Anyone fortunate enough to have read Daniel James Brown’s best-selling history The Boys in the Boat will readily understand that to translate such a multi-level account to the movie screen is a formidable task.
Undaunted, director George Clooney, having obtained the film rights after several years, has attempted the impossible. The result (currently in theatres and soon to be available on Apple TV) is, perhaps inevitably, disappointing – not so much for what it includes as much as what it omits.
Brown’s meticulously referenced and widely comprehensive book primarily recounts the story of the working-class students who formed the Junior rowing crew at the University of Washington at the height of the Depression. Against all odds (a rather unavoidable plot reveal), the essentially inexperienced crew went on to win the Gold Medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It’s an obvious source of movie material in the “underdog defying the odds” tradition of Chariots of Fire, Hoosiers, Miracle, and Rudy.
While writers Brown and Mark Smith have tried to turn this inspiring story into a compelling film, even in what is included, there are some serious omissions. To cite just one of several examples: the various rowing scenes that are included all take place on placid waters under days of cloud-free sunshine. In fact, most of the races and many of the practices in which the crew participated took place in stormy, often near-freezing conditions. The amazing grit, endurance, and determination and sense of team spirit the young men displayed played no small role in their ultimate victory.
Even more surprising is the omission of some significant moments, for example when the team members engage in a rare act of rebellion in their final race. Their decision to override their coach and include an ill crew member in their most important race is virtually overlooked, yet it is an impressive example of team spirit and one which came perilously close to costing them victory. To omit such incidents as this is to do the titular “boys” an injustice.
The result of all this, while entertaining, is certainly not all that Brown’s story is about. The author does indeed tell the story of the crew, particularly focusing on one key member, Joe Lantz – played brilliantly by Callum Turner in the movie. However, the film omits much of that particular thread and minimizes the fascinating portrayals of the rest of the crew.
Far beyond that, however, Brown includes a huge measure of social history.
Thus, in fascinating detail, he describes the Great Depression, the Dirty Thirties, and the accompanying disasters of mass unemployment, all worsened by the Dust Bowl phenomenon. This, only hinted at in the film, establishes the background of the ongoing hardships and formidable jobs that Lantz and others undertook in order to pay their way through college – though the jobs actually enhanced the physical strength which enabled them to be such successful oarsmen.
Brown also includes insightful commentary on the groundbreaking work of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl as she brilliantly set about producing the amazing propaganda films Triumph of the Will and Olympia, designed to promote Hitler’s dictatorship in the Nazi state. Here he also builds on a well-described account of the dictator’s determination to make the 1936 Berlin Olympics a cleverly designed lie to promote that cause – a design that was destined to have ironic and tragic results.
All of this material, essential to making the book such a fascinating page-turner, is clearly too much for one film to handle. Instead, one wishes that it had formed the basis for a multi-part production in the tradition of PBS Masterpiece Theatre. This might well have gone some way toward doing justice to Brown’s narrative.
As it is, the movie The Boys in the Boat remains just another diverting sports film. One only hopes that it will persuade viewers, especially if they have not read it and even if they have, to turn to or revisit the lengthy book on which it is based.
This carries the further advantage of providing them with a wonderfully informative and engaging piece of social history as well as a rewarding, enjoyable, and lengthy read – the perfect companion for cold winter days.
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