I spent many summers with my aunt, uncle and cousin in Huntington, WV and was at the University of Virginia in Nov 1970 when the plane carrying most of Marshall's football team crashed. It crashed just a few miles from their home.

While my school was 300 miles from Huntington many weekends I'd make the trip to Huntington to see my aunt & uncle.

Just a week before the accident my uncle and I saw one of their games - a home game playing Kent State - and it was such an eerie feeling for me to know that virtually everyone I saw on the field that day was gone in an instant.

I don't think it would be possible for any director to truly capture the level of grief in Huntington at that time, but this movie gave a pretty good glimpse inside.

While this movie is about the rebuilding of a football team that all but vanished, the greater message to me is how they kept building through their intense grief, and why that effort was important.

Almost everyone in my circle knew someone - or had a loved one - killed. A poster mentioned that some in Huntington don't like the film - everyone I know - including my cousin, felt that it really captured the time.

The Huntington Quarterly devoted an issue to describe the making of the movie, and how the actors met - and mingled - with members of the community. I believe that the community embraced the production crew.

Kate Mara's character, according to my cousin, is a composite of several actual individuals and the restaurant has a different name but everything else is factual. Incidentally I loved Kate's character.

Matthew McConaughey has said that it is the most meaningful movie he has done.

I have recommended it to all my friends.

This one blindsided me. With some of the worst reviews of the Christmas season I thought that this was going to be time wasted, instead I found one of the more enjoyable movies I've seen in along while. The first half hour of this film is a great capsule of the events leading to and aftermath of the plane crash that wiped out the 1970 Marshall football team. At that point the film shifts gears as Matthew McConaughey is brought in to rebuild the team and be its coach. A feel good movie thats more about rebuilding the cracked soul of a community than football (though football is front and center) this is a movie that works because of the characters, we care about them so we care about the story. Its also got a great pop score. Though far from perfect, and probably not "great", its a better than really good movie that the critics completely missed the boat on.

Forget the PG rating because some bad words are spoken. This film is one to take the family to. I have to say I was most inspired by the story of a whole university community coming together in the wake of a mind numbing tragedy.

On November 14, 1970 the chartered plane carrying the football team of Marshall University, together with a whole lot of alumni boosters and prominent citizens of Huntington, West Virginia crashed killing the 75 or so people on board. We Are Marshall is the story of how the community and the college found the strength to rebound.

The thing that impressed me the most was how a whole lot of ordinarily disinterested people helped out in the situation. The NCAA is an organization normally criticized for hidebound interpretation of arcane rules. Nevertheless they enabled Marshall University to field a team by granting an exception and allowing them to play freshmen on the varsity squad for the 1971 season.

During the course of the film it's mentioned in passing that Bear Bryant tells the new Marshall football coach Jack Lengyel about a running back he ought to look at. A small, but telling tribute to a college football legend himself who just as easily could have signed that prospect for his own Crimson Tide.

In fact my favorite moment is when Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox go to the University of West Virginia to view some football films for some play ideas for the new squad they're putting together. The coach let's them view them even though he's giving away some of his bag of tricks. At one point two of the West Virginia players come into the room and on their helmets is a tribute to the late Marshall team. Very understatedly moving indeed.

Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel who takes on the Herculean challenge of putting together a team for the next season. He cobbles it together from all kinds of sources, Bear Bryant being one of them. If I was a college jock, McConaughey's the kind of coach I'd hope to be playing for. I'm sure McConaughey's own football background didn't hurt with this performance.

Other performances to watch are Matthew Fox as the surviving assistant coach who did not make the fatal trip, David Strathairn as the Marshall University president who's not a sports fan, but instinctively knows how important it is to carry on and most importantly Anthony Mackie. Mackie is one of the original varsity squad who did not make the fatal trip because of injuries and starts the 1971 season still not 100%. Mackie becomes the prime mover in rallying the school to demand of the board of trustees that football continue.

We Are Marshall transcends just being a sports film. It's one of the best of that genre ever made. But it's a story about the will to carry on even after life deals you a below the belt blow. As such you don't have to be a college football fan to appreciate how the town of Huntington, West Virginia and Marshall University showed their heart and spirit.