Murderball report
Murderball report
Murderball is a factual program/documentary made in 2005 and directed by Henry Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro. It follows the fierce rivalry between American and Canadian wheelchair rugby teams as they work towards the 2004 Paralympic games in Athens, Greece. Instead of having a narrator explain the athlete’s physical limitations, backstories and motives, the narrator is non-existent; instead the film consists of interviews, audio bridges, voice overs, stock footage and event coverage and montage editing. The film focuses on showing the emotions and personal experience from those who are affected by disability, and how they deal with their everyday lives. This way the message comes from a genuine place and appears to be more believable. Before going into the technical codes and conventions, and what they mean, I will quickly summaries the events that took place in the program. The program starts with a voiceover/interview, over a montage of Mark Zupan’s morning routine. It is made immediately clear that disabled and lacking the use of his legs. The film then begins to show various interviews with members of the soon-to-be-announce USA wheelchair rugby team, of which all are at different levels of disability. The sport is explained, as well as a point based system that determines that even the most disabled can play again the least disabled, as long as the numbers are balanced. The first tournament shown was in Sweden, and the Canadian – American rivalry was established – like all information, through the opinions and experience of the players, of which was presented through interviews. Rivalries between individuals are also established through subject matter and negative options, more specifically, the rivalry between Team USA and the manager of team Canada. This is due to the Canadian manager - Joe Soars - only managing their team because he wasn’t accepted into the American team, which is why many team members refer to him as a traitor. The rest of the documentary goes deep into the lives of certain individuals: how they became disabled, how they cope, their families ect. We learn from Zupan himself how he became paralyzed, and are shown a brief dramatization with him explaining exactly what happened from the scene of the accident. Joe Soares talks about his impressive career, as well as his family and his Son, whom looks up to him a great deal. There is great emphasis on how the sport helps them cope and gives them something to disprove the thought that they are no longer capable of such activities, this can be interpreted through the emotions shown towards the game, and their experiences with the disabled life before joining.
After a few hiccups, the Teams reach the semi-finals of the Paralympic games and after a dramatic game, Canada comes out on top, though they didn’t win the tournament overall. Throughout the film, Joe Soares almost seemed disappointed in his Son, mainly due to him not enjoying sports, and it almost seemed like Joe care more about his team than he did his Son, which is reinforced at the end of the film, when he rushes home only after the game is finished to see his son’s performance, though he can probably be forgiven due to the importance differential between both events.
The film is constructed/edited in chronological order because it aims at not only showing how the stars deal with their condition, but by proving it and showing their journey towards their goal. During the processes that the players go through on their way to the Paralympics, you get an exceptional idea of how their disability has affected their mentally and physically. It is clear that the director aimed at making the documentary as realistic as possible, as nothing seems fabricated. This is because the point of the film is not to make the viewer feel good when they see the American team celebrating, but it aimed to bring the players’ issues to light and help the viewer understand their struggle and how they deal with it. When discussing and introducing Mark Zupan, they moved on to the question of how he became disabled. This soon lead to a dramatization of the events that took placed, narrated using Zupan’s answers to the questions given to him. This leads them to filming Zupan talking about the accident while at the location. The use of a dramatization helps build an emotional attachment between Zupan and the viewer. This is because the viewer is given the chance to get a better description of the accident, as well as a visual one. If the viewer has this amount of information about the accident, it is easier for them to feel for Zupan, more so than if they didn’t show the dramatization.
Murderball is a factual program/documentary made in 2005 and directed by Henry Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro. It follows the fierce rivalry between American and Canadian wheelchair rugby teams as they work towards the 2004 Paralympic games in Athens, Greece. Instead of having a narrator explain the athlete’s physical limitations, backstories and motives, the narrator is non-existent; instead the film consists of interviews, audio bridges, voice overs, stock footage and event coverage and montage editing. The film focuses on showing the emotions and personal experience from those who are affected by disability, and how they deal with their everyday lives. This way the message comes from a genuine place and appears to be more believable. Before going into the technical codes and conventions, and what they mean, I will quickly summaries the events that took place in the program. The program starts with a voiceover/interview, over a montage of Mark Zupan’s morning routine. It is made immediately clear that disabled and lacking the use of his legs. The film then begins to show various interviews with members of the soon-to-be-announce USA wheelchair rugby team, of which all are at different levels of disability. The sport is explained, as well as a point based system that determines that even the most disabled can play again the least disabled, as long as the numbers are balanced. The first tournament shown was in Sweden, and the Canadian – American rivalry was established – like all information, through the opinions and experience of the players, of which was presented through interviews. Rivalries between individuals are also established through subject matter and negative options, more specifically, the rivalry between Team USA and the manager of team Canada. This is due to the Canadian manager - Joe Soars - only managing their team because he wasn’t accepted into the American team, which is why many team members refer to him as a traitor. The rest of the documentary goes deep into the lives of certain individuals: how they became disabled, how they cope, their families ect. We learn from Zupan himself how he became paralyzed, and are shown a brief dramatization with him explaining exactly what happened from the scene of the accident. Joe Soares talks about his impressive career, as well as his family and his Son, whom looks up to him a great deal. There is great emphasis on how the sport helps them cope and gives them something to disprove the thought that they are no longer capable of such activities, this can be interpreted through the emotions shown towards the game, and their experiences with the disabled life before joining.
After a few hiccups, the Teams reach the semi-finals of the Paralympic games and after a dramatic game, Canada comes out on top, though they didn’t win the tournament overall. Throughout the film, Joe Soares almost seemed disappointed in his Son, mainly due to him not enjoying sports, and it almost seemed like Joe care more about his team than he did his Son, which is reinforced at the end of the film, when he rushes home only after the game is finished to see his son’s performance, though he can probably be forgiven due to the importance differential between both events.
The film is constructed/edited in chronological order because it aims at not only showing how the stars deal with their condition, but by proving it and showing their journey towards their goal. During the processes that the players go through on their way to the Paralympics, you get an exceptional idea of how their disability has affected their mentally and physically. It is clear that the director aimed at making the documentary as realistic as possible, as nothing seems fabricated. This is because the point of the film is not to make the viewer feel good when they see the American team celebrating, but it aimed to bring the players’ issues to light and help the viewer understand their struggle and how they deal with it. When discussing and introducing Mark Zupan, they moved on to the question of how he became disabled. This soon lead to a dramatization of the events that took placed, narrated using Zupan’s answers to the questions given to him. This leads them to filming Zupan talking about the accident while at the location. The use of a dramatization helps build an emotional attachment between Zupan and the viewer. This is because the viewer is given the chance to get a better description of the accident, as well as a visual one. If the viewer has this amount of information about the accident, it is easier for them to feel for Zupan, more so than if they didn’t show the dramatization.