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SOUTH BEND, Ind. Although the film won’t arrive in theaters until next month, “We Are Marshall” already has earned raves from the reviewers who matter most to the movie’s creators. “I just think it was a brilliant, brilliant job,” former Marshall football coach Jack Lengyel said Tuesday night after watching a preview screening at the College Football Hall of Fame. “(It’s) one of the finest pieces of film that I’ve seen, that I know something about. I want to thank them personally for the great job they did.” The movie, which opens nationwide on Dec. 22, details how Lengyel and the rest of the Marshall community responded to one of the worst disasters in U.S. sports history. Marshall’s football team was returning to campus after a game at East Carolina on Nov. 14, 1970, when a plane crash killed all 75 people aboard. Lengyel took over the football program the following year. Marshall went on to win its 1971 home opener with a roster that primarily included walk-ons, members of the 1970 freshman team and returning players who didn’t make the trip to East Carolina. “It’s a movie that’s time has come,” said Lengyel, who worked as a consultant on the film. The movie opens nationwide Dec. 22. Matthew McConaughey stars as Lengyel and headlines a cast that also includes Matthew Fox as assistant coach Red Dawson and Academy Award nominee David Strathairn as Marshall President Donald Dedmon. Lengyel attended the preview screening along with Marshall University President Stephen Kopp, Athletic Director Bob Marcum and many other people with ties to the school. The event coincided with the 36th anniversary of the crash. The College Football Hall of Fame also unveiled an exhibit that features props from the film, photos of the 1970 team and various other Marshall-related memorabilia, including gear worn by former Thundering Herd stars Randy Moss and Byron Leftwich. “I think Marshall University will be a household name across the land and all across the world as this film takes hold of people and tells this story,” Kopp said. Enthusiasm has replaced the skepticism that once surrounded the idea of a film about this sensitive subject. McG, the director of the film, remembers the feedback he received in the early stages of developing the movie. “People would come up to me who were a little wary of Hollywood and would say, ‘Hey, I lost my parents in this crash. Are you going to tell this story fairly?’ ” McG said. Reggie Oliver, the quarterback of the 1971 team, had similar questions early in the process. He congratulated the filmmakers after watching the preview screening. “They did what they told me they would do when I was first contacted,” Oliver said. “I asked them to be true to the story and not commercialize us.” Lengyel and Oliver credited the filmmakers for generally staying true to the story. The one major exception involves the final play of Marshall’s 1971 home opener. In reality, the game ended with Oliver running a bootleg screen. In the movie, Oliver throws directly into the end zone, and flashbacks to previous scenes flicker across the screen while viewers wait to see if the pass is caught. “We were concerned about the fact the authenticity was not there on that last play,” Lengyel said. “But I would have to say at this particular point, allowing that license to create that expectation with flashbacks, I concede. They are right. It really worked out well.” Lengyel also appreciated how the filmmakers accurately reflected the environment surrounding the Marshall campus and the entire Huntington, W. Va., community in the aftermath of the crash. McG said he made three separate trips to Huntington before starting the filmmaking process because he wanted to get a feel for the area. “I wanted to go to the crash site, sit by myself and literally breathe in the essence of the community,” McG said. Lengyel remembered how every day he showed up on set, he’d see another cast or crew member wearing a Marshall cap or shirt. By the time they left town, Lengyel said, they had made themselves part of the community. He believes Huntington residents and Marshall fans will appreciate the results. “I think it will be a big healing process for a lot of people involved,” Lengyel said. In some respects, the healing already has begun. Surviving family members of crash victims reunited and gathered around a campus memorial in conjunction with the filming of this movie. A picture of that scene plays alongside the closing credits. “The turnout was incredible,” Kopp said. “The reunions are very incredible and emotional. It literally has brought people back together. Many families and survivors left Huntington and never came back. You can understand why. But that’s changed.” Courtesy of Steve Megargee - Rivals.com College Football Staff Writer |
Then I can watch it as many times as I want!!! 
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