DVD Review: Murderball

Mark Zupan and Joe Soares are a couple of tough, merciless sonsabitches.

Does that phrase offend you? I deliberately started this review with that sentence because I think it gives you a good idea about the kind of movie that Murderball is. I'm trying to make a point. A lot of the reviews I've read of Murderball refer to the film as inspirational, as a crowd pleaser, as a movie about reaching for your dreams. Those are all fine phrases, and they do apply to Murderball... but they bug me because they might give a casual reader the impression that Murderball is a movie like Rudy or Dreamer or The Rookie. Those are all crowd pleasing, inspirational films, too... but they're also family films, films that are fine for kids to watch, and films that don't really make the viewer uncomfortable.

Murderball is not that kind of inspirational film.

Yeah, this movie did inspire me, it did give me that feeling you get after watching Rocky... but Murderball is emphatically not a family movie. It's gritty. It's course. It's often-times downright upsetting. And, because of that, the elements of the movie that are inspiring are real life inspiring... not just that feel good movie kind of inspiring.

For starters, Murderball is a documentary. Real people, real lives, real conflict and real pain are right there on the screen. On top of that, Murderball is an R rated film and, yes, it should be an R rated film. Don't watch it with the kids assuming that this inspirational, crowd pleasing film must have gotten it's R rating by a fluke. There is some really vulgar language along the way, along with some wholly adult content that is discussed without flinching.

Murderball is about international quadriplegic rugby, and if you're like me, you didn't even know such a thing existed. Quadriplegic rugby, called Murderball by it's fans and players, is exactly what it sounds like. It's rugby played by quadriplegic men; men with serious injuries or conditions that have placed them permanently in wheelchairs.

Now don't get the wrong idea, these aren't a bunch of cheerful cripples with some kind of Halmark-card zest for life who get out there in their chairs and knock a ball around and smile and have a good time. These guys are, first and foremost, rugby players, and if you know anything about rugby, you know it's often a very violent game. Murderball isn't played in regular, run-of-the mill wheelchairs. It's played in specially designed chairs that look like something out of a Mad Max movie. It has to be played in chairs like that because the guys who play it absolutely beat the hell out of the chairs, themselves, the court, and anything that gets in the way.

That's where Mark Zupan comes in.

Murderball spotlights several members of the US Quad Rugby team, including Mark Zupan, Scott Hogsett, Kevin Orr, and others. It also focuses on Joe Soares, a former team member who is now the coach of the Canadian Quad Rugby team and a bitter rival of the US team. The movie allows the viewer to spend time with key members of the US team and Soares and his Canadian team as they prepare to compete in the Paralympics. And, guess what? The final two just happens to come down to the two bitter rivals; the Canadians and the US team.

Yes, you get to see that match-up. Yes, you get to see who wins and who loses, and, yes, you get to see the effects that the match has on the players afterwards.

Along the way, the audience also meets a young man who's only been paralyzed very recently and who's considering the possibility that Quad Rugby might be for him.

I loved this movie, not just because of it's focus on the brutality of Murderball itself, but because it really lets us get to know the people involved. We see them with their friends, their families and their loved ones. We see them in intimate settings. Joe Soares in particular comes off as absolutely fearless. Some scenes make him the villain, others make him the hero. As a whole, the movie presents him as one of the most fascinating people I've ever seen in a movie.

Viewers don't come away from the movie with one-dimensional images of these fellas. We see that their injuries and conditions really have made their lives hell, and we see that they really have been able to find the fortitude and the pure hell-bent determination to go on with their lives anyway. It ain't all pretty to watch. It is, however, one of the most real experiences you'll ever have in front of a screen.

My favorite person in the film was Zupan. This is the kind of guy who would have to be invented if he didn't exist. He's absolutely larger than life. He's a heck of an athlete, but he also comes off at times like a rock star, a superhero, a lunatic and some sort of indestructible super-soldier. There's just no other way to phrase it, Zupan absolutely rocks.

My only complaint with the film is the best kind of complaint to have. It was too short. I wanted more.

Some parents might feel comfortable letting their kids watch Murderball, others might not. You'll have to make that call for yourself. But if you're an adult, I absolutely urge you to watch this movie. Be prepared for profanity, be prepared for a few scenes that will get under your skin and stay there, and be prepared to finish the film wanting to do more with your life.



  ¶ 12:50 PM