Customer Reviews

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was in high school in 1968 and remember the game and its legend well. My wife knew nothing of the game. We both loved the movie. Rafferty skillfully weaves interviews with players with footage of the game and narration in an insightful and entertaining fashion. He also has a remarkably wry sense of humor. It's not a comedy but I found the audience erupting into laughter more often than at most mainstream comedies.
I saw it at a movie theater but I think it should be great on DVD at home.

I know very little about football. My girlfriend knows even less. Yet we were both captivated and delighted by this film.

Aside from getting caught up in the unfolding action of a football game that is more incredible than any fictionalized game I've seen, we really enjoyed the experience of the 60's that the film evoked through the stories told by the players. These are the most thoughtful, witty football players imaginable, and they drew us in with their frankness, insights, humor, and the reflectiveness that the 40 years of life-experience since the game have given them.

No matter who speaks in the movie, whether it's the guy who keeps wanting to hurt people to get them out of the game, the "aloof," introspective second string quarterback who can throw the ball 50 yards with either hand, Tommy Lee Jones, who was roommates with Al Gore and is about to hang up his helmet for good and move to Hollywood, or the Jewish player whose father tells him to play on the Sabbath, all the personal stories are beautifully edited together by the filmmaker to make an engrossing tale that's as much about interesting people living through a dramatic time as it is about a football game.

I think this film will continue to be around for a long time to come.

This documentary film about a 1968 football game between rivals Harvard and Yale is great fun and also opens a little window on "The Sixties" (which really went from around 1965 to 1974 as one of the players points out). Filmmaker Kevin Rafferty (The Atomic Cafe (Collector's Edition)) tracked down Harvard and Yale players some four decades after the game and skillfully mixes game footage with the player interviews. The result is 73 captivating minutes of sports, social commentary, and even celebrity watching.

How is a tie a win? Both teams were unbeaten going into the final game of the year, but Yale had future Dallas Cowboy star Calvin Hill and a number 16 ranking in the polls (Yale? 16th in the land?!). Yale goes out to a big lead and has the game well in hand until odd things begin to happen. Still down 29-13 with a minute to play, Harvard manages to score two touchdowns plus two two-point conversions in the final 42 seconds to "win" the game, 29-29. (Harvard was aided by Yale's astonishing lack of an onside kick return play that helped Harvard regain possession of the ball and begin its final drive.)

Football aside, the film features Tommie Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men), then an all-conference lineman for Harvard and Al Gore's roommate! Yale's QB, Brian Dowling was the inspiration for Doonesbury's B.D. And George W. Bush gets a mention for hanging from the goal posts in a state of inebriation after an earlier Yale win at Princeton. Another player (now bald on top and thick in the middle) was dating a shy and reserved Meryl Streep. The Vietnam War always in the background and sometimes took center stage - at least at Harvard. At least one player was a vet who had survived Khe Sanh while another was a member of the SDS. Casual sex had been discovered with the invention of the Pill - every date offered at least a possibility of 'going all the way'.

What really makes the film, however, is the fact that several of these former players are very good story tellers, whether it is the deft humor and witty insight of J.P. Goldsmith or the scary honesty of linebacker Mike Bouscaren, who candidly admits he attempted to injure the Harvard QB, but only got a well-deserved personal foul. (Oddly, he also asserted with absolute certitude that he had knocked a Harvard running back out of the game by using his helmet as a weapon and spearing the player's ankle. The game film clearly shows Bouscaren is nowhere near the action when that player is injured. Bouscaren had created his own false memory!) Compelling times, good stories well-told, and a wild game on the gridiron make for a highly entertaining an stimulating film.

Kevin Rafferty has done a masterful job in recreating the last time ever that Harvard and Yale played "The Game" to a tie in 1968. (Overtime now ensures that there will be no more ties.) The film consists entirely of three elements: (1) footage from the television broadcast, (2) interviews with the players, and (3) minimal graphics to tie the story together. Just the players - no coaches, no officials, no people in the stands, no commentariat. Of course, this is being recalled forty years after the fact, and some memories don't entirely jive with those of others or with the television clips. Watching the hour-plus of outtake interviews gives an even fuller picture, while making one grateful that Rafferty was judicious in his final cut. Probably best not to watch both the film and the bonus in one sitting.

If you think the only football games worthy of attention are professional and BCS caliber teams, you won't be interested in this movie. If you have nothing but antipathy (or worse) for the Ivy League, don't bother. If you are interested in a historical re-creation of an event that profoundly affected 40+ men who were coming of age in a time of considerable outside stress (the military draft at the height of the Vietnam war) and hearing their reactions to something that happened two-thirds of their lives ago, you could do a lot worse. If you're a Doonesbury fan from way back, you will also find it of interest.

The answer to the question why Calvin Hill was not featured more is that he declined to talk to Rafferty.

I loved this documentary as I was fortunate to be at the game thanks to an elderly alum who gave me his 50 yard line 4th row seats. I thought it was well done and captured the feeling of the time and context. I think it is a great sports documentary.

