Every few years a sports movie comes along to uplift audiences with a great story and a powerful message, which is almost always this — work together as a team and good things will happen. It worked for Hoosiers; it worked for A League of Their Own; it worked for Miracle; now it’s working for a movie about competitive rowing. The hard-to-believe part is that most everything actually happened, and that so few people were aware of it. I certainly was not.
George Clooney’s drama shows the hardships facing America during the Great Depression, even up in America’s northwest corner, Washington. An ad for men to crew the junior varsity rowing team at University of Washington brings out dozens, hoping to land a spot and the job that goes along with it. Joe Rants (Callum Turner) works hard enough to do so, and the experience changes his life. Under coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) the junior varsity team finally coalesces so strongly that they force the coach to make a very controversial decision when it comes to qualifying for the 1936 Olympics. The rest is history.
Like Hoosiers and several other sports movies before it, it is the coach who takes center stage much of the time. We meet the nine rowers (the requisite eight plus an alternate) but only a couple of them emerge as real characters, while the dramatic focus is on Joe Rantz as he reconnects with a woman he knew from childhood, sees his absent father, dreams of becoming an engineer and works his tail off for the team. The harshness of the era is reflected in his struggles, yet people still carry on and rally around the team when it begins to win. Obstacles are overcome, both personal and societal, and the team prevails against all odds.
The story is excitingly directed by Clooney, who shows a real flair for getting us right into the boats with the men. The Hudson River race is exceptionally staged, featuring a train full of people paralleling the rowers as they pull themselves up the river. And then it’s on to Berlin, where Jesse Owens and the other Americans do their best to show Adolf Hitler how well democracy works in the arenas of sport. It’s a crowd-pleasing movie aided by an excellent Alexandre Desplat score and terrific cinematography. This movie isn’t a great one, but it is bound to become a perennial favorite. Enjoy the rush and its patriotic fervor. ☆ ☆ ☆. 5 February 2024.