He also gets help from a strong supporting cast, although in some ways the ensemble becomes slightly unwieldy. Veteran actors Strathairn and Ian McShane deliver fantastic performances, even if their primary purpose is to deliver exposition while sitting at diners or walking through steel mills. Fox, as assistant coach Red Dawson, gets one short scene toward the end of the film that is so beautifully performed it’s worth his taking the role just for that thirty seconds of screen time but his character is given a somewhat short shrift throughout the film. Most of the players on the team are pretty interchangeable with Mackie lacking the gravitas required to play such an instrumental role and the other main surviving teammate, Lucas Booth (Brian Beegle) almost having his subplot dropped completely after the first twenty minutes.

But what really matters is the plane crash itself. While the event is tastefully handled without any cloy attempts at melodrama, it comes much too quickly in the narrative. There isn’t enough time to become emotionally attached to the characters who meet their demise in this untimely accident and as a result, the subsequent events don’t pack as much meaning as it should.

In spite of this, the film does manage to make a successful enough recovery and bring home the goods in the fourth quarter. Like Gridiron Gang and so many tales before it, the film squarely presents the sport of football as a unifier and the presentation is persuasive enough to tempt you to cheer along with the characters at the end. Even though the game scenes don’t offer anything new from a technical standpoint, the enthusiasm of the characters is infectious enough to make the football scenes crackle with intensity and excitement.

Christmas is probably the right time to release the film, as it offers just the right mixture of tragedy and triumph. Audiences may be skeptical about the need for yet another football movie this year but We Are Marshall nonetheless offers an entertaining piece of uplifting football jingoism.

Movie Grade: B

Synopsis:

We Are Marshall tells an inspiring true story set in Huntington, West Virginia, a small town steeped in the rich tradition of college football. For decades, players, coaches, fans and families have come together to cheer on Marshall University's "Thundering Herd". For this team and this community, Marshall football is more than just a sport, it's a way of life. But on a fateful night in 1970, while traveling back to Huntington after a game in North Carolina, 75 members of Marshall's football team and coaching staff were killed in a plane crash. As those left behind struggled to cope with the devastating loss of their loved ones, the grieving families found hope and strength in the leadership of Jack Lengyel, a young coach who was determined to rebuild Marshall's football program and in the process helped to heal a community.