THE BOYS IN THE BOAT : Tuesday 16th January 2024.

I saw the PG Rated 'THE BOYS IN THE BOAT' this week, and this American biographical sports drama film is Co-Produced and Directed by George Clooney and is based on the 2013 book of the same name by Daniel James Brown. Clooney's previous feature film Directorial credits take in his debut with 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' in 2002 then 'Good Night, and Good Luck' in 2005, 'Leatherheads' in 2008, 'The Ides of March' in 2011, 'The Monuments Men' in 2014, 'Suburbicon' in 2017, 'The Midnight Sky' in 2020 and 'The Tender Bar' in 2021. This film saw its official World Premiere screening in LA on on 11th December, went on wide release in the US from 25th December, was released on the 4th January here in Australia and in the UK from 12th January, having so far grossed US$42M from its production budget of US$40M, and generated mixed or average reviews. 

This true story opens up in early 1936 and we are introduced to 22 year old Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), an engineering student at the University of Washington. He is sleeping and living rough in a beat up old car in Seattle, has holes in his boots and can barely afford to eat. His good friend Roger Morris (Sam Strike) is almost as equally poor, and together they apply for all manner of jobs to try to improve their lot but without success. One day Morris tells Rantz that they should apply for the UW rowing team, as it brings with it accommodation and a paid job - the only challenge being that neither of them have rowed before. Unperturbed by this notion they both apply and are called up on the day together with about a hundred other hopefuls. UW Rowing Coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) and his assistant coach Thomas Bolles (James Wolk) welcomes the students and sets the ground rules for their physical and mental tests that will ultimately whittle those hundred or so applicants down to just eight. 

And so after a fairly gruelling training and testing regime that sees both Rantz and Morris nurse aches and pains and blisters to their hands, the day of reckoning arrives. Ulbrickson gives the gathered students his vote of thanks and gratitude for the work they have all individually and collectively put in and then announces the fortunate eight. Both Rantz and Morris are selected together with Don Hume (Jack Mulhern), Chuck Day (Thomas Elms), Johnny White (Tom Varey), Shorty Hunt (Bruce Herbelin-Earle), Jim McMillin (Wil Coban) and Gordy Adam (Joel Phillimore). The final member of the crew was Bobby Moch (Luke Slattery) who later joined the team as Coxswain. 

And so as Morris and Rantz settle into their new accommodation in the boat house and a comfortable bed to sleep in, they get acquainted with their new crew mates. The next morning, early, their training regime begins, as the Coach reminds them that this year is also Olympics year, and the Summer Olympics are being held in Berlin, Germany in mid-August.

And so Ulbrickson and Bolles put their new crew of eight through a rigorous training programme, on the basis that as the Junior team they are there to lift the performance of the Senior team who have their eyes set on Berlin. However, a couple of months in and after Ulbrickson has juggled the seating positions of his crew around several times to optimise their performance, and after swapping out the original Coxswain for Bobby Moch, it occurs to the Coach that his junior team are superior to the senior team, and have the ability to go all the way. 

And so Ulbrickson enters his junior team into the Poughkeepsie Regatta set on the Hudson River in June 1936 where they will be competing against the University of California in a four mile race - the winner of which goes forward to Berlin. The Regatta grew to be 'the greatest one-day sporting event in America' early in the 20th century and before the onset of WWII and the culmination of a 'carnival' regatta week on both sides of the river. Approximately one hundred thousand spectators lined the shores of the river to watch the event, and it was broadcast over the radio nationally. Joyce Simdars (Hadley Robinson), Rantz's former childhood sweetheart and new girlfriend, listens intently to the radio commentary with her friends. It was at this race that boatbuilder for UW George Pocock (Peter Guinness) showcased his specially designed and built shell which the crew would row for the first time, and ultimately to victory. 

Following their victory at Poughkeepsie the crew celebrate with a dance party with their +1's while the Coach's and other dignitaries attend a cocktail party. At that party Coach Ulbrickson is seen in a heated discussion with the head of the US Olympic Committee, who tells the Coach that the sum of US$5,000 is needed to secure the teams entry to Berlin, and he has two weeks to raise the necessary funds otherwise he will have to forfeit his place and the University of California crew will go instead, despite the best team winning on the day. Ulbrickson is mortified by this development and in reality has no idea how he's going to raise US$5,000 in two weeks. He storms out of the party in disgust with his wife Hazel (Courtney Henggeler). 

