Essay On Murderball

Murderball is a documentary following the lives of the United States Paralympic quad rugby team. Quad rugby is a full-contact sport and the main strategy of the game is to run into your opponent’s chair as hard as you possibly can in order to knock over the opponent's chair. The chairs are reinforced with metal plates in order to with stand the hammering. These chairs are designed in a way that allows the players to run into anything as hard as they want and not get injured. A great part of the documentary revolves around Team USA, and former Team USA all-star Joe Soares, who was humiliated when he was cut from the team due to old age impeding on his skill. Out of revenge, Joe becomes coach of Team Canada in hopes of stopping the United States from dominating the court like they have been for the last ten years. This major rivalry between Team USA and Team Canada is shown all though out the film as the two teams fight for the gold medal at the Olympics games in Athens. All of the players push themselves each and every day to improve and be in the best shape they can be. The player’s tenacity is shown in every aspect of this documentary, which only leads Team USA to success. However, Murderball is not just about driven athletes who to win a gold medal. This documentary is so much more, Murderball is about the prevalent inequalities that
exists between the abled and disabled. Murderball debunks just about every clichéd stereotype we are indoctrinated with.
One of the biggest misconceptions is people who are paraplegic are fragile and cannot play contact sports. However, viewers will be shocked to see that theses young men are chucking themselves at each other and smashing each other to pieces. But they love this sport because it’s fun, fast, and aggressive. Murderball also disproves that people with disabilities can not have a normal life. The film shows members of team picking women up at bars, driving cars, pulling pranks, providing for their families, and living a normal life just like you and
me.
Another major focus of the documentary is Mark Zupan, the team’s super star and captain. Mark was paralyzed in a drunk driving accident caused by his best friend, Chris Igoe. Mark fell asleep in the back of Chris’ truck and Chris drunkenly drove off with Mark in the back. Chris crashed and Mark was projected from the truck into a river and not found until several hours later. Hearing Marks story had a huge impact on me, and I could not help but feel very emotional when he was talking about his accident. In 2011, there was a horrible drunk driving accident involving people who went to my high school or had already graduated. There were five people in car. Three of them died when the driver lost control of the car, sending the car into a tree. The victims were 20-year-old John Hoover, 18-year-old Spencer Datt and 18-year-old Haeley McGuire. The two survivors were, the driver, 20-year-old, Kevin Coffay, who attended James Madison, and 19-year-old Charlie Nardella…my next door neighbor. The accident happened around 2am right in front of the Olney Boy and Girls Club soccer fields. That morning my dad and I drove past the scene where the accident happened after the wreck had been cleared and saw a news van sitting on the side of the road, and we thought to ourselves that there must be a big soccer game going on today. We never would have imagined that three young adults had just lost their lives. Kind of like how Mark never imagined he would become paralyzed in a drunk driving accident when his best friend drove off while he was asleep in the back of his truck. This crashed devastated my community. My older brother was very good friends with Haeley, and they were going to graduate together in a couple weeks. Although I never met Haeley, I am very good friends with her little sister, and everyone had nothing but kind words to say about her. Kevin was sentenced to jail for 20 years, and Charlie suffered from a broken leg and arm along with several broken ribs. Helping and watching Charlie recover was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Although Charlie’s injuries were not as extensive as Mark’s, Charlie’s recovery was long, hard and filled with pain and survives guilt. So hearing Mark’s story I could not help but think back to one of the worst days of my life, May 15th 2011. Also watching Mark reconnect with his best friend years after the crash, almost made me cry because the relationship between Kevin and the victim’s families are shattered forever.
Directors Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro spent two and half years filling this documentary, and their hard work resulted in a life changing documentary. Although, Murderball does not have amazing visual effects such as the movie Avatar. This documentary focus was not on visual effect, rather Murderball focuses on emotional the emotional effects. When you are watching the film your feelings and reactions will be raw and explicit. Once you are past the surface meaning of the documentary, you will notice there is a huge relationship between Murderball and to Garland-Thompson’s essay about disability. In her discussion on disability she talks about sentimental rhetoric. In Murderball there are several examples of sentimental rhetoric through out the film. A player on the team talks about when he arrives at a bar everyone tells him “it’s nice that you are able to make it out tonight” as if going to bar is a hard thing to do. Also Mark talks about how a person not in a wheel chair would not punch him just because he is in a wheelchair. This sentimental rhetoric stresses an inequality between able and disabled people. Murderball is truly a great documentary that makes you laugh, cry, and has you on the edge of your seat. This documentary was really eye opening for me and taught me about a sport I did not even know existed. I highly recommend this film.