It ain't about win streak. It's about the team. It's about brotherhood.

Marquis 2022-08-18 12:29:44

Today I finally had the opportunity to see this film. Since I also play rugby myself, almost no rugby film is played. I have had the positive energy of Every given Sunday, Invincible, and the warm emotions of Rudy and Blind side. Of course, there is also the joy and humor of The longest yard.
But When the Game Stands Tall gave me a completely different feeling.
The background team in the plot is a high school team that has won 151 games in a row. For comparison, the film even moved out of the New England Patriots' 21-game winning streak, especially showing the strength of this team and the coaching. Experience. But the higher you are, the harder you fall. This team lost to the nation's No. 1 high school team, ending an 11-year undefeated career.
In the practice of American sports inspirational movies, this is usually a wise coach who will stand up and lead the team back to the championship, and in the process, through arduous training and mutual support of players to provide tears and positive energy, by the way Here are some American humorous laughs. I also guessed the general plot through the synopsis before watching it. In fact, the film is indeed shot like this. The team faced various disadvantages in a difficult game and won the game. If the plot comes to an abrupt end, apart from some tedious foreshadowings and dialogues that seem to be incompatible with the main theme (the coach says that he doesn't care about the score but cares about the players), it seems that this is already a good inspirational film.
But this is not over yet, what happened after that made this movie great enough to call it great, and it will surely attract more criticism.
American football is a sport that places great emphasis on teamwork, and the players are like a family. If someone runs the ball, someone will desperately block him; if someone passes the ball, someone will be willing to screen and bait. With the increase in attention, what people pay attention to is the courage between the teammates, which becomes which player can score more yards, which player will break which records, and the so-called "winning streak" at the beginning of the movie. "superior.
At the beginning of the plot, a black guy (sorry to be blind...) missed the team’s training because he thought he "caught 38 passes and 5 picks" (38 passes and 5 picks), and in After being scolded by the captain, he said that in a team, four or five people were enough to seal the victory. At this time, the coach just watched the assistant coach's stern but not convincing reprimand because he hadn't recovered yet. This finally leads to the true tone of the film.
Ryan is the running back of the team, and his powerful rush has earned him the title of beast. Because of this, the audience, especially his father, will expect him to break the state record for touchdowns. But what they didn't discover was that unknowingly, this ambition and expectation of pursuing records made the team deviate from the original point of doing everything for the team.
That's why the coach shook his head at the players who were pursuing more winning streaks, and was disappointed at the father who was stubborn and wanted his son to break the record.
It is also because of this that there will be the final and climax kneeling scenes of the plot.
In American football, kneeling refers to the situation where the score is leading and there is not much time left. Usually the quarterback directly kneels to end this offense after receiving the ball, and uses the time of business gathering to spend the game time to ensure Victorious approach. This can avoid giving the opponent a chance to counter the board because the ball is dropped due to running the ball. It can be said to be the safest way to win.
So when Ryan chooses to kneel to end the game, it means giving up any possibility of breaking his own record to ensure his team wins the game. Sacrificing the ego to complete the team, instead of pursuing data and records, this is what this movie wants to say.
PS: The 5-star rating for this movie is not because of how perfect the movie is, but because of the affirmation of the daring to try a different inspirational film. In fact, there are a lot of extra plots in the film, so I won’t repeat them here.
PS2: In the middle of the night + writing a film review for the first time may be a bit messy and illogical, please bear with me.

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Extended Reading

When the Game Stands Tall quotes

  • Buster Matthews: Do you know why they call me Buster?

    Beaser: 'Cause you're stupid enough to let them?

  • Terry Eidson: Why don't you tackle him? This is a contact sport. You can hit someone; it's encouraged even!