Murderball (DVD)

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room 2005 was a great year for documentaries: we had the excellent Enron film, the very controversial suicide bomber documentary Paradise Now, and the Oscar-winning March of the Penguins. However, the best documentary of the year, and the film that should have won the Oscar, is Murderball, a sctintilating documentary that examines the lives of several quadriplegics who attempt to show that their life isn't over once they lose the use of their legs. They partake in a sport called Murderball, which is essentially a rather brutal form of wheelchair-based rugby. The film in particular revolves around the build ...  Read the complete review

If it wasn't for the fact that I saw a trailer for Murderball, I think it's a film that would have completely slipped under my radar. Released in 2005 and filmed over 4 years, Murderball is a documentary that follows the US wheelchair or quad rugby team. On the face of it, you might expect this to be a fluffy, rose tinted and sympathetic view of quadriplegics but you'd be wrong. Instead we get an interesting, entertaining and honest incite into the lives of the team members and those on the perimeters of this intense sport. Murderball is the original name for wheelchair rugby which originated in Canada in the 1970s. Nowadays it is referred to as wheelchair rugby or ...  Read the complete review