And so the crew, girlfriends, wives, students, staff and anyone else with a remote interest begin a fund raising campaign straightaway in attempt to secure the required funding. With four hours left before the deadline, and Bolles is doing a tally of monies raised and they are three hundred dollars or so short of their goal, and all seems lost. A knock on the door comes and in enters the Coach of the University of California team. He asks how their fund raising is going to which Ulbrickson responds that they are three hundred dollars or thereabouts shy. To which the opposing Coach pulls out his cheque book and writes out a promissory note for the missing amount. Ulbrickson is gobsmacked by this gesture and left almost speechless. After he leaves, the rooms erupts into laughter and applause. 

One day following, Rantz is sitting in cafe with Joyce when he notices a man across the street loading planks of wood onto the back of his pick-up truck. He goes outside and talks to the man - his father Harry (Alec Newman) who abandoned him at the age of fourteen and left him to grow up very quickly on his own. His mother died when he was four. His father says that he moved to Southern California to find work but there was none and so he returned to Seattle two years ago, but never bothered to look up his son. He offers his son a job paying US$1 a day on his homestead instead of riding boats, to which Rantz turns away but not before Harry reminds his son that at fourteen years of age he went off to fight a war. 

Rantz grows distracted and in turn this impacts negatively on his rowing skills which sees his strokes fall out of synch with his other crew members. Ulbrickson gives Rantz an ultimatum to either shape up or ship out, to which Rantz replies with an 'I don't care'. With that Ulbrickson tells him to leave the crew, and brings in a replacement. Later, George Pocock asks Rantz to join him to apply a coat of polish to the underside of their boat. Pocock uses the analogy of carefully applying the polish with the grain of the wood so the boat will glide through the water and find its own path, and compares this to Rantz's line of thinking in turning his back on his crew. That evening Rantz approaches Ulbrickson and asks for his seat back, as he needs the camaraderie, the stability and the regime that he and the crew offer. Ulbrickson agrees.

And so the crew and the Coaches are off to Berlin for the August 1936 Olympic Games, with Rantz bidding a fond farewell to Joyce before boarding his train.  Shortly after arriving Don Hume falls sick, and is diagnosed with a virus infection, with Ulbrickson telling his other crew members to stay away from him for 24 hours. 

In the first semi-finals Hume pulls himself out of his sick bed and competes, ultimately winning the round against Great Britain, France, Japan and Czechoslovakia, so securing their place in the finals. Hume returns to his sick bed and also has a crisis of confidence. Two days later, the final comes and is attended by Adolf Hitler watching on as his German team have already won the single, doubles and four man rowing competitions. The crew are rowing for gold against Italy, Germany as the firm favourites, Great Britain, Hungary and Switzerland, with Team USA in the outside lane. 

The 2,000 meter race begins, with the USA being the last off the mark because Coxswain Bobby Moch didn't hear the off. They have a lot of ground to make up and Hume is paddling sluggishly and his mind is on other things. Moch gives the order to move up to 35 strokes per minute as the boat begins gathering momentum and moving through the field. He then orders 40 strokes per minute, and removes his loud hailer and talks directly to Hume (rowing from the seat directly in front of him) who is someplace else at that point. Eventually Hume snaps out of his malaise and comes good, at which point Moch ups the ante to 45 strokes per minute as the crew draw neck and neck with the Italian and German teams across the finish line in a photo finish. Hitler looks on awaiting a decision as the film print is hurriedly developed, as do the exhausted crew, Ulbrickson and Bolles and the world glued to the radio sets, including Joyce and Harry back home. When the cameraman appears he calls out 'America' as the gold medal winner, to which Hitler abruptly turns and leaves in disgust as Italy and then Germany are placed second and third respectively. Needless to say, Team USA, Ulbrickson and Bolles are elated.

With 'The Boys in the Boat' Director George Clooney is playing it safe by crafting a fairly predictable, by the numbers sports underdog story that sees the team triumph when all the odds were stacked against them. There is nothing new here that we haven't seen countless times before, and yet the central performances are solid and believable, there are moments of real tension, the production values capture the spirit of the era admirably at the height of the Great Depression and in those pre-WWII years, the race sequences are well executed and the film overall is serviceable and watchable. 

'The Boys in the Boat' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-