Murderball
By: Mark Runyon | Category: On DVD | 12/08/05 | 09:34 AM
 |  |  Grade: A- | Genre: Documentary/Sports
Summary:
Murderball is a fascinating adventure, unleashing your mind on how you think of paraplegic individuals. These men are stunning athletes possessing tremendous talents, coupled with an inextinguishable will.
When I say the word paraplegic, I would imagine a lot of people conjure up images of wheelchairs, hospitals, care nurses and a pretty limited life, constrained by their physical handicap. Even the most open minded probably wouldn't think of hard-hitting rugby players. Welcome to Murderball. This is full contact, pimp my wheelchair, no helmets, fiercely competitive action where they make the most of what they have to work with instead of pitying themselves for what they are not. This is a film pulsing with empowerment that shows the paraplegic community, and those of us that look on, a wheelchair is simply another one of life's obstacles that begs to be conquered. |
Murderball is a documentary chronicling the US Quad rugby team and its members. These aren't just a handful guys playing on the church rec league. This is serious international competition that peaks every four years with the Para-Olympics. We follow the team as they train, compete and live, leading up to the 2004 games in Sydney. It is a sport which America has dominated the landscape for the past 10 years, but the defection of one of its once great players, to coach the Canadians, has threatened its monopoly of the winner's circle.
 | | | Murderball | | Starring: Joe Soares, Mark Zupan, Keith Cavill (II), Chris Igoe, Andy Cohn | | Director: Henry-Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro |
| | View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
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The film centers on a half dozen players and the opposing Canadian coach. Mark Zupan is one of the US's strongest assets, doubling as the resident bad ass, decked out in flaming tattoos and a Billy goat beard. Joe Soares, of team Canada, is the cocky, type-A who carries the weight of his team on his shoulders. The trophies that adorn his walls measure his worth. Keith Cavill is our look at the beginning of the struggle, recently suffering a broken neck while competing in motocross. They all come to the chair from different causes with varying degrees of mobility, yet they all share a common struggle and a like need to overcome.
We're given a front row seat see to watch in intimate detail what their lives are like. The most mundane tasks that we take for granted, changing pants or undoing the Velcro on a shoe, become massive endeavors for some of these individuals. There is one player, Bob Lujano, whose arms stop at the elbows, yet he's able to drive, do household chores and function the way we all do. These guys have girlfriends and make it abundantly clear that the sub regions are still in still able to rise to attention. They jokingly say that the first thing they learn how to do in rehab is masturbate, and we even get to see a snippet of an instructional video on the creative ways sex can be performed. The mental barriers the injury places in their way seem the toughest to hurdle. We walk down the mental road that all these individuals must tread, going from coping with their new reality and relearning how to function against their limitations to finally seeing them achieve victories most mobile individuals will never know. You may be able to take away a man's legs and resign him to a chair, but you can't cage his heart.
The competitions are heart-pumping excitement. They take place in basketball gyms and are no holds barred sans protective gear. They smash into one another with gritty intensity, scarily flipping chairs over. They have specialized wheelchairs that look like some kind of back alley street mods by a guy named Snake. The battle between Canada and the United States see saws throughout the film working its way up to Sydney. When they win, they carry the world around on a keychain. When they lose, there just aren't words to capture the rain of disappointment. A documentary, by nature, can't script a compelling ending, yet this film creates ripe drama and tension in its waning moments.
Murderball is a fascinating adventure, unleashing your mind on how you think of paraplegic individuals. These men are stunning athletes possessing tremendous talents, coupled with an inextinguishable will. It is a film that is the manifestation of the phrase life is what you make of it. This is a group of individuals linked by a chair, and their desire to rise above it. Car crashes, disease, street fights were life's sick joke on them, and they have chosen to bluff their broken straight to take the jackpot. These men stand as an inspiration to all of us, opening us to the possibilities in our lives. It showcases the human spirit at its finest that we all hope to find within ourselves.
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