Sunday night Jess and I attended the World Premier of Michael Hoffman’s new documentary about Boise State football and their magical season last year. I only have one major critique.
It wasn’t long enough.
The movie had a run time of almost 90 minutes, but frankly, to get everything I wanted to see in there, that thing would have had to have been a 4 week mini-series. (How cool would that be!?)
Actually, this was really well done. If I had one more critique, it would be the fact that a lot of the footage I had already seen before in other outlets (local news, national ESPN pieces, the Perfection season DVD, Fiesta Bowl, etc. I guess that is the problem with doing a documentary after the fact, is that you can’t shoot your own footage at the events as they happen. The stuff they did shoot new for this film was terrific. Lots of interviews with players past and present. Some very very funny lines and moments, especially from last year’s starting center Jadon Dailey. He is awesome. I would say to watch the movie if only to see him.
But like I said, some of the things were just a little too short. I would have loved to have had a few more season moments set to a swelling musical score to really drive things home. Specifically, I’m thinking about the orange and blue rushing of the field in Nevada after the game was over and we had sealed the perfect season and BCS trip. That is a mental image I have that sort of gets drowned out by the enormity that was the Fiesta Bowl. Next to the bowl game, that is by FAR my favorite moment of the season. I stood there, in the upper deck, grinning to myself as 8,000 Bronco fans stormed the field. Outstanding.
I do understand the limitations of a movie, though. I mean, they can’t get everything in there. Plus, the Fiesta Bowl itself was so dramatic and the climax of the movie, they had to devote enough time to that. I guess it just boils down to the fact that I am a fan. And as a fan, I want as much content about my team as is humanly possible.
I will absolutely own this on DVD. There is no question. It will go into my rotation of DVD’s I have to watch when I need a Bronco fix. I have to be one of the few people who still semi-regularly watches the season review DVDs from 3 or 4 or 5 years ago.
Apparently, there is a version cut down to an hour that ESPN will be showing on September 3rd. It cuts out all of the player’s lives stuff and just focuses on the football. Yes, I will watch that too, but I highly recommend getting your hands on this full film and enjoying it.