The protagonist of this We Are Marshall is the rugby team of Marshall University, playing against Eagles, and Eagles is the protagonist team of another rugby movie I watched, Invincible.
The Marshalle team is located in Huntington, West Virginia. Statistics show that the population here was only 50,000 in 2000.
The actor in the other movie I watched, The Express, played in Elmira. The data showed that Elmira had only 30,000 people in 2000.
The protagonist in the documentary Undefeated is a middle school football team called Manassas High School. The school is full of black students. Almost all relatives in the family can find out who have taken drugs and have been in jail. Under such circumstances, there is still a well-organized, well-equipped, genuine team playing games with various schools.
Therefore, I am particularly impressed by the popularity and enthusiasm of rugby in the United States. Even in cities with tens of thousands of people, there are still dozens of teams, professional coaching teams, diehard fans, and gossip media. Zhihu has a professional analysis of why rugby is so popular in the United States, from the commercial level, institutional structure, and spiritual combination.
Another feeling is that the modern history of the American movement is also the history of black people's efforts to strive for, to emerge and become popular all over the world. From the beginning of the all-white sports; later, a few clubs were cautiously hiring one or two black people, and the black people endured various unequal treatment and intimidation; until now, almost all the popular sports in the United States (NFL, MBL, NBA, etc.) are the most popular. An important force.
There is a very interesting conversation in The Longest Yard. The black prisoner said to the white prisoner: You white people have depression at every turn. I really don’t know what depression you have. You are white! (Meaning all kinds of respect, benefits, opportunities)
At the same time, when you watch these films, you will also be very surprised at the living conditions of black Americans. As a relatively democratic, rich, and well-protected country, the black area is so barren, chaotic, lacking in education and order. Growing up in a black area is not like growing up in a poor mountainous area in China, because in the black area you will be affected by a very bad environment, and almost to a large extent will become a gangster or part of a gang. Children in some underdeveloped areas in China, if they study hard, the relatively simple environment can still make up for them.
Hollywood and the media have deeply connected football with American faith/spirit, which is scary (in the eyes of the beholder) and necessary (for the ruler).
Not only China loves dreaming, at least it seems from American movies that this is a country that loves dreaming very much, but they are better at it.
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