“The Boys in the Boat” was released by Amazon MGM Studios Distribution on Christmas Day. The movie is rated PG-13 for language and smoking. It is based on the book, “The Boys in the Boat,” a true story written by Daniel James Brown after meeting and interviewing Joe Rantz, a rower in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the main character of the story.
Brown spent four years researching to be able to complete the story. The book is a compelling story of resilience and triumph that is a good read for anyone, not just rowers. Brown describes the men and their lives so in depth and carefully, as well as adding in many details that other journalists may not think of. The way the book is written makes it easy for readers to connect with the characters and feel the levels of tension in certain moments, even though you already know the outcomes. The book alone is one of, if not, my favorite reads and something I would honestly give a solid 10/10 to already.
Going into watching the film after reading such an amazing book, I had high expectations, and a lot of those were met. Many of the casting decisions were well done, and the characters that I enjoyed in the book were seen. The movie does a great job at being emotional, nail-biting, and triumphant at all the right moments. As a rower, one of my favorite parts of the movie was the few seconds of silence before races began. It’s very accurate to what I’ve experienced during my races. The time between all the boats getting put in the right place to race and the starting call feels like a long time, and it’s full of anxiety, excitement and anticipation. I think they nailed that in the movie.
Despite how well-done the movie was, it still missed out on a lot of scenes I loved in the book. The backstories of many of the characters weren’t shown and Joe Rantz, the main character, played by Callum Turner, only got an incomplete background. On top of this, in the book, Joe’s love interest, Joyce Simdars, is dating him in high school and already engaged to him before they get to college. In the movie, it shows that they get together during college and the only mention of a relationship before college is that Joe has had a crush on her for years. I understand that, with the lack of time to show background, they needed a way to show Joe and Joyce’s love arc instead of having them already together, which would feel a bit random, but it unfortunately means that we missed out on many sweet moments between them. The book gets you to connect with all the characters better and it shows the struggle for the rowers over the span of a few years, rather than the single year that’s shown in the film. To cut the movie some slack, the producers had to fit a large book into the span of two hours and four minutes, and they represented it pretty well under the circumstances, better than many other books have been represented.
I was, however, impressed with how well the actors rowed. Before watching the film, it was one of my biggest concerns, and I hoped they’d have good enough form so I wouldn’t hate watching them in training and racing scenes. It was clear that they trained hard to be able to row well enough for the movie and the fact that the director made them practice so much shows. The only issue I could consistently see with their form was that their backs were bent rather than having good posture like is best for rowing. However, this is one of the hardest parts of the form to get into your muscle memory and it becomes even more difficult to keep when you’re tired. Knowing that most of the cast members had never rowed before filming the movie and that their bodies weren’t used to the physical toll of the sport, they did a very good job.
I would give this movie a 6/10 due to how much they missed from the book. However, I still really loved the movie and getting to see rowing on a screen was very exciting for me. I think the videography was a major success and the actors’ form while rowing wasn’t bad at all. The parts of the story they were able to include were mostly accurate and very well done. If I hadn’t read the book beforehand, this movie would be more of an 8/10.
I recommend that anyone interested should watch the movie first and then read the book second for a better experience of both.
