Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. I'd been warned in advance that the story of the 1970 Marshall University football team was one that has made grown men weep openly for more than 25 years. On a November night, the chartered jet carrying the team, coaches, fans, and prominent members of the Huntington, WV community from a game in North Carolina that afternoon crashed just short of the airport where it was meant to land, killing about 60 people. The incident didn't just shatter the university's student body; it nearly destroyed the town of Huntington, where the families of many of those killed resided. So the question of whether to bother ever rebuilding the university's football program hardly seemed important to most.

In what was deemed by many to be the ultimate act of bad taste, the university's president (David Strathairn, in full nervous twitch mode) is convinced by the team's few surviving players (most of whom were injured and never made the trip) to keep the Thundering Herd" football program alive and rebuild it in time for the following season. Eventually, the team's one surviving coach, Red Dawson (played respectfully and respectably by "Lost's" Matthew Fox) is brought back to the field after swearing he could never do it. After going through the entire list of potential head coach's, the university president receives a letter from an outsider (apparently Marshall coaches are historically alumni).

Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel enters the picture full of excitement, talking out of the side of his mouth, and sporting a hideous '70s hairstyle, temporarily erasing all his sex symbol appeal. McConaughey has simply never been this good, and it is genuinely exciting to see him actually acting again and just smiling and looking tan. He creates a complete character in his portrayal of Lengyel, a man and coach who took some getting used to. Lengyel didn't really spend much time being somber or paying tribute to the dead players and coaches. He had to literally build an entire team in less than a year. And with so many of West Virginia's finest players opting to play for the state school West Virginia University, the pickings were slim.

McConaughey is a powerhouse in this film, leaving behind the obligatory beefcake scenes and massive appeal for a character that is far quirkier and less appealing than ones he has played in the past. I think he even leaves his shirt on in this film; I could be wrong on that. His Jack Lengyel is not about mourning for the lost players; he's about piecing together a team that the old team would be proud of, one that carries on the proud traditions of football at Marshal University. It's a near impossible job, but by putting aside sentimentality for the sake of putting together a worthy team, he slowly gains the respect of the community. So many of McConaughey's hunky roles are interchangeable, but this performance stands out as a shining example of what a strong actor the guy can be when he tries. He's riveting here.

But getting the Marshall students excited about the new team was simple compared to convincing the Huntington community, some of whom cried "Too soon!" to this new team. Ian McShane plays the father of one of the dead players, and his voice of descent is the loudest when the school leaders decides to keep the football program alive. Also on hand lending supporting roles are the always great Anthony Mackie as one of the three players who didn't die in the crash; Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Lengyel's supportive wife, and January Jones as the fiancée of McShane's dead son.

The football scenes give director McG (the filmmaker behind both Charlie's Angels films) really move his camera the way we're used to seeing him, but he shows impressive restraint when he needs to in We Are Marshall. The progression of that season's football games is unique, in that you actually see the team get better with each game. Every game is a struggle and, often, it's a struggle they lose. But as it will inevitably be pointed out time and again in reviews of this film, the object of Marshall's 1971 season was not to be champions but to simply play and stay alive. The movie has unexpected emotional impact, even to those of us not normally moved by sports films. We Are Marshall doesn't always aim for the heart or the tear ducts with obvious sentimentality, but it somehow manages to hit those spots anyway. For the players and the audience, the conclusion of the season is an emotional release that feels well earned and wholly appropriate.

Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com