As a director, George Clooney has consistently been fascinated with relatively obscure chapters of American history. His latest film, an adaptation of New York Times best-seller The Boys in the Boat, is a continuation of an ongoing partnership with Amazon Studios, and examines a lesser-known detail of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
โWhen you think about the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the big story was Jesse Owens, you know? But thatโs been committed to cinema before and wonderfully,โ Australiaโs own Joel Edgerton, who portrays legendary rowing coach Al Ulbrickson, recently explained to BH.
โIโd never heard of the story of Joe Rantz and the boys, and when I did hear about it, I was like, โOhโฆ why have you never heard this? There are so many great sporting stories that when you hear them, youโre like, โOh, thatโd obviously make a great film.'โ
RELATED: Hold The Phone โ George Clooney Provides An Exciting Update On โOceanโs 14โ
The underdog tale recounts the moment the aforementioned Joe Rantz (portrayed by Callum Turner) and the University of Washingtonโs working-class junior rowing crew toppled the nationโs blue-blooded hegemony on the sport; eventually finding themselves at the highest possible stage racing against the worldโs elite backed by nothing more than pure merit.
Certainly not bad for a bunch of blokes who only began competing just for shelter and three square meals a day at a time when neither was abundant (against the backdrop of the Great Depression).
Edgerton continues: โIf youโre a rower, The Boys in the Boat is a big touchstone book and story. Itโs just one of those thingsโฆ I think the fact that the final race is the finals at the Olympics in front of Hitler kind of makes you go, โOh, yeah.โ I mean, as George [Clooney] said, โWho doesnโt like a movie where someone puts Hitler in his place?'โ
โThatโs one of the interesting things about Joe Rantz and a few of the boys โ their life plan wasnโt to become successful rowers. Their life plan was just to eat food and have a roof over their head and not die of poverty.โ
โAnd the means, to that end, joining this rowing team; if you could do that and get a boarding house to live in, and then I think thereโs sort of this nothing-to-lose aspect to them keeping their place in the boat.โ
While at times, you feel as though youโve seen this story being played out a million times before, there are moments when you canโt help but feel uplifted by the triumph of the human spirit; and even feel swept up in the old-fashioned can-do attitude.
โThey were just so formidable and built for it that they found themselves going on this very long journey of various victories, sort of defying the odds.โ
โThereโs something cool about it. Whatโs strange about it as a sports movie too is that itโs not about so much winning and losing. Itโs about the fact that every step of the way they were expected to fail, to not win, and to fail, and they just kept doing it,โ added Joel Edgerton.
RELATED: Steph Curry Open To โThe Last Danceโ-Style Warriors Documentary
โItโs there to be related to, for anyone who feels like theyโve got the odds stacked against them and anythingโฆ We all like to see people who donโt have much defy the odds.โ
โItโs always been associated with more blue-blooded schools, for whatever reason, there are certain sports that you feel like theyโre meant for a certain sphere of society and everyone else can just watch them if theyโre lucky.โ
โSo the idea that this wasnโt really a rowing school, I mean, they had a rowing program, but they werenโtโฆ they were ever meant to be winners. It makes you sort of get behind them, you know?โ
The Boys in the Boat is now screening in Aussie cinemas.
Also Read:
