A newly released movie has brought attention to the rigorous sport of crew.
“The Boys in the Boat” skillfully balances athletic authenticity with gripping storytelling, immersing audiences in the rowing world as it came up against the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
“The Boys in the Boat” movie, released Dec. 25, 2023, tells the story of the Olympic Rowing team from the University of Washington first captured in a New York Times bestselling 2013 book of the same name by Daniel James Brown. In the story, the junior varsity boat from Washington pushes through the competition, beating out other schools and their own varsity boat.
The movie, directed by George Clooney, stars Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, and Peter Guinness.
Lyra Bornholdt-Collins, a longtime rower from Hanover, N.H., felt Clooney did the best he could bringing the world of rowing to the big screen.
“I don’t think anything could ever fully encompass rowing in only a two-hour movie,” Bornholdt-Collins said. “Moreover, we have to remember that the sport of rowing has changed so much since the 1930s. Equipment, technique, and even sport mentality has changed.”
The movie has allowed for people to get an on-the-surface glimpse of just how difficult the sport of crew is, Bornholdt-Collins added.
Lucy Howell, a junior rower at Tufts University, said the movie was able to encapsulate the power and pain rowing takes.
“I think it does a good job of capturing the intensity of races and practices … it’s going to be slightly exaggerated but at the same time it was higher stakes than what I’ve experienced,” Howell said. “That being said, I think it’s hard to capture that kind of intensity and they did a good job of it.
[Editor’s Note: Howell is the author’s sister.]
Sophie Cummings, a Tufts rower from Rye, N.Y., believes that even though the story did happen in real life it had been altered to fit the movie, therefore it doesn’t accurately portray the amount of effort it takes to be the best in the world in the sport.
“The story was shortened to occur over the course of a year rather than three years; in the movie it’s portrayed as though the boat wins the Olympics in their first year of rowing, which I think kind of lessens the understanding of how long it takes to get good at rowing and perfect the technique,” said Cummings.
Jack Howell, an alumnus of the Tufts Crew and an avid rower, believes the movie portrayed the physical challenges well but fell short depicting the psychological challenges of rowing.
[Editor’s Note: Howell is the author’s brother.]
Howell believes that movie did a good job showing the physical pain, and the impact that has, in rowers’ lives, such as “falling asleep in class” and a scene in which one competitor’s hands are “covered in dried skin and calluses.” Howell said, however, the movie didn’t touch enough on how difficult it really is to just “wake up every morning and put themselves through the pain.”