Mark Evans: Response to Murderball

The film Murderball is not only a documentary on a unique sport that is played worldwide, but also a look into the mentality and the lives of a handful of the quadriplegics that play wheelchair rugby. Obviously, different people handle tragedies in different ways. Becoming physically handicapped has just as much of a mental affect on the person as the injury or illness itself does.

Murderball is a good documentary in the sense that it does not depend on narration or other forms of commentary to reveal the personalities of the subjects of the film. The camera captures the mentalities of everyone in the film very naturally. Raised by a paraplegic from the time I was four until I was nineteen impacted my life more than any other component of it, so far. Seeing into the mind of a man who has no use of the lower half of his body has given me a unique chance to at least get close to understanding the torment and desperation that presents itself to someone with such a severe bodily injury.

There are many techniques that a human consciously or sub-consciously utilizes to cope with such a tremendous impact on their life. Joe Soares, who coaches the Canadian Murderball team, is very similar to the man who raised me, Perry. Although Perry and Joe became handicapped in different ways, they both seem to have similar personalities and techniques in compensating for what they tragically lost. Joe Soares lost his ability to walk due to a childhood illness that he fell into at the age of nine. My step-father, Perry was struck by a drunk driver while riding a moped when he was only twenty. It had been around fifteen years since Perry’s accident when he came into my life, so he had become as settled and accepting of his handicap by this point as Joe Soares has in the documentary.

When Joe interacts with his young son, he criticizes him and is almost insulted by any characteristic of his son that is not similar to Joe’s own. Watching the film, I felt sorry for Joe’s son and hoped that he had the mental stamina to not succumb to the self-esteem dissecting techniques that Joe subconsciously uses to discipline his child. It seems to me that both men want to live out what they cannot through their male offspring. Unnecessarily vast amounts of discipline are used by both men to compensate for what I feel is a loss of productivity from the inability to run, mow grass, or even reach a piece of silverware that’s been dropped underneath a table. At least for my siblings and me, this excessive amount of discipline and manipulation was almost unbearable, forcing us into states of rebellion in our teenage years. I can only imagine what Joe’s son goes through, considering the fact that he is the only child. I hope that he has someone to communicate with that lives similarly, like I did with my sister and brother. My sibling’s helped keep me grounded, and when overwhelmed with Perry’s punishments and general alpha-male attitude, we had each other to vent to.

Despite the negative side of Joe’s character that I see in the film, I find his and the other athlete’s perseverance and courageousness inspiring. It would be very easy to feel depressed and hopeless if you were in one of these men’s positions. Murderball is an outlet for paralyzed men to function and compete against other men with the same or at least similar physical ailments as themselves. This is something I never got to see my step-father do, and I feel that it would have been as healthy and beneficial a hobby for his family as it would’ve been for him.