Murderball
Dec. 7th, 2005 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI finally saw Murderball, about the US quad rugby team. Which isn't related to non-quad rugby at all; it's closer to tackle baskeball, really. It's indoors, no scrum, the ball has to be dribbled or passed every 10 seconds, and the chairs can slam into each other. Not surprisingly, the chairs are designed somewhat differently than ones for daily use, with more tilted wheels with aluminum hubcaps, additional little wheels front and back, and seatbelts and straps to hold the user in, to avoid being tipped out of the chair when it gets knocked over. Oh, and teams have to balance the players' abilities; there's a system for rating how much function a player has, and a team can have only so much functionality on the court at a time (OK, this feels like a kludgy explanation.).
Anyway. The movie is about the team, but it's more using the progress of the team to frame a movie about successful quadraplegics in general. There are lots of different ways people ended up as they did (car accidents, fist fights, polio, blood disease, etc), but that hasn't stopped them from making a life they're happy with. Not what they would've chosen, but a good life, with work, family (for a 'sports movie,' there's a lot of talk about girlfriends and sex...), and Paralympic medals.
The description of play includes this sentence: "Both male and females are encouraged to play, and because of the classification process gender advantages don't exist." Which is great, except that all the players shown in competition play were male. And almost all the quads included in the movie were male. I don't know whether the rates of quadraplegia is greater for males, but it seems likely that there are some. I wonder how different things are for women quads.
Cool movie. Very recommended.
I just realized: Zupan reminded me a bit of FJ. Weird.
Oh, and I now know why I can never coach sports: I can't yell enough :-)
Anyway. The movie is about the team, but it's more using the progress of the team to frame a movie about successful quadraplegics in general. There are lots of different ways people ended up as they did (car accidents, fist fights, polio, blood disease, etc), but that hasn't stopped them from making a life they're happy with. Not what they would've chosen, but a good life, with work, family (for a 'sports movie,' there's a lot of talk about girlfriends and sex...), and Paralympic medals.
The description of play includes this sentence: "Both male and females are encouraged to play, and because of the classification process gender advantages don't exist." Which is great, except that all the players shown in competition play were male. And almost all the quads included in the movie were male. I don't know whether the rates of quadraplegia is greater for males, but it seems likely that there are some. I wonder how different things are for women quads.
Cool movie. Very recommended.
I just realized: Zupan reminded me a bit of FJ. Weird.
Oh, and I now know why I can never coach sports: I can't yell enough :-)
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Date: 2005-12-07 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-07 05:24 pm (UTC)