Rating of
3/4
patjohnson76 - wrote on 12/16/08
I don't know if this is going to get a national release, I was able to see it since I live in Boston and it may just be a local documentary, but this is an enjoyable watch about the famous Harvard-Yale football game of 1968. For those of you who aren't aware, Harvard scored 16 points in the final minute to tie the game. This was before overtime in college football, so the outcome remained a tie, but given how Harvard performed at the end of the game, many felt Harvard "won."
You basically watch most of the game here, and get small doses of conversation from some of the remaining players (which included actor Tommy Lee Jones, who was a guard for Harvard at the time). You also learn some interesting tidbits, such as Jones had Al Gore as a roommate. A Yale player dated Meryl Streep.
The documentary is directed by a Kevin Rafferty, a Harvard alum, and it shows at times, particularly when he takes great delight in getting a quote from a Yale player on a certain play, then shows us how the Yale player is incorrect. He also plays up Harvard as this huge underdog, and though Yale was undefeated, ranked and favored in this game, he quickly points out that Harvard was also undefeated. Plus, any college football fan knows that when it comes to rivalry games, you can basically throw the records and rankings out the window.
But other than that, it's pretty enjoyable. There's some funny lines from the former players, all of whom are now much older, and a little crankier.
