Warner Bros.
Based on the book written by Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat is the underdog story of the 1936 US Olympic men’s 8 rowing team. George Clooney (The Oceans movies) directs this based on a true event story with love, respect, and a heaping dose of nostalgia.
Set during the Great Depression, the film centers on Joe Rantz, a young man abandoned by his family to make his way in the world.
As a poor college student living out of his car, he is looking for a way to pay the rest of his tuition at Washington University. He hears about the rowing team. If he makes the team, room and board plus a job to help with his tuition are secured. Joe makes the junior varsity team and finds a home with 8 other young men who have overcome similar circumstances to make it to college and on the team.
Under the guidance of their stern, paternalistic coach, and through their determination and care for each other, the team makes for a bid at the more than infamous ’36 Olympics held in Nazi Germany.
I knew nothing about rowing before this film.
After seeing The Boys in the Boat, I went down several rabbit holes about how the film was made and rowing itself.
The filmmakers wanted to be true to the sport of rowing—their dedication shows.
I read more than a few articles by the rowing community who commented on the accurate details of the sport woven into the film. The actors trained for months with a former Olympic rowing coach to become not only actual rowers but a team. The actors continued to train and row even after a day of shooting had wrapped. Clooney shot the film’s racing scenes sequentially so that the actors’ skill sets mirrored the development of the men depicted in the film.
The way the story progresses you don’t just get to know the men who became championship rowers, you get an introduction to the sport.
The camera work during the races and on the water is excellent. You feel as if you are at the race. I felt myself engrossed in the race sequences. Body tense, mentally urging the rowers to speed up, and push harder. It’s a mark of good visual storytelling when you can make the viewers experience the excitement and hold their breath, even when they know the outcome.
The ensemble cast makes for a good team. They play well off each other. While we mainly follow Joe Rantz played subtly by Callum Turner (Masters of the Air), it’s his support characters that stood out to me. Joel Edgerton (Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Thirteen Lives) brings his best hard man with a soft heart in full force as Coach Ulbrickson. He has perfected the gruff but caring stoic coach, which is the perfect foil to James Wolk’s (Mad Men) more affable Coach Bolles.
I was delighted to find Peter McGuinness (Chernobyl), a character actor with a filmography full of sinister villains, given the opportunity to play the chewy, moral center of the film. Cast as legendary boat builder George Pocock. McGuinness gets a chance to play the benevolent, wise older man.
Who coaches the Coach?
Pocock does, bestowing wisdom gained from a lifetime of boats and rowing on both the coaches and Joe Rantz.
Clooney isn’t just telling the story of the WU’s rowing team. He is serving up a version of America and the American spirit through a tinted lens, cherry-picking moments to hold up as an example to aspire to.
The American dream of if you want it enough, work hard enough and do things the honorable way, you’ll win in the end.
The Boys in the Boat has a feel and cadence that reminds me of other underdog films like The Secretariat and Miracle. It is a beautifully wrapped, easy-to-digest package of inspiration.
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