MQFF REVIEW: The Rugby Player (2013, Dir. Scott Gracheff)

On September 11, 2001, United Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There were no survivors. Among the 44 passengers who died were four Al-Qaeda hijackers and a 31 year old man named Mark Bingham. It's believed that Bingham, along with fellow passengers, Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick, was responsible for struggle that wrested control of the plane back from the hijackers moments before it hit land.

Scott Gracheff's rough and ready documentary, The Rugby Player, isn't going to win any awards on the back of its production values. It's a super low budget production but that fact quickly becomes irrelevant. Bingham's generous character, his tight bond with his mother, Alice Hoagland, and his stereotype-defying love of rugby union shine through the lo-res images, the majority of them shot by Bingham himself throughout his roustabout childhood.

It may not be groundbreaking on the structural front, but Gracheff's film is a showcase for how well tried and true film-making techniques work when in the service of a truly exceptional story. There is a satisfying balance to The Rugby Player's slow build, and its foreshadowing of the impending events, known as they are. What's more, the focus on Mark, first as a person, through interviews with those he touched over the course of his short life, then as an inspiration for gay men around the world and the Bingham Cup that's been created in his memory, is both relatable and remarkably moving.

What is most impressive about The Rugby Player, though, is its touching evocation of the relationship between Mark and his mother and the strength that has given Alice to go on and make change in the world. She may not be referenced in the film's title, but The Rugby Player is just as much a tribute to her as it is to her son.

It'd be a stone heart that isn't roused by this film and hopefully it gets seen by those who need rousing the most.

★★★☆

Trailer:

The Rugby Player screened as part of the 2014 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.