“Boys in the Boat”, George Clooney’s film adaption of the Daniel James Brown novel, tells the true story of 9 University of Washington rowers and their journey to participating in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is a story of adversity, as the rowers themselves deal with extreme poverty caused by the Great Depression. Overall, the movie was fairly inspiring. The characters are easy to root for while they face off against the prestigious East Coast Ivy League, who at the time dominated collegiate rowing, and went up against Nazi Germany. 

     One major fault of the film is that the boat’s journey to Olympic gold was extremely condensed, so much so that the film felt rushed and unfinished. While both the novel and movie center around Joe Rantz, one of the rowers, the movie especially falls short in telling the stories of the other rowers well. Throughout the movie I found myself struggling to figure out the names of multiple members of the crew. The sport of rowing is a team effort and the movie minimized the importance of rowers who equally earned Olympic gold alongside the rest of the crew. To exacerbate this, viewers were forced to watch a mundane love story unfold between Joe Rantz and his love interest when that screen time could have been allotted to fleshing out the other rowers.

     Characters that were explored in the movie, such as Callum Turner’s Joe, captivated the audience. Additionally, Coach Ulbrickson, played by Joel Edgerton and Don Hume, played by Jack Mulhern, provided meaningful and sensitive takes on their respective roles. The film also offered compelling cinematography, especially showing its riveting and passionate depiction of rowing races. The aerial shots of the crew as they gained lengths over their competitors was extremely exhilarating.