Moxie User Rating

8.0 stars out of 10 (28 votes)  -  login or register to rate this film

Synopsis

Featuring fierce rivalry, stopwatch suspense, and larger-than-life personalities, MURDERBALL, Winner of the Documentary Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for Editing at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, is a film about tough, highly competitive rugby players. Quadriplegic rugby players. Whether by car wreck, fist fight, gun shot, or rogue bacteria, these men were forced to live life sitting down. In their own version of the full-contact sport, they smash the hell out of each other in custom-made gladiator-like wheelchairs. And no, they don't wear helmets.

From the gyms of middle America to the Olympic arena in Athens, Greece, MURDERBALL tells the story of a group of world-class athletes unlike any ever shown on screen. In addition to smashing chairs, it will smash every stereotype you ever had about the disabled. It is a film about family, revenge, honor, sex (yes, they can) and the triumph of love over loss. But most of all, it is a film about standing up, even after your spirit - and your spine - has been crushed.

Film Information

• Genre: Documentary
• Director: Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro
• Starring: Keith Cavill, Joe Soares, and Mark Zupan
• Running Time: 85 minutes, approx.
• MPAA Rating: R
• Language: English
• Official Site

Reviews

"The filmmaking is as strong as the subject matter, with an elegant structure."

   - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

"This is a lively, life-affirming documentary no viewer is likely to forget."

   - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

"Murderball brilliantly captures the intensity of the little-known athletic competition, offering more intimacy and drama than most Hollywood sports movies."

   - Claudia Puig, USA Today

"It's one of the most powerful films of the year."

   - Desson Thomson, Washington Post

"This is one of those rare docs, like HOOP DREAMS, where life provides a better ending than the filmmakers could have hoped for. Also like HOOP DREAMS, it's not really a sports film; it's a film that uses sport as a way to see into lives, hopes and fears."

   - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Showtimes

• Wednesday, September 28th
  7:00 pm, 9:15 pm
• Thursday, September 29th
  7:00 pm, 9:15 pm
• Friday, September 30th
  7:00 pm, 9:15 pm, 11:15 pm
• Saturday, October 1st
  5:00 pm, 7:00 pm, 9:00 pm, 11:15 pm
• Sunday, October 2nd
  3:00 pm, 7:00 pm, 9:00 pm
• Monday, October 3rd
  4:30 pm, 9:15 pm
• Tuesday, October 4th
  4:30 pm, 9:15 pm