Nicole
Taylor
Students
#: 3047117
EDUC 2530‐005 Inclusive Approaches to
Teaching Exceptional Students
March 14th, 2014
Documentary: Murderball
In the documentary Murderball by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana
Adam Shapiro the audience gets a look into the life of elite quadriplegic
athletes. It takes viewers into the lives of members of the American Paralympic
Quad Rugby team and their journey for gold at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in
Athens. Throughout the documentary Rubin and Shapiro give light to several
aspects of the life of someone living as a quadriplegic. It shows how they are
capable of doing anything from the most basic to the most complex tasks. Many
of these being activities which others would not expect someone living in a
wheelchair to be capable of. The film shatters stereotypes about people with
physical exceptionalities and the limitations that much of society believes
they have (Rubin and Shapiro, Murderball.
2005.).
To give an overview of the documentary,
it opens with interviews of men on the Quad Rugby team. Some of the team
members who are introduced are Andy Cohn, Scott Hogsett and Mark Zupan. They
give their own experiences living as quadriplegics and how people do not
understand their ability to live, in a sense, comfortably in a wheelchair. As
quadriplegics, people do not only lose the ability to walk, they also lose some
mobility in their hands. The athletes explain how they are completely capable
of doing every day tasks, such as going to the grocery store and doing the
dishes, despite their new limitations (Rubin and Shapiro, Murderball. 2005.).
The film follows the team in their
intense rivalry against team Canada and their drive to take back their world
champions title from the Canadians. The audience quickly learns the rules of
the game and how the men who play it are far from fragile. One of these men who
the cameras follow closely is Joe Soares, one of the greats of Quad Rugby. The
rivalry begins when Joe Soares is cut from the American Quad Rugby team and
goes to coach Canada. He leaves in hopes to take away the American’s 11-year world
champion winning streak. Joe and the Canadians are successful; they win the
World championships by one point. It is the first loss for the Americans in the
11 years that Quad Rugby has existed. This loss puts more intensity into the rivalry
and going for gold in the upcoming Paralympics (Rubin and Shapiro, Murderball. 2005.).
The
audience learns that there is not one type of wheelchair, but two. There is the
standard wheelchair that most of us are familiar with, and a heavy-duty type
that is used to play Quad Rugby with. The game is played on a basketball court
while the ball is passed up the court into the other teams end zone. Players
use their chairs to ram into one another and knock opponents over in the effort
to prevent them from scoring. The sport itself is much rougher than expected,
just as the game of rugby played on two legs is. Demonstrating to audience how
tough these players actually are (Rubin and Shapiro, Murderball. 2005.).
Not only does the documentary follow the
team, but also the life of a young man who had a dirt biking accident that left
him crippled. The man, Keith Cavill, is now a quadriplegic and spends ten
months in a rehabilitation center before returning home. While Keith goes
through his day-to-day life, the film shows the difficulty involved with
adapting to his body’s new range of motion. For example, he struggles with
loosening the velcro on his shoes. He
needs the nurse’s help to loosen the straps in order for him to take the shoes
off. The directors let the audience see the process of adapting to a new life
in a new body (Rubin and Shapiro,
Murderball. 2005.).
From the beginning to the end of the
film, my knowledge and my viewpoint on quadriplegics was completely changed. I
have to admit that I was someone who thought of people with such extreme
physical disabilities as more fragile than they really are. The opening
interviews were the first part of the film that changed my view. When Scott
Hogsett was being interviewed he said, “I’ve been out in clubs and all over the
place and people will come up to me and shake my hand and say, ‘It’s good to
see you out.’ I look at them and I’m like, good to see me out? Where am I
supposed to be? In a closet hanging out? (2:30).” I found that this quote resonated
with me most, it shows that despite someone having limitations it does not mean they
can only sit and do nothing. In the first minutes of this film I realized how uneducated I had been on the subject as well. I never thought of quadriplegics
as incapable people, but I never thought of someone in a wheelchair going to
the bar, driving or going grocery shopping by themselves. This was my first
misconception about life in a wheelchair, the second was that since
they were already severely hurt, it could easily happen again.
I never thought of a quadriplegic
being able to play a contact sport like Quad Rugby. I have always known that
Paralympics had Track and Field, Wheelchair Basketball, Sledge Hockey, etc.,
but I hadn't heard of Wheelchair Rugby until watching Murderball. I never thought thought of them as fragile, but I never
knew the amount of contact that they were capable of withstanding. During the
games the men are not only rammed into by each other, in some cases they are
knocked and flipped over without being injured. This is normally due to the bolts in their necks, which are drilled in during surgery after their initial accidents. To me, it is as if they have their limits, and yet, they are heavy duty.
The
film did not only show me my own misconceptions and misunderstandings, but that
of many other peoples'. One of the team members talked about a wedding he attended and how someone who congratulated him on being able to represent the United States of America
in the Special Olympics. He then explained how he felt insulted
that someone would say that. He had no negative views towards someone with a
mental exceptionality; the insult was the fact that someone did not know the
difference between the Special Olympics and the Paralympics. It is surprising,
in my opinion, that someone would not know the difference between the two. Our
society asks us to know copious amounts of menial facts, and yet those facts do
not include knowing the difference between the Special Olympics and
Paralympics. To me, it is extremely unfair that this knowledge is not second
nature to us, while the latest gossip is.
I feel that Rubin and Shapiro made
this film to show that there are more similarities than differences between
people who do and do not have physical disabilities. They go through every
aspect of a quadriplegics life to show how they are able to do anything I can
in an adapted way. Whether it is driving, doing the dishes, playing murderