RUTHERFORD ON FILM: ‘Invincible’: Applauding a Working Class Fan Who Put On Pads, Cleats with the Pros
By Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Critic
Huntington, WV (HNN) - This isn’t fair, but who says that movie wars are
fair?
The next time that players in green and white are projected on cinema screens across the United States, they will not be Philadelphia Eagles!
One more diversion: If you stay through the credits, just before all the MPAA and Union approval insignias, you read something about where “Invincible” was filmed and to whom they extend special thanks. Come December, the text will not be about Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, or the NFL.
Now, let’s tackle the flick on the screen. Based on a true story of how Vince Papale, rough-housing neighborhood player (Mark Wahleberg), answered an “open call” for Eagle tryouts and not only made the team, but inspirationally played special teams for three years.
This well executed underdog-makes-good sports story has several flea flickers in its playbook. Instead of a team struggling to achieve first-time greatness, the Eagles themselves are a pack of underachievers humbling a once proud franchise by a lengthy series of losing seasons. After firing the coach, the owner brings in a rookie professional coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear) with a sterling collegiate record whose motivational team try outs rekindles interest and test his own stamina.
Meanwhile, a 30-year-old loser has just lost his substitute teacher job and with it his wife. Bartending in South Philly, he’s goaded into reporting to Veterans Stadium, where he holds up well against the mostly bumbling group of unfit dreamers.
Based on a true account, Mark Wahleberg did his homework, particularly during the drills in which he grits his teeth, staggers after a hard hit, or gets up slowly. Those scenes convey the realism of the 30-year-old’s limitations. Wahleberg has several brief, yet important, scenes where his eyes rise to the stands as he recognizes the dream of running onto the field as a pro with the Eagles.
But the era (1975) may be just as significant as Papale’s sticking with the team for three years. Seeing the backdrop of a working class, smoke stack south Philadelphia convey the importance of a city’s sports team for delivering to fans a mix of solidarity, rivalry, hope, and diversion from “making ends meet.”
Maybe more importantly, during that sports era there were less “super” or “mega” stars grabbing multi million dollar salaries. For better or worse, the team was stitched not as flagrantly from deep pockets but from veterans, rookies, and shrewd trades. Nor did the off field inappropriate behavior of the teams’ string across the wires as on today’s fields of dreams.
“Invincible” evokes “let’s just play some football” emotions aided by the bone-crunching tackles during games. It has found a properly proportional balance too integrating Papale’s prior constant put downs, his opportunity for romance after a divorce, and knowing when to temporarily ‘hold’ his emotions to the game.
Director and cinematographer Ericson (“Daredevil,” “Fast and Furious”) Core makes his theatrical directing debut by continuously painting the backdrops as nearly insurmountable mountains (ex. Papale reporting to the empty equipment room, looking up from the ground following a banging, knock the breath out of you tackle, etc.). Core has his viewers nearly always looking upward, as his main character has been on the bottom all of his days.
Watching “Invincible” (and its audience breaking into applause) offers an excellent precursor to the Herd Faithful whose main on screen event opens December 12 and 22. Some of the themes may overlap, particularly playing for the town, but essentially this sports drama accentuates the achievements of a man who against all odds played professional football. He did it for himself, for his dad, for his friends, and for his ‘hood, but most of all he gritted his teeth, ran faster than Eagles dare fly, and endured the bruises so he could stand firm in a position where just taking the field proves you are among the best.