The Boys in the Boat (2023)

  The Boys in the Boat (2023) 

 

 

Genre: #biography #drama #sport 

IMDb : 6.3/10 (35k) 

Language: English 

Country: United States  

Release Date: December 25, 2023 (United States) 

Running time: 2h 3m 

 

Movie Info : The Boys in the Boat is a 2023 American biographical sports drama film produced and directed by George Clooney from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, based on the 2013 book of the same name by Daniel James Brown. The film follows the University of Washington rowing team, and their quest to compete in the 1935 Summer Olympics. It stars Joel Edgerton as coach Al Ulbrickson Sr. and Callum Turner as rower Joe Rantz. 

  

The Boys in the Boat had its world premiere in Los Angeles on December 11, 2023, and was theatrically released by Amazon MGM Studios Distribution in the United States on December 25. It has grossed $54 million and received mixed reviews from critics. 

Plot : An elderly Joe Rantz watches his grandson rowing a fiberglass boat, thinking back to his glorious rowing days. In 1936, young Joe Rantz is a poor engineering student at the University of Washington (UW), living in an abandoned car and eating canned food, with no job and tuition due in two weeks. Fellow struggling student Roger Morris tells Joe the 8+ rowing team comes with jobs and boarding. Despite not being rowers, they make the UW junior varsity (JV) team in a special year for coach Al Ulbrickson, who is under pressure to beat rival Cal and make the 1936 Olympics. Joe and Roger are just happy to have a dorm room and steady food, and gladly mop floors for tuition. Joe starts dating Joyce and admits to racing-shell builder George Pocock that he’s been on his own since his dad abandoned him at age thirteen. The JV and varsity 8+ teams train together, trying to get their rowing "swing" in sync with fast pace. Coach Al worries that his varsity crew isn’t fast enough for the Olympics, and the JVs are strong but hopelessly inexperienced. On George's suggestion, Al brings back Bobby Moch, the experienced but headstrong coxswain, warning him to follow orders on the JVs or he’s out. At the Pacific Coast Regatta on Lake Washington, UW and Cal race two miles in front of 100,000 fans. Coach Al wants the JV boat to maintain a steady pace, hoping the Cal JVs would screw up, but Bobby calls a fast pace and pulls off a course-record win, astonishing Al. The rowers become campus stars. Ahead of the four-mile Poughkeepsie Regatta in New York, for a berth in the Olympics, Al risks his job by promoting the JVs above his experieced varsity boat. After Joe sees his long-lost dad in Seattle, he performs badly in New York practice and is benched. Joe packs up to leave, but George Pocock tells him not to quit like his father. Joe reconsiders and agrees with Al that it’s all about the boat, the only thing he has. On race day, Bobby is told by Al to start slowly and let the other boats tire, then kick mid-race to 35 strokes per minute. Bobby starts at 28 and holds it past mid-race, then coaxes 36, with a 40-stroke finish to lead ragtag UW to upset [[United States Naval Academy|Navy], Cal, and the other privileged eastern schools. The U.S. Olympic Committee is short on funds, so UW needs to raise $5000 to pay for the Olympics, otherwise a richer team will go. The team and community raise the money in a week, and they sail for Berlin. In Nazi Germany, after the team converse with Jesse Owens, eighth-seat rower Don Hume falls sick, yet the team sets an Olympic record in the qualifier. Al protests the finals lane assignments, but realizes he’ll have calm water at the end, so he calls for a fast start to stay close, then a big kick to finish. With Hitler in attendance, Bobby does not hear the starting gun and starts badly, compounded by Hume’s sickness; nonetheless, Bobby coaxes 42 strokes per minute to get within reach, then calls for 46 with 300 meters to go. The U.S. wins the gold in a photo finish over Italy and Germany. The elderly Joe comes out of his reverie and tells his grandson that his eight-man crew were always one