RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Dan1863Sickles The astonishing thing about this documentary isn't the excitement and the drama. The football game is presented brilliantly, the key plays are shown in riveting detail and you really feel like you're down on the field with the players right until the final gun. But the astonishing thing is how much you really learn about Harvard and Yale and why they have the reputation of being the very best of the best colleges in America. All the interviews in this movie are interesting, but the one that shocked me was when this big, tough, Harvard linebacker broke down and started crying, forty years after the game! And not because he muffed a block or a tackle, either. "I can't believe Harvard would take a chance on a kid like me," he said. That line really stuck with me long after I left the theater. You see, I went to Columbia, which is also part of the Ivy League. But the whole time I was there in the mid-eighties, I had a sense that there was something missing. It wasn't till I saw this movie that I understood what it was. The thing about Harvard and Yale isn't that they only admit the richest kids, or the smartest kids. The thing is that once you're admitted you're really someone. You're a part of something. And I suspect it's not just the stars on the football teams who feel that way. When I was at Columbia it was just the opposite. It was a campus full of strangers located in the most impersonal urban landscape imaginable. I don't remember anyone crying over how lucky they were to be there. When my roommate dropped out halfway through the freshman year, no one on the faculty or in the administration begged him to stay. No one asked me why I didn't do more to help him, either. It wasn't until years later I began to ask myself that question. And I've begun to suspect that the answer lies largely in the way Columbia treated all its undergraduates like cattle. They didn't expect champions, and they didn't get them either. To be sure, there were some star athletes on campus, and they got plenty of fawning remarks and plenty of special attention from the faculty. But it was because they were part of a special elite, not because they really mattered as individuals. None of us really mattered as individuals. That's why Columbia is strictly third rate compared to Harvard and Yale. I always thought it was because Yale and Harvard had richer kids, smarter kids, tougher kids. Really it's just because Harvard and Yale treat their students like human beings, and not like cattle. And that's what I learned from watching Harvard "beat" Yale.

asc85 Add this one to the list of documentaries that I have absolutely no idea why this was so critically well-received. Unless you're a Harvard or Yale alum, I wouldn't know why anyone would enjoy this movie. The Yale and Harvard players are refreshingly humble, and I especially liked J.P. Goldsmith on the Yale side. But the coming attractions make it seem like references to Al Gore, Garry Trudeau, Meryl Streep and George W. Bush are significant in this movie. They're not. They're mentioned in passing as a side note. And the idea that there was a heavy discussion about what was going on at college campuses during the explosive year of 1968 in America is also exaggerated. All we saw was a classic Harvard/Yale football game with the players reminiscing about it. Nothing more. If you're looking for something deeper or even more entertaining, it's simply not there.

Paul Watching Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is like watching the greatest college football game you could ever imagine, and getting to know the players as it's happening. Even if you already know the final score, the process of getting there is spell-binding for anyone who enjoys watching sports (or has a pulse).But it's much more than just an amazing football game. Through interviews with the players - now older and wiser - the film evokes the background of the times - 1968, perhaps the most tumultuous year in modern American history.The players represented both sides of the political spectrum. Like other young people, many were war-protesters. Yet other players despised the protests - at least one was a proud Vietnam vet, who came to the Ivy Leagues after experiencing Khe Sanh.But on a cold November day, the players and the fans throughout New England put aside these political differences to celebrate the drama of The Game. Through the interviews, we learn that Yale was very heavily favored (thus a tie was considered a "win" for Harvard). We learn about the different personalities - which Yale players knew George W. Bush, which Harvard guy roomed with Al Gore, who dated Meryl Streep, who was the inspiration for the football-player character in Doonesbury, etc.But as the film progresses, these interviews slowly give way to a closer focus on the game itself. It's now late in the 4th quarter with the seconds ticking away. Harvard is still down by 16 points, and you are on the edge of your seat wondering how they are going to pull off this inspirational "victory", making everyone forget - at least for a brief moment - the darker battles then raging in America.

RondoHatton Pegasus3 should change their name to "Clueless1". The title of this documentary QUOTES a headline on the Harvard Crimson after this game. If Pegasus3 found this a very boring documentary, that is their prerogative, but this isn't just about football, it's much more a peek into one of the most turbulent years in American and world history. Just look at 1968: the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, the Prague Spring and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, riots on college campuses, the protests by Tommie Smith & John Carlos at the Olympics in Mexico City, 1968 was a benchmark year for youth. Sure, the comments of the players are mostly about the game, but their insights into what else was happening at the time were great, such as the Yale player who was the roommate of George W. Bush telling that he had a picture of Bush hanging off the goalposts at Princeton(for which, we find out, Bush was arrested, and BTW, talk's cheap, let's see the picture!!), and another Yale player telling & showing us that he was dating Vassar co-ed Meryl Streep at this time. We find out that Tommy Lee Jones was the roommate of Bush's opponent, Al Gore. I remember hearing about this game after it occurred, but I never knew exactly what occurred, and though the title may say "Harvard Beats Yale", I love the fact that all the players feel like winners for experiencing it. Although I can't see how something called J. Hoberman of the Village Voice could mention a piece of junk like either version of "The Longest Yard" in the same paragraph with this great little film. Of course, Hoberman is from New York, and I don't think they've played college football in New York since back before Columbia lost 29 games in a row. I love college football. I lived through 1968. I loved "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29".