Original Review by Alan Rogers
Murderball is the acclaimed fly-on-the-wall-documentary style movie that was the winner of the Documentary Audience Award in 2005 at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, the movie follows the U.S. Quad Rugby team’s quest for gold at the recent Paralympic Games in Athens. Uncompromising in style, this MTV co-production gives a glimpse into full-contact wheelchair rugby: in particular, the cut-throat rivalry between the U.S. and Canadian teams.
Commotion Records’ “Music From The Film” CD release is a combination of songs (remember, this is an MTV co-production) from the likes of industrial rock band Ministry, The Moldy Peaches, through to the electronic jam that is Ween. For those particularly interested in movie scores, four cues written by Jamie Saft for the movie are interspersed between the songs (though these cues amount to only 12 minutes of playing time). Saft is a musician who has only recently turned to writing for movies. But he has (at the time of writing this review) already been associated with two award winning movies: this movie and God Grew Tired of Us, winner of the Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance in 2006). Saft’s music for Murderball admirably bridges the gap between the songs (that underscore, amongst other things, the competitive games) and the more emotionally grounded portions of the movie that need underscoring from specifically written music. Read the rest of this entry »