It's November 23, 1968 and, for the first time since 1909 Harvard and Yale are meeting in the last game of the season and both teams are undefeated. Yale is ranked 16th in the nation and is heavily favored. The title of the film gives away the ending but doesn't tell you or show you the improbable, almost impossible, ending to this game. If this was Michigan & Ohio State it would have been the game of the century. For the most part, except for Calvin Hill and Tommy Lee Jones, there are no household names in either lineup. But it's more than just a game, it's Harvard & Yale, the elite of the elite, and it's 1968 and the Vietnam War is at its height and the country has had two more assassinations with MLK & RFK. As exciting as the game was, the film is also a commentary on our country, particularly what was going on in the colleges & universities. The documentary is the game footage interspersed (sometimes in the middle of the play to create suspense) with commentary from the actual players involved in that play. As you might expect, the players are articulate and intelligent. You get a lot more than just comments on the game. Do you want to hear one opinion on why the sexual revolution was going on? Do you want to know what it was like to date Meryl Streep and what was she like as a college co-ed? How about who roomed with Al Gore and George W. Bush and the pranks they were involved in? What of a former decorated Marine just back from Vietnam and what it was like to confront war protestors in front of every classroom building and play on the same team with players who protested and participated in SDS. While I agree that mostly real football fans are going to want to watch this, it has broader appeal than some reviewers give it credit for. It's very well done and entertaining as well as quite a game. A little nostalgia for baby boomer football fans. Enjoy.

Thanks to my father, a Harvard alumnus, I saw an amazing game. For me, the film brought back a lot of great memories of the day. The documentary's format is a simple one; show the game, an old grainy colored film, with comments from the players. When Tommy Lee Jones appears, it took viewers a few moments to realize who he was and then a few more seconds to realize he played in the game. Along with Jones' comments, filemaker Rafferty, interweaves comments from the players on both sides. This is a sports documentary with well-educated men who say some insighful and funny things. I found it to be like sitting in a sports bar listening to men recall their younger days. Another aspect of the film I thought Rafferty did a wonderful job of was generating suspense as the end of the game approached. Very unusual technique since the outcome is obvious by the title. My four stars is due to one shortcoming in the film. Rafferty tries to convey a lot about the times, the schools, and the players. However, there is one famous player that was not interviewed and very little discussed... Calvin Hill, the Yale running back who went on to play for the Dallas Cowboys. I felt Rafferty could have noted why Hill was not talked about as much as others were. Aside from that shortcoming, you should enjoy the name dropping of several famous people (in their younger days). All in all, if you like football, this will be a very entertaining movie.

This DVD was super interesting and enjoyable to watch - and I am not even a huge football fan!! The interviews of the players were very good, as well as the footage of the highlights of the game. Very enjoyable!

I actually attended this Game my Freshman year at Yale. This movie is a great narrative of the game and the characters in it, though it exaggerates the "wealthy" Yalies vs. the "working class" Harvard team.

First, it was a little weird watching this video a few days ago and then watching the US vs. England World Cup 2010 first round game. Similar to the Harvard-Yale game that ended 29-29, which was hailed as a win for Harvard despite the tied score, the US-England game was called a win for the US despite the 1-1 tie. In each game the highly favored team was expected to win by significant odds, and in both cases, the underdog fought back to tie and humble its opponent.

As for the Harvard-Yale video, it is an interesting and at times gripping account of the game. The director interjects commentary from players from both teams as he moves the story along with video clips from the actual game. Any game takes place in a larger local and sometimes national context. This game, which took place in 1968, was interwoven with the cultural and political upheavals of the 1960's, 1968 being one of the most tumultuous. Players explain not only their roles on the teams and within their respective schools, but also recall the tensions of and interplay between their local communities and the nation at large. For example, Harvard players included a Vietnam Vet, and ROTC member and a member of Students for a Democrattic Society. Come game time, the differences among these individuals were set aside for the greater good of the team.

The viewer gets the perspective from both sides: from the Yale team, ranked 16th in the country, expecting it could do no wrong, led by an almost messianic quarterback who had not lost a game since the seventh grade, and from the Harvard team, portrayed as a mix of lesser talented kids from working class families. The director does an excellent job of going back and forth from the Yale to the Harvard angle, and interspersing the other larger cultural and political factors along the way. There is an appropriate culmination to the final score, along with memorable reflection of the larger meaning of the game for the individuals involved.

Oddly enough, the only downside for me was Tommy Lee Jones. I did not know that he played for Harvard. He was on the team, but unless I missed it, he did not seem to have played in the game itself. Why he had a significant speaking role is puzzling to me. He did not offer much to the conversation and came off as trying to appear as a stereotypical Harvard graduate - pensive, articulate, philosophical - but did a poor job of it.

This DVD is a must see for sports fans, especially those interested in understanding the context of sport in time and place.