A 1930s-set story centered on the University of Washington's rowing team, from their Depression-era beginnings to winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.A 1930s-set story centered on the University of Washington's rowing team, from their Depression-era beginnings to winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.A 1930s-set story centered on the University of Washington's rowing team, from their Depression-era beginnings to winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations
Tom Varey
- Johnny White
- (as Thomas Stephen Varey)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaPrior to making the film, the actors had no rowing experience. They were given a physio and a trainer to prepare for the physicality of rowing. They trained every day for months, rowing for four hours a day, every day, and then an hour after filming. George Clooney deliberately shot the film in order "so by the time we got to the race in Germany, our kids could stay in the game." The actors' goal was to get to 46 strokes per minute while working on the film, which they achieved, matching the strokes per minute of the original crew in the Olympics.
- GoofsThe newsreel in the movie says Jesse Owens is from the University of Ohio. While there is an Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, he was actually a student at The Ohio State University --- so named in 1878, well before 1936.
- Quotes
George Pocock: That bunch of kids rowed like no one else who's ever come through here.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Jimmy Kimmel Live!: George Clooney/Kumail Nanjani/Lenny Kravitz (2023)
- SoundtracksUntil Life Turns Your Way Again
Written and Performed by Ian James Donaldson
Courtesy of Black Toast Music
Featured review
A good movie that could have been great
This is a true story about underdogs competing for glory. Every scene was predictable, and the ending was pretty apparent within the first ten minutes, so the characters needed to be interesting, and the story needed to be tight and compelling. Unfortunately, the writing was pretty bad. There were scenes where I found myself rewriting dialog in my head that was so much more interesting than what the actors spoke on the screen. We needed to understand what motivated these underdogs but were given only a few stock scenes about how poor they were. We needed personified enemies but got only a couple short scenes where someone insulted them or they insulted each other. The main character's father showed up briefly toward the end of the movie, but it's not clear if he was a good guy under bad circumstances or a terrible jerk. It didn't really matter anyway, so his character just wasted screen time.
There could have been a running visual description of the hardships of the Great Depression for some context, but instead we saw one soup kitchen in the beginning. We all know how bad Hitler and the Nazis were, but it would have been nice to have an intertwined thread showing Nazi aggression and the Americans' reaction to it, so you cared who won the final race, but if you didn't know any history, Hitler seemed to be just some angry dude.
There was no chemistry between the main character and the girl who eventually became his girlfriend. She was annoying from beginning to end and he was robotlike in her presence. After a very chaste relationship, they suddenly ended up in bed in one short, surprising scene.
The cinematography was very nice, the best thing about the movie.
In conclusion, this is a movie for a lazy afternoon in front of the TV or an airplane flight, but not worth paying the price in a theater.
There could have been a running visual description of the hardships of the Great Depression for some context, but instead we saw one soup kitchen in the beginning. We all know how bad Hitler and the Nazis were, but it would have been nice to have an intertwined thread showing Nazi aggression and the Americans' reaction to it, so you cared who won the final race, but if you didn't know any history, Hitler seemed to be just some angry dude.
There was no chemistry between the main character and the girl who eventually became his girlfriend. She was annoying from beginning to end and he was robotlike in her presence. After a very chaste relationship, they suddenly ended up in bed in one short, surprising scene.
The cinematography was very nice, the best thing about the movie.
In conclusion, this is a movie for a lazy afternoon in front of the TV or an airplane flight, but not worth paying the price in a theater.
helpful•91
- bob-276-155252
- Jan 7, 2024
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Хлопці у човні
- Filming locations
- Cleveland Lakes Nature Reserve, Ashton Keynes, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, UK(University of Washington Boathouse, Berlin Olympics)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $40,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $52,641,306
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,400,548
- Dec 31, 2023
- Gross worldwide
- $55,481,773
- Runtime2 hours 3 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39:1
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