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Murderball: Quad Rugby Wheels onto Big Screen
By Sherry Metzger, MS Murderball, a documentary produced and
distributed by THINKFilm, chronicling two and a half years in the
lives of quad rugby athletes, won the Documentary Audience Award
and Special Jury Prize for Editing at the 2005 Sundance Film
Festival. The movie has been acclaimed by critics and is predicted
to win an Oscar for Best Documentary by Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times. Though it contains all the elements of
a compelling "sports film" - rivalry, camaraderie and competition -
this film will tug the heartstrings of the most stoic fan as it
shatters the way audiences have previously viewed the disabled.
Fastest-Growing Wheelchair Sport
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Mark Zupan chases after the ball. Photos courtesy of THINKFilm |
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Murderball, a game developed in Canada almost 30
years ago, has become the fastest-growing wheelchair sport in the
world. Introduced to the US in 1981 by Brad Mikkelson, the game's
name was changed to "quad rugby," a more pleasing and athletic name
to would-be sponsors and medical professionals. The game
incorporates elements of several sports, including ice hockey-style
checking, a six-pound volleyball, rules of rugby and football, and
is played on a basketball court. Quad rugby was well received by
wheelchair athletes desiring the camaraderie of a team sport. The
United States Quad Rugby Association (USQRA) was formed in 1988 to
regulate and promote the sport. Now more than 45 teams compete in
the US, with an estimated 36 more around the world.
Movie Climaxes at 2004 Paralympics
Murderball, the movie, begins at the 2002 World
Championships in Sweden. Teams from around the world had been
gunning for Team USA, aiming to end its 12-year international
winning streak. The rivalry between the US and Canada is embittered
by Canadian coach and ex-team USA player Joe Soares, who, after
being cut from the 2000 US Paralympic team, heads north seeking to
beat Team USA. Marked as a traitor, Joe is despised by his former
teammates. When Canada beats the US in the final seconds of the
game, Team USA is seeded second for the 2004 Paralympics and the
stage is set for a dramatic, Rocky-style comeback for the
home team.
Murderball co-directors Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry
Alex Rubin and co-producer (with Shapiro) Jeff Mandel envisioned
the story they would tell after watching that game. Beyond the
clamoring machismo of steel collisions and far from a pity-party
for disabled athletes, the movie captures intimate moments in the
lives of extraordinary athletes, culminating at the 2004 Paralympic
games in Greece.
Film Explores Relationships
Shapiro describes the movie as "a wolf in sheep's clothing
because it may appear to be a very masculine, sporty movie, but
it's much more about universal relationships." The strained
relationship between surly Soares and his sensitive 12-year-old
son, Robert, for example, resonates with many viewers. The movie
delves into the life of star athlete Mark Zupan, a 30-year-old
civil engineer who broke his neck at C6/C7 when he was thrown from
the back of a friend's pickup truck. The friend, Chris Igoe, hadn't
known Zupan was in his truck, so Zupan was left clinging to a tree
branch over a ravine for 14 hours before being rescued. Their
friendship is conflicted for over a decade because of Igoe's guilt,
and the movie captures this feeling the first time he watches Zupan
play. Other stories are artfully woven into the fabric of this
documentary, creating a movie more about human emotion than a
sport.
How the Sport Is Played
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Joe Soares (pointing) huddles with Team Canada. |
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Any quadriplegic is eligible to participate in
quad rugby, including women. An efficient classification system is
used to maintain team fairness during play. Players are given a
classification number between 0.5 (greatest impairment) and 3.5
(least impairment) by an official "classifier" who conducts manual
muscle tests and watches the player function in a sport chair. The
athletes are assessed on their balance, trunk mobility, ball
handling and use of the wheelchair. Players with more impairment
(<2.0) play defense, blocking, picking, and checking, while
players with greater mobility and hand dexterity play offense,
carrying and passing the ball. Team mobility doesn't exceed a total
of 8.0 for all players on a team during play. Some people may find
the variance in impairment surprising. "When people think of a
quadriplegic, they picture Christopher Reeve, motionless. Not all
quads are like that," says Trisha Suhr, a physical therapist and
head classifier for the USQRA. Suhr met her husband when he was a
quad rugby player and coach, and now they're the parents of
11-month-old twins.
Blasting Away Stereotypes
Zupan has a classification of 3.0. He lifts weights for two
hours a day, benches 235 pounds, and is as hard-talking as the
armored wheelchair he rides. His fiery goatee and tattoos are
enough to dispel any ideas that the disabled are meek or helpless.
"[The movie] changes the way people look at people in chairs," he
says, "It breaks down misconceptions." The movie shows that quads
can be fiercely competitive, unabashedly sexy, and completely like
everyone else, except for the way they mobilize.
"These athletes are just like able-bodied athletes," comments
Wendy Gumbert, a recreational therapist, team USA staff member, and
leading referee who appears in the movie. "They have a zest, a
competitiveness about them too. The only difference is the disabled
use a sport wheelchair instead of athletic shoes."
Shapiro and Rubin agree that making the movie has changed their
perceptions of the disabled, and they tried to convey their new
viewpoints in the movie. "One by one as we hung out with these
guys, our biases and stereotypes were blasted away," Rubin says.
"We started off opening doors for them, getting them lunch. We
learned a little about what they think, and we ended up really
admiring the athletes. We wanted to make a movie that was raw,
loud, and unsentimental. We wanted it to be an honest reflection of
the people we met."
Shapiro adds, "We became friends with them. We talked a lot on
the phone. We communicated. The article I wrote for MAXIM®
magazine legitimized us, showed them that we weren't trying to turn
them into sideshow freaks. We wanted to say, 'Wow, it's okay to be
you, and even if it were me, that would be okay.'"
They included a non-rugby player in the movie to show the "dark"
period that the athletes said they had experienced shortly after
their injuries. Keith Cavill, an incredible motocross athlete,
before his accident, is powerfully captured wheeling into his
bedroom for the first time after his accident and staring at his
broken bike. His face lights up when Zupan visits him in rehab and
lets Cavill try out his rugby chair. "We got to watch his sort of
transformation from someone who couldn't accept that he wouldn't be
able to walk again, to someone who was excited about the sport,"
says Rubin. Many athletes say that the sport gave them a renewed
drive to live a fuller life. Says Zupan, "I'm able to be more
competitive than I was before the injury. Getting to the
Paralympics, being the best that I can be, I can say I wouldn't
take the accident back. I found wheelchair sports, and they gave me
my life back."
Murderball opens in theaters everywhere this month. For more
information, visit www.thinkfilmcompany.com or www.quadrugby.
Sherry Metzger, MS, is a freelance writer with degrees in
anatomy and neurobiology. She is based in Westminster, CO, and may
be reached at metzerfive@hotmail.com 
Table Of Contents - July 2005
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