Murderball
Composite Score: 84.9
Featuring: Joe Soares, Keith Cavill, Mark Zupan, Robert Soares, Christopher Igoe, Jessica Wampler, Jeff Nickell, Frank Cava, Scott Hogsett, Bob Lujano, and Andy Cohn
Directors: Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro
Writer: Dana Adam Shapiro
Genres: Documentary, Sport
MPAA Rating: R for language and sexual content
Box Office: $1.75 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Murderball is the sports documentary from Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro about wheelchair rugby and the American national team’s preparation for and participation in the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games. The film follows three main stories – that of the team, focusing on players Mark Zupan, Bob Lujano, Scott Hogsett, and Andy Cohn, that of former team USA player Joe Soares, now the coach for team Canada, and that of recently paralyzed biker Keith Cavill as he comes to terms with his new reality. The film excellently weaves the stories together into one complete tapestry of sports, redemption, rivalry, and hope, earning itself an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature in the process. It is an undeniably solid sports doc, with more to say and do than just inflating the characters that it features.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Murderball features real people in some very difficult situations, and the ways that they respond are not always the most socially acceptable, which ends up speaking volumes to the film’s ability to endear these flawed people to the audience despite aggressively abrasive personalities for the most part, in addition to womanizing and a brief scene of the use of r-slurs. Is the film predominantly triumphant and celebratory of the obstacles that its central figures have overcome? Certainly, but it borders on glossing over some rather troubling aspects as well. Joe’s treatment of his son ends up being a central focus of his story that feels for quite some time like it’s trying to excuse or even celebrate the hardened disciplinarian style of parenting that Joe adheres to (because his cop dad did even worse when he was a kid). That issue does end up resolved by the end but maybe not in satisfying fashion to someone who may have suffered such borderline abuse from parents growing up. The tough-guy act of so many of the men in the film feels like the more problematic aspect, as the film highlights their “locker room” talk and dismissal of the Special Olympics as seeming examples of them being just “normal” dudes. While it’s good that they seem well adjusted to their new realities, celebrating objectification of women and calling people with mental handicaps slurs as “normal” feels incredibly dated (and definitely tracks with this being an MTV documentary from 2005).
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Where it counts, Murderball feels like a celebration of what makes sports documentaries so great and why they continue to succeed. It taps into that blend of competition, feel-good, and emotionality incredibly well. Combine that with a marginalized group at its center and a fairly easy to follow sport, and you get this highly celebrated documentary. The competition and rivalry that builds between team Canada and team USA and between the players and coaches, all highlighted by Joe Soares’s “defection” from team USA after losing his spot as a player, keeps you hooked basically from the jump. The backstories of Soares and Zupan offer this feel-good comeback story of men learning to process life in healthier ways than they have – Soares by connecting with his unathletic son and Zupan by reconciling with the friend responsible for his condition. To cap it all off, you have the external tale of Keith Cavill learning to live a new life with different modes of mobility that finally crosses over with the main story when Zupan visits his hospital to talk to the patients about his sport and you see this renewed zeal in Cavill and hope for his future. It’s a film that packs a satisfactory punch at all levels – sport, emotion, friendship, and even some moments of comedy – and that’s what makes it so great.
Taking the elements of a good sports documentary and compiling them to form a moving film about resilience, humanity, disability, and, yes, sports is how the filmmakers turned Murderball into an all-time great documentary. Some of its central players might not check all the boxes of admirable human beings (at least in modern society), but their ability to overcome challenges and their story of sports and teamwork keep it engaging and enjoyable. It is currently available to stream on Peacock and most free streaming services with ads if you’re looking to watch it soon.
