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Product Description: Football is a game that knocks you down then expects you to get back up. Life hit the West Virginia town of Huntington and its Marshall University even harder. When it did Jack Lengyel came by to help pull them onto their feet by taking the job no one wanted: rebuilding the Marshall football program only months after a plane crash wiped out Marshall's beloved Thundering Herd. Matthew McConaughey portrays Lengyel the energetic compassionate coach of inexperienced players whose chances of victory are slim and none. They'll go with the slim. And as they do their true-life story of heart healing and football will thrill and inspire you. It's game day. Time to play till the whistle blows!Running Time: 131 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569835122 Manufacturer No: 83512Amazon.com: There seems to be no end to beating-the-odds football movies these days, and if they all peak with a breathless moment of anticipation during a clutch play, then We Are Marshall, based on a true story, has plenty of (mostly good) company. Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel, who becomes head coach--more or less by default--of Marshall University's rebuilding varsity football team in Huntington, W. Va., after the school's 37-member team and coaches (and a number of others) die in a plane crash in the Appalachian Mountains on Nov. 14, 1970. Facing an indifferent college president (David Strathairn) ready to shut the football program down, a morose assistant coach (Matthew Fox), and a charged-up player (Anthony Mackie) who missed the doomed flight due to an injury, Lengyel is faced with fielding a new team and putting the players through their paces. There are the usual, perhaps too-familiar, training montages and field action, but screenwriter Jamie Linden and director McG (Charlie's Angels) also draw some very good performances from the likes of Kate Mara and Ian McShane, contributing to an emotional tapestry conveying a powerful sense of how such a sizable loss affects a small community. --Tom Keogh On the DVD
Introduced by director McG, "Legendary Coaches" (37 minutes) has real-life coach Jack Lengyel (portrayed in the film by Matthew McConaughey) recalling his time at Marshall and reading a letter he received from President Nixon. Then five championship coaches discuss their coaching philosophies and overcoming adversity: Bobby Bowden (Florida State football, and also portrayed in the film as the 1971 coach at West Virginia), Pat Summit (Tennessee women's basketball), Lute Olsen (Arizona men's basketball), George Horton (Cal State Fullerton baseball), and John Wooden (UCLA men's basketball). Also included are a current promotional spot for Marshall University and the theatrical trailer. --David Horiuchi More We Are Marshall 
Blu-ray | 
Combo HD DVD | 
Return of the Thundering Herd: The Story that Inspired "We Are Marshall" |
Customer Reviews:
- beautiful, inspiring and incredibly sad: I highly recommend watching this beautiful, inspiring and incredibly sad film about a town in West Virginia that lost its college football team and most of the coaches in a horrific plane crash and how an outsider helped them rebuild and keep the spirits of the lost players alive.
In 1970, after losing a game to an East Carolina University, the Thundering Herd boarded their chartered plane to head home. Assistant Coach Red Dawson gave up his seat so one of the team's recruiters could get home to see his granddaughter's recital. They were so close to home and I'm not really sure from watching the film why but the plane crash landed into an inferno a mile short of the runway. There were no survivors. Seventy-five people died.
Many thought that was the end of the football program at Marshall University but a union of students and townspeople convinced President Dedmon he had to give it a go at building up a team that meant so much to this small town. His first job was to find a new coach but no one wanted to take on what was really a no-win situation. Then one day he receives a call from Jack Lengyel, a strange but honest coach from an obscure town who wanted to see what he could do to help the people of Huntington heal. With the help of surviving coach Red Dawson and the remaining senior players they set about building up a team from nothing.
I would have liked to learned more about the past and replacement players. I felt the only real player we got to know was Nate Ruffin the Captain. But I understand there's only so much that can be committed to a 1 1/2 - 2 hour film. Regardless it is still highly charged with emotion and you are sure to be cheering from within: We are, Marshall!
This film is about hope, grieving, rebuilding and the unity of a town brought together by the sport of football. Notable performances include Matthew Mcconaughey as Coach Jack Lengyel, Matthew Fox as Coach Red Dawson, David Strathairn as President Dedmon, Anthony Mackie as Nate Ruffin and Kate Mara as Annie Cantrell (who also affectionately narrates). - From the ashes to the glory: and far beyond!:
November 14 1970 was a very sad day in Virginia. A fatal aerial accident took away the entire team and hard fans of this beautiful and warmth city.
So, in this messy and uninspired state of things, the slow breadth will begin to reconstruct from the ashes of the memory, piece by piece, the epic effort to give them back another team, another opportunity to exhibit with legitimate pride, the honor and the glory of these fallen gladiators.
Matthew McConaughey plays the role of the couch that will make the best he can in order to reestablish the vanished glory and the passion for winning. So the film shows us the entire different stages of this process. He will have to face the most difficult and unthinkable obstacles; the sad memories, the sorrow of having missed a beloved being, on one hand and on the other, to rescue the spirit of fight in the team.
A true lesson of life and epic resistance against the odds. I would not hesitate to label as the best sport movie after the well reminded Hoosiers.
Don't miss it!
- Touching, with some great performances and HILARIOUS costumes: We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey, Mathew Fox, and David Strathairn, is very well-done, and the story is inspiring.
At Marshall University in West Virginia, the "Thundering Herd" football team, along with a collection of boosters, parents, etc., is flying back from an away game when their plane crashes, killing the some 75 souls on board. The university and its town are crippled by the loss and want to suspend the football program at the school. However, a small number of remaining players organize a student protest to keep the game alive at Marshall.
After many fruitless phone calls, the university president (Strathairn) finds a new coach - Jack Lengyel (McConaughey). Lengyel convinces former assistant coach Red Dawson (Fox) to return, and the NCAA grants the university the right to play freshmen. Lengyel and Dawson then fill their team with new recruits and begin playing football again.
This movie is based on a true story, and I became misty-eyed more than once as I watched it. Performances are very good, and though the cast boasts several "stars," I thought the best depiction in the film was given by Anthony Mackie. Mackie plays Nate Ruffin, one of the remaining football players. Ruffin was not at the away game due to an injury. It is his determination to keep the football program going that makes it a reality. He had some wonderful scenes with McConaughey and Fox, and, in my opinion, he walked off with the movie.
Other than one scene that seemed rather pushed to me (Lengyel's speech at the graveyard where the victims of the crash are buried; I didn't buy it. I don't know if it was the writing or the delivery, but it came off as maudlin and strained.), this movie is right on target. I highly recommend. - We Are Marshall: Great Movie! It will make you cry, laugh, and go through all the emotions that the people all went through.
- We are Marshall: This is a GREAT movie. Add this to your collection of great football movies with "Brian's Song", "Rudy", "We are the Titans", "The Longest Yard", and "Radio". Make some popcorn and enjoy!
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