8 / 10
Murderball is a hard-hitting, one-of-a-kind documentary that follows a cast of quadriplegics who have found a new lease on life through wheelchair rugby (a sport originally dubbed ‘Murderball’).
The documentary’s clever plot development tracks Team USA’s fierce rivalry against Team Canada in the lead-up to the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. Through this mechanism, directors Henry Rubin and Dana 
Shapiro are able to demonstrate the athletes’ indomitable drive to achieve and vicious competiveness. In the tense final countdown of each game, you might as well be watching Remember the Titans, except that it feels more real and there’s not as much singing.
The movie’s important messages resound in the inspiring never-say-die attitude of the athletes, who each display incredible resilience, courage, determination and good humour, despite their disabilities.
The real characters and their relationships are developed incredibly well, and the on-screen emotions run deep. I felt more and more confronted and involved as the movie went on. I could feel the elation of Team Canada as they took their first victory from USA, the gut-wrenching disappointment of Team USA at the other end of the pitch, and then, in one of the movie’s many effective pace-changers, the bitter, bitter frustration of young Keith as he tries to undo his shoes for the first time since waking from his coma.
The footage in this documentary is so raw, so unscripted, and so obviously real that it humanizes everything. From the tense but redeeming friendship between Team USA captain, Mark Zupan, and the drunk-driver who put him in his wheelchair, to the harsh but meaningful relationship between the fierce and uber-competive Canadian Coach, Joe Soares, and his able-bodied but unsporting son, Robert.
Ultimately, it’s the inspiring characters that you are left remembering. Soares for his ferocious spirit, cocky attitude and intense, unshakable pride; Scott Hogsett for his sense of humour, good looks, and descriptions of wheelchair sex; Bob Lujano for cracking jokes, pouring juice and driving his car, all with no arms or legs; and Zupan for his aggression, athleticism and ‘realness’ (he could have been any one of your high school mates). And then others – Zupan’s able-bodied girlfriend for her honesty, intelligence and great cans; Keith, the 18 year old ex-motocross rider, for not hiding his disappointment, but not giving-up either; and Robert, for still thinking his father’s the greatest hero on earth.
