because so many people already knew the story that they couldn't fudge the facts without massive public outrage.

Fucking eh. Hollywood just does a shit job with historically based sports movies. That's all there is to it.

 

Now that I've had a full day to absorb Landon's bitching...

I see his point. I also see how someone who lived through that time period at Marshall would be upset and outraged. But at the same time, since we're dealing with Hollywood, what's more important: telling the story factually correct or telling the story at all.

An entire generation outside of Huntingdon has grown up not knowing that anyone this has ever happened. Has anyone ever written a book about the crash and the events that followed it? If not, why hasn't Landon? I'd think someone who was so personally affected by this would be the perfect person to chronicle the events. When I saw this movie was coming out I looked to see if there was a book written about it on Amazon.com. I found nothing. There's no Junction Boys, there's no Friday Night Lights.

An entire country now knows, or at least has an idea, what the hell happened to an entire team, an entie university, an entire town. An entire country is now gonna see Marshall football in a totally different light when they tune in their Saturday (or,with C-USA, Tuesday night) football.

And for the record, Rudy was dogshit in terms of factual accuracy as well. For starters, the seniors never turned in their jerseys. But, since it paints Notre Dame football in a glorious and pious light, who gives a shit, right?

 

I guess the other argument is that if you're going to tell the story, why not bother to ... you know ... actually tell it truthfully. Particularly if you're saying "THIS IS A TRUE STORY." It's not like it isn't an incredible story already.

 

"This is a true story that Chuck Landon was too busy to write a book about." ;D