Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (2008)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Kevin Rafferty

Release Date:

19 November 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Sport | War

Plot Keywords:

Interview | Aristocracy | Political Activist | Yale University | Memory

US Showtimes:

(register to personalize)

Cast

Tommy Lee Jones	...	Himself
Brian Dowling	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Frank Champi	...	Himself
Vic Gatto	...	Himself
Kyle Gee	...	Himself
J.P. Goldsmith	...	Himself

Runtime:

105 min | Canada:105 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color | Color (HDCAM)

Certification:

USA:PG

Company:

Kevin Rafferty Productions

Trivia:

Ted Livingston recalls stories about his roommate, George W. Bush, as a Yale cheerleader being detained by Police for helping tear down the field goals that season after the game at Princeton.

Give This Football Film One Big Pass...........

This was about one of the most boring documentaries I can recall ever seeing. Despite being a Yale Grad during that vintage decade, I could barely muster enough interest to watch the entire film. I had hoped for more than a bunch of aging males reveling in their past football exploits. To be sure, the game was dramatic and close, quite obviously by the final score. Despite an occasional foray into other topical issues of the era, the seemingly endless mechanics recounted by team members from both sides left one wishing for more depth and intelligent commentary by those having attended such august universities. And to see one of the Yale team gloating over his attempts to injure a key player to get him out of the game only gave this viewer a sour taste in his mouth rather than any admiration for such macho antics. In addition, one of the key celebrity participants looked like he had come off a month long drunk, pitching comments like some sort of arrogant poseur. The final puzzle of the film was the title. Am I missing something? A tie is a tie. Games are all about points and you're not a winner unless you score more points than your opponent. Notwithstanding some cutesy philosophical point that the director Kevin Rafferty might be trying to make, the title seems to fall flat as any kind of sophisticated summation of the movie's content.