This has the makings of a great football movie,
but it doesn’t have the courage. Based on fact, the picture chronicles how a college town carried on with its football program after almost everyone on the team was killed in a 1970 plane crash. This should have been a story about grief and healing, but Hollywood is more interested in victory. And so this begins with a politely observed time of mourning and then gets on to the business of triumph. Marshall University won just two games in the season
following the crash, yet you can probably guess whether or not the movie climaxes with one of those or with one of the many losses. With
a hee-hawing Matthew McConaughey.
