Kick-Back Friday: #91
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (2008): A simplistic, but still engaging, account of a(n) historic football game between the unbeaten teams of Harvard and Yale in 1968.
Spearheaded almost exclusively (or at least apparently almost exclusively) by Harvard grad Kevin Rafferty (The Atomic Cafe), the documentary cuts simply between quaint archival game footage and current head-shot interviews of the seminal players—nearly all of whom are sufficiently articulate and suitably reflective. They are Ivy League grads, after all. Moreover, they attended school when proper emphasis could be placed on the components of "student-athlete."
A surprising exception is actor Tommy Lee Jones, former Harvard offensive tackle, who is something short of reticent in his interviews. But one of the most entertaining participants, perhaps inadvertently so, is former Yale linebacker Mike Bouscaren, who evidently likes to remember himself as the team enforcer. Bouscaren's amusing attempt to take credit for inuring Ray Hornblower, Harvard's star halfback, reminds us: Before you brag, know what's on film.
