George Clooney Celebrates THE BOYS IN THE BOAT’s ‘Beautiful Story’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Academy Award winner George Clooney and actor Joel Edgerton recently talked with Movieguide® about THE BOYS IN THE BOAT’s wholesome story and focus on the underdog.
“We felt like it was a really exciting story to talk about how these guys had to get together and had to work together,” Clooney began. “I’ve done a lot of cynical films in my life, including BATMAN AND ROBIN, which was a classic, but I just felt like this was a different version. This is a Christmas film, not that it has anything to do with Christmas, but it has a feeling of like people sitting around on Christmas day and going out and watching a film.”
“ THE BOYS IN THE BOAT is a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction novel written by Daniel James Brown. The film, directed by George Clooney, is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world,” a summary of the film reads.
“I have a big theory that we all…deep down think we’re underdogs,” added Joel Edgerton, who plays Coach Al Ulbrickson. “You know everything we face in life, in work and relationships and finance, and that we’re all facing a looming obstacle and that we’re not worthy, and I think that’s why we love an underdog story.”
“These kids rowed not because they were a legacy, but because they wanted to eat. Just for food,” Clooney stated, per ABC. “The major theme was, ‘We gotta do things together. We need to be together.’ We’re better all of us together.”
While rowing itself is exciting, Clooney also wanted viewers to care about the characters.
“It [rowing] is exciting, but showing it in the cinemas, it has to look that way, but what was really important is you had to care about the characters,” he admitted. “These guys are really lovable, and the love story you know in real life, they were married for 65 years or something insane like that. So, it’s a beautiful story, and they were just classic, sort of old-fashioned sports films that I loved growing up.”
Movieguide®’s review for THE BOYS IN THE BOAT reads,
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT is based on a book about the inspiring real-life University of Washington’s rowing team during the great depression. The movie specifically focuses on the lives of Joe Rantz, who has been on his own since a child. Joe needs a job to survive and stay at college, and tries for the rowing team as it promises room, board and a scholarship. When Joe makes it on the team, he is excited and determined to stay on the team and work hard. Joe is able to overcome his circumstances and bring honor to his name, his country and his team.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT is very entertaining, well-acted and well-made. It tells an inspiring, patriotic, uplifting true story with some strong biblical, moral, redemptive, and patriotic themes.
The main character in the movie has to learn to give up his pride and work as a teammate. The movie is extremely refreshing as it has a relationship with a man and woman that is wholesome. However, THE BOYS IN THE BOAT has some gratuitous foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.
Check out Movieguide®’s full THE BOYS IN THE BOAT interview below:
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