(Amazon.com)
Co-directors:
Henry Alex Rubin
Dana Adam Shapiro
Featuring:
Keith Cavill
Andy Cohn
Scott Hogsett
Christopher Igoe
Bob Lujano
Joe Soares
Mark Zupan
ThinkFilm and MTV Films present the documentary Murderball. Based on the article by Dana Adam Shapiro. Produced by Jeffrey Mandel and Shapiro. Running time: 86 minutes. Rated R (for language and sexual content).
The movie:
Never underestimate Maxim magazine. Oh sure, the mag is notorious for featuring cover girls in little to no clothing, and pages full of adult humor. But when Dana Adam Shapiro sold the editors on the story of quadriplegic wheelchair rugby, they ran with it (no pun intended). The article would become the inspiration for the documentary Murderball, a film that chronicles some of the sport’s most competitive players.
At the forefront is Mark Zupan, probably the best player the sport has to offer today. He was paralyzed when he was 18-years-old. After celebrating with his high school varsity soccer teammates at the college hotspot Dirty Moe’s, Mark wandered out of the establishment and passed out in the bed of his best friend’s pickup truck. When Christopher Igoe was asked to leave, he drove away without knowing Mark was a passenger in back. The truck crashed, Mark was thrown into a canal, and wasn’t found for 14 hours. It took them a long time to work at their relationship, but both Mark and Christopher are friends again. Moreover, Mark acknowledges Christopher as “The Quadfather,” because he’s the one that made everything possible.
The biggest misconception with quadriplegics is that they have no mobility. “When people think quadriplegic, they think Christopher Reeve,” says Zupan. Most quadriplegics retain some degree of movement. Their level of disability is rated on a scale from 0.5 to 3.5. (0.5 being the worst, 3.5 the best.) And it is the level of limited mobility that is pertinent when deciding a rugby team. One of the rules in wheelchair rugby is that a team of four can have a total of eight points of disability on the court at once. This allows for interesting combinations.
Quad rugby originated in Canada in 1974; it wasn’t until 1984 that quadriplegics in the United States started to play the game. The phrase “Murderball” is just another name for wheelchair rugby. Still, when the uninitiated hear the term used to identify the sport, they probably think of a destruction derby with wheelchairs. That’s one impression, but quad rugby is so much more. The contest is a full-contact game played on a basketball court. Wheelchairs are suped up and reinforced to prevent injuries sustained when competitors knock their opponents to the floor. The game combines elements of basketball, football and hockey to make Murderball a game that’s 32 minutes of pure athleticism.
For four years filmmakers Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry Alex Rubin followed Mark Zupan and his teammates of Team USA during their world championship run in 2002 and the summer Paralympics in 2004. As they document the team, Shapiro and Rubin find as much tension and drama off the court as they found during the games. We meet Joe Soares, a legend in the sport for some 16 years. When he got too slow and too old for Team USA in ’96, they cut him. Of course Joe is angry, but he gets revenge by becoming the head coach for Canada. There is some bad blood between Soares and Zupan. Joe demands respect and a handshake, but Mark would rather give him the finger – figuratively speaking. He admits that if Joe were on fire on the side of road, “I wouldn’t piss on him to put it out.”
The game itself is just one side of this documentary. The heart of the story is what happens off the court, where we can see into the lives of quadriplegics. Keith Cavill, who has recently been injured in a motocross accident, is undergoing the slow process of rehabilitation. Suffering a wound like this is an uphill battle. You can either let the disability take control of your life or make the effort to do something about it. It’s an awakening, like being reborn. Where you have to train yourself to do tasks that you used to take for granted. Putting on clothes or eating or a piece of pizza.
Images where Mark Zupan and company go to Walter Reade Hospital and visit with some injured troops fresh from Iraq is saddening, because the U.S. soldiers look like they are twelve or thirteen years old. They look shell-shocked, unable to fathom what has become of them. The rugby players do their best to entertain and encourage them.
Then you have Joe Soares’ life off the court. That fire and intensity he exudes while the game is played is not an act; he behaves like that at home, as well. The relationship he has with his son Robert, who’s a sixth grader at the time, is a rocky road. Robert is not an athlete, preferring academics to sports. Joe is disappointed, but he accepts that his son is a competitor in the educational arena. Still, there are moments when Joe is mean to Robert for no apparent reason.
Anecdotes aside, the most humorous and uplifting moments are discovering everything you wanted to know about quadriplegic sex by using the limited mobility to your advantage. Team USA players Andy Cohn and Scott Hogsett both use their wheelchairs as babe magnets. Whenever they meet a woman it takes about 10 minutes for her to ask the 60,000-dollar question, “So can you have sex?” The answer is always yes (and quite well at that).
Murderball is not just one of the best documentaries this year, but it is one of the best films period. Shapiro and Rubin are objective in describing these fascinating people who drink, cavort, and cuss, from time to time. They’re guys who are just like us, only they’re sitting down.
Score: 10/10
The DVD:
VIDEO: How does it look?
(Presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
The problem shooting on-location with only natural light is that image quality will vary. Quad rugby games are rough, while daytime scenes have a washed-out look to them. Perhaps, the best video is during the Paralympic games in Athens, Greece. But we don’t have to thank Shapiro and Rubin for the great looking picture. No the credit should go to NBC who showcased the events on their networks.
Score: 6.5/10
AUDIO: How does it sound?
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 surround)
The 5.1 soundtrack does a great job at presenting the music and sound effects of the film. In surround sound you get to hear all the bone jarring hits of two wheelchairs colliding into each other. The dialogue comes from the front speakers and it is distinct to some extent; when voices are soft, burned-in subtitles show what is being said.
Score: 7/10
SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentaries and Jackass antics, what more could you want?
Even though Murderball was a critical favorite (it has a “Fresh” rating of 97% at Rotten Tomatoes), the film only made 1.7 million worldwide. Still, ThinkFilm gives us a home release with some interesting bells and whistles.
The DVD comes with two audio commentaries. The first commentary has Murderball teammates Mark Zupan, Scott Hogsett and Andy Cohn cracking jokes and musing about the making of the documentary. When Mark’s girlfriend makes an appearance in a black two-piece bikini both Scott and Andy talk about her cleavage. So, if you have ever listened to a Kevin Smith commentary with Ben Affleck, Jason Lee or Jason Mewes, then you know what to expect from these three foul-mouthed “horny” toads.
The filmmaker commentary track with producer Jeff Mandel, Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry Alex Rubin is more technical with an emphasis on how the documentary was made, and the challenges involved. One of the best reflections is when Joe Soares has a heart attack. Before arriving at the hospital, he called the filmmakers and told them to tape him inside the emergency room. This is definitely the track to listen to if you are an inspiring documentarian.
The next feature is one that I was fortunate to see during some late night channel surfing about the time the documentary had a limited release. Five of the film’s stars appear in a 40-minute episode of CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Watching this program you can definitely tell that King was ill prepared for the interview. He keeps repeating himself and from time to time tells the viewing audience that the studio has no air-conditioning. The program is pretty redundant; it’s a simple overview of wheelchair quadriplegic rugby that does little to motivate viewers to see Murderball.
A better alternative to the suspender-wearing Larry King is Murderball: Behind the Game. Half as long as the CNN interview, but more informative, this feature is like a condensed version of the film. Only instead of interviews on-location, the interviews are done in-studio and the talking head sound bites are spliced with scenes from the film and practice footage. It’s not a just simple rehashing of the stories found in Murderball. This extra gives more insight on the players and the game of quad rugby. The same can also be said for the Joe Soares Interview Update. At the end of the documentary it is revealed that Joe was fired from Team Canada. And during these ten minutes with Joe, he answers questions directly to a video camera that people have frequently asked him.
The Jackass’ Presents Murderball special is your obligatory MTV tie-in for the documentary. Yeah, you knew Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man and Chris Pontius couldn’t resist meeting Mark, Andy and Scott after seeing them in action during a special screening of the film. For 20 minutes, the six spend time at a bar enjoying nightlife shenanigans and a day of “Jackass” approved stunts for our amusement. The stunts include “The Black-Eye Game,” “Cattle-Prod Jousting,” and “Wheelchair Long Jump.” The tie-in is a little awkward, but all participants complement each other.
Six deleted scenes are included with the option to play each individually or all at once. The scenes are mostly extensions that don’t really add to the film. The best of the bunch is the food fight after Mark Zupan and his friends are selected for the Team USA prior to the summer Paralympics. Another feature that doesn’t add much to Murderball is the two-minute NY City Premiere where motocross accident victim Keith Cavill is presented with a Murderball chair. The audio is pretty bad during the scene, so be warned.
The only other extras included on the DVD are trailers for ThinkFilm releases The Aristocrats and Born into Brothels and a website link to a PSA about disabilities. Seems strange that the disc would have a website link for a PSA, especially when you consider that the filmmakers didn’t portray the quadriplegics with kid gloves.
Score: 7/10
