This Guest Movie Review was done by San Diego nurse Kathleen Dunn. We originally got it as a private email after she had seen the film and also read various reviews. We loved what she had to say and asked her if we could post it on our site.
“MURDERBALL” Now Showing at a Theater Near You: You may have already heard about “Murderball”, a gritty, uncompromising documentary (86 minutes) from Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry Alex Rubin. “Murderball” was the acclaimed Audience Choice Documentary Award winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The film follows the lives of the United States Paralympic Murderball Team over two Olympiads (2000 and 2004).
Murderball, better known now as quad rugby, is an action-packed exciting sport played by people with quadriplegic level spinal cord injuries. Rated “R” for language and sexual content, it follows a team of determined individuals for whom sport is everything. They live hard, train hard, talk trash, and love to party !!!! While the members of the U.S. team do not represent themselves as heroic or special, they become exactly that as the movie unfolds. At one point, one of the principals describes “Murderball” as a sport where “the objective is to kill the guy with the ball.”
If you are a fan of sports, and enjoy documentary films, you should check out “Murderball.”
If you are interested in the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, you should see “Murderball”.
While this group of guys would never sit still as poster boys for the ADA, it is fitting that their film, whose message includes the fact that physical limitations are no match for determination, debuts during the 15 year celebration of that landmark legislation.
Word of mouth is what will make this movie a success. It has disappointing opening box offices in LA and NYC, but has the potential to become the underground hit (like “Sideways” in 2004) of the 2005 movie year. Only increased attendance and good box office, as well as demand by customers will get this film a wider distribution. It is either already open or opening this weekend across the USA.
For more information and to find a theater near you showing this film, check out their exciting and informative website:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.