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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | A film about tough highly competitive athletes: quadriplegic rugby players. Whether by car wreck fist fight or gun shot these men were forced to live life sitting down. This is a film about family honor sex & the triumph of love over loss: about standing up even after your spirit-& your spine-has been crushed Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 09/04/2007 Run time: 86 minutes Rating: R | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Actors: | Joe Soares, Keith Cavill, Mark Zupan, Joe Bishop, Andy Cohn | | Director: | Dana Adam Shapiro | | Format: | Color, DVD-Video, NTSC | | Language: | English | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Studio: | Velocity / Thinkfilm | | Run Time: | 88 minutes | | DVD Release Date: | November 29, 2005 | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 66 reviews |
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3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 A documentary without the fluff Sep 29, 2008
Most documentaries or movies with the handicapped that I have seen fall into one of two categories: 1) Complete fluff where everyone is sympathetic and incredibly inspiring, or 2) Patronizing. Murderball follows neither lead, and comes up completely humanistic and original.
Essentially it's the story of the US Olympic Wheelchair Rugby team, and their quest to win the gold. Among their rivals is their most hated enemy: the Canadians. Within this setup, we see happiness and elation, as well as agony, embarrassment, and frustration. As if he were cast for the role of confrontational antagonist, the Canadian team is led by Joe Soares, a foul-mouthed former pioneer and legend of US Wheelchair Rugby who many consider a traitor. He didn't make the US team on his last try-out and he's vulgarly, bitterly protested ever since. His counterpart is the US superstar Mark Zuban, a somewhat brash player who typifies the younger, aggressive generation, but still manages to become the face of quad-rugby, inspiring others through seminars and discussions.
Given that the documentary is named Murderball, I expected much more action and many more brutal hits from the armored wheelchairs that are used during competition. There isn't nearly enough focus given to the sport itself. Instead, the drama surrounding personal lives was the true focus, a borderline voyeuristic look into the players' lives. There were no corners cut, nor were there falsehoods. Those who are quadriplegic can find love and happiness, and will almost inevitably face further life difficulties. What struck me was the balance between positive traits and negative flaws, where one can be humble yet heroic, and another could be internally frail yet outwardly, defiantly strong.
It's a great character study and very compelling. It achieves its purpose: showing that the quad rugby players are just like us "normal" people. I highly recommend it.
 A FIlm Not Good At Apologizing! Jul 11, 2008
When you think of quad rugby (rugby played by quadrapolegics) what do you think of? What I thought of was a bunch of disabled guys getting together to throw the ball around for no other reason but that they wouldn't feel sorry for themselves. (It is hard to admit, but that is the vision I had.)
This film - Murderball, which is the original name of "quad rugby" - is a mind-changer. And unlike other films portraying people with disabilities, this film does an excellent job in not apologizing for its subject. What do I mean? With many films and shows about people with disabilities, we are supposed to either feel sorry for their subjects, feel sorry that we are feeling sorry for our subjects, or watch a film that "politely" deals with the subjects' disabilities.
This film is no good at apologizing and certainly is not polite. It centers around the American and Canadian quad rugby teams as they prepare for the 2004 Athens olympics, and we meet a bunch of guys who, quite frankly, would kick your a** were you to pat them on the head (as we often subconsciously do to wheelchair inhabitants). (One character says, at the beginning, "What, you won't hit a guy in a chair? Hit me. I'll hit you back.")
We watch the teams - particularly the American team - train for the Olympics. In so doing, we get to peer into their personal lives: they talk about how they became quadrapolegics, how they got turned on to rugby, and even - cough - frank discussion about how they have sex (I told you this was not a typical polite "disability" film). We see perfections, imperfections, and real, real life.
The film is quite captivating in that we are (a) learning about a sport most of us have never watched or thought we'd watch; (b) learning about people who we've always been interested in but never asked about; and (c) are following an adventure story to see if the always-dominant American team can retain their dominance against a very-hungry Candadian team. All three of these factors are equally integrated into the film and one never feels like the film is subsumed by any one of them. Guys. Sports. Paralysis. An interesting triangle, but one which works here.
See the film. I guarantee that you will think of see quad rugby - I'm sorry, murderball - in the same way again.
I'm gonna murder you with my ball Jul 09, 2008
I watched this on my cable's On Demand because of the scene at the end of Knocked Up where the fat kid from Superbad and Scorcese on coke are in wheelchairs. Honestly, I thought I would like it and kill an hour and a half all at the same, but was expecting it to be a celebration of America's love of all things "extreme." I expected it to be 11 on a nu metal scale of 1-10, which still left room for unintentional funny. But I was surprised by the realness and heart the film Murderball has. I honestly could describe it as touching. Touching.
Balls out Jun 25, 2008
This was the best documentary I've ever seen. i have seen many sports films and this is at the top of my list. The whole USA vs Canada spin really makes the whole thing exciting. It also opens up your eyes to such an interesting sport that nobody realizes these people dedicate their lives to just like anything else.
DON'T LET THE TITLE THROW YOU May 05, 2008
Great, great, great. I learned the true definition of "quadraplegic". These guys are not into any "pity party". The MurderBall name comes from the fact that they go all out on the court; trying to win. This film is entertaining,first of all. If you want it to be inspiring and/or educational it can be that also. Highly recommend for any and everyone.
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