REVIEWED - MURDERBALL: The game is a variation on rugby played by quadriplegics in armoured wheelchairs and the film itself is genuinely inspirational to watch. Indeed, there has not been a more effective or enthralling documentary this year, writes Michael Dwyer.
"I'm A guy in a chair," Mark Zupan remarks at one point in Murderball. "I'm just like you, except I'm sitting down."
A muscular, goateed and tattoo-covered Texan, Zupan fell off the back of a pick-up truck when he was 18 and landed in a canal, where he saved himself from drowning by hanging on to a tree branch for over 13 hours. He is quadriplegic as a result.
His determination to achieve maximum self-sufficiency is illustrated from the opening sequence, where he gets himself dressed for the day, to his prowess in the rough and tumble of the game dubbed Murderball, a variation on rugby played by quadriplegics in armoured wheelchairs that resemble vehicles from the hardware department of the Mad Max movies.
Zupan is a dexterous and fiercely competitive member of Team USA, and the film observes them over three years, beginning with their victory at the world championships in 2002 and concluding in their participation at the Paralympics in Athens last year. There is never any pretence that it's anything but the winning, and not the taking part, that counts.
Much of the fast and furious action on the Murderball court is shot at the players' eye level, on camera-mounted wheelchairs, although this footage is over-edited with frequent superfluous cuts to reaction shots that interrupt the flow of the game. The film, however, has much more on its agenda, as it addresses common misconceptions regarding paraplegics and how they have dealt with such radical changes in their lives.
In celebrating the resilience and sheer willpower of these men, the makers of Murderball could have opted for a conventional treatment sentimentally celebrating the triumph of the human spirit. The film is a rare achievement in that it is genuinely inspirational to watch, without ever resorting to patronising its protagonists or manipulating the emotions of its audience.
There has not been a more effective or enthralling documentary this year.
