Rising from Ashes

by Gregory Allen Butler

Rising from ashes--what could be more uplifting in a film than that? Yesterday when I wrote about identity shifts and attractor energy fields, I mentioned the fact that the night before I watched a violent movie and the fact that it had a deadening effect on my consciousness.

Well, tonight (Sunday night as I write this) my wife Maggie and I went to the local theatre and saw We Are Marshall -- the epitome of a movie raising one's vibrational energy. It is an uplifting true story about the rebuilding of a football program after the tragic plane crash that wiped out all but four players on the Marshall University football team in 1970.

The story is not about winning football games, as are most movies about football teams. It is a movie about showing up when it would be easier not to. It's a movie about being positive in the most hopeless and helpless of situations. It's a movie about a small town coming together to heal from a tragedy.

It reminded me of the phoenix rising from ashes. The movie is a portrayal of love, courage, determination, sacrifice, humility, pride, and honor. It shows the heights of what the human spirit can achieve when all seems lost.

Screenwriter Jamie Linden focused on the highest aspects of the human spirit. One of the best moments was when the new coach, Jack Lengyel (played by Matthew McConaughey) and his assistant Red Dawson go to visit the famous West Virginia University coach Bobby Bowden to learn a certain offensive formation called the Veer from the West Virginia playbook. At first you see Bowden in disbelief of such a request, but the optimism of Jack Lengyel wins him over and he generously gives them access to all the West Virginia University team films and resources.

And then you get to see a life-affirming scene in the film room. While Lengyel and his assistant Red Dawson are watching the West Virginia films, a couple WVU players walk into the film room not knowing it was being used by the Marshall coaches. On the back of the WVU helmets, we see in green (the Marshall team color) a small cross next to the letters MU. The West Virginia coach comes in, and pointing to the green on the helmets, says, "The colors clash." The Marshall coach replies, "First Class, Coach, first class."

Everything about this film was first class, the writing, the acting, the directing, and the purpose of the film-to show the nobility of people when surrounded by tragedy, and what they are capable of achieving.

Before the new Marshall team's first home game, the coach takes them to the Spring Hill Cemetery to the graves of six players who could not be identified after the crash. Coach Lengyel tells them that they are going to be playing a team that is "bigger, faster, and much more experienced, and they know that. But they don't know your heart."

And heart is what this film is all about.