My sister was arguably one of the best rowers in FHC’s crew history. The 2017 varsity team was incredible, and I’d say that a big part of that was thanks to her.
However, what I’d never known until the end of her rowing career was that our grandfather, whom we’d never gotten to meet, had also been a rower in his youth.
Rowing has always stood out to me in the realm of athletics, partially because of the tether it holds to my family, but mostly because it’s just a really cool sport to watch and participate in.
So, when hearing that an incredible book about the sport—the nonfiction novel, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown—would soon be a movie, I was beyond excited.
Truthfully, I’d only read bits and pieces of the book; I could never really get into it without wanting to simply watch it. The two-hour film allowed me to do just that; it’s an immersive experience through the lens of a group of Depression-era athletes trying to make a living.
As the plot goes, it is a story of working-class college students at the University of Washington as they strive to make history—and money—through the university’s crew team.
While they practice and try out for a spot, it is made clear that only a select few can make the team. Coach Al Ulbrickson, played by Joel Edgerton, watches and decides which boys are the most fitting for the eight-man boat, and it focuses mainly on Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) and his relationship with George Pocock, played by Peter Guinness.
Pocock is the man who builds the team’s boats, and Rantz becomes close with him as he begins to assist him with the building. It’s a fascinating representation of the nuances in the specifics of the sport, and it demonstrates that amazingly.
Directed by George Clooney, the film is impeccably made, and there are numerous scenes that are so masterfully made that I would watch it over and over again just to re-experience that.
The thing that shocked me the most was the fact that the film got an insane rating of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7/10 stars on IMDb. I cannot fathom the idea that this film—having received two awards and been nominated for another—was disliked enough to put it at 58% on the Tomatometer.
Of course, I can’t speak for everybody, and I wouldn’t plan on trying to change anybody’s mind if they truly didn’t enjoy the film. That doesn’t mean, though, that I won’t question it.
The acting is incredible. The cinematography is astounding. The soundtrack, while somewhat minor in its presence, is unique and riveting.
There was nothing about this film that I didn’t love.
Even just the expressions on Edgerton, Turner, and Guinness’s faces are perfect.
I could understand disliking it if there were mistakes or if the rowing scenes were fake. Clooney made sure that it was as real as possible, and the entire cast—with no prior experience at all—had to practice for four hours every day for five months; he said, “It was really important to us that that the rowing community actually had a film that captured the thrill of what that is and the speed.”
The specificity in the film is part of what makes it so flawlessly made as there was a set goal for each rowing scene: their goal was to reach 46 strokes per minute, and they did.
Whether one likes the movie or not, it is necessary to understand the dedication put in by the cast and crew and respect the amount of time and effort devoted to this film.
