I played football for two years in high school, as a freshman and a sophomore, way back in 1965 and 1966. I remember the coaches names and each had different peculiarities, different tactics, to spur the players on to win games.
I was 135 pound guard. Yeah, I know. A little guy. I remember the first day of practice. During the exercises, this particular coach made each player carry another player on his back (chicken-fight style) and run across the field over and over. The guy on my back, Dave T., weighed180 pounds, no joke.
That day I did what I was told for as long as I was told to do it, then I threw up. We practiced twice a day beneath a hot August sun---first at 8 in the morning, then again at 3 in the afternoon. This went on for the last two weeks of August until classes started in September.
Why am I writing this? Because the same fate that befell the young football player in this film could have happened to just about any player on our team. It was a sort of Basic Training for the players, and I get that--but coaches and egos and power and competition can lead people to the brink of lunacy.
I would never suggest that building a team is easy--but it takes intelligence as well, of course. Commanders on a battlefield, teachers in a classroom, wherever leadership is necessary, requires prudence. If you will: it takes practice to learn how to lead a practice effectively. It takes practice to build a team. Leaders, as we know--in any field--can be led astray by their own power trips, their own psychological issues.
I should say that I am half Texan, meaning my mother was from Texas. In Texas, football is serious business. Bragging rights are paramount.
THE LAST WHISTLE offers insight into the quest to win at all costs; you may win the game on the field, but in the end you may lose the respect of your team, your community, and yourself.
These young film makers knew what they were doing when they struggled to get this feature made. They were trying to make a difference--and they have.
It takes teamwork to make a good football team, and it takes teamwork to make a good film-- to make either, you need to make a lot of hard choices and hope that the egos and power trips that might erupt during the process are first recognized for what they are and then corrected, so the team can get back on course. Winning at life is sometimes more important than winning the game; and sometimes that's a hard lesson.
Nice job.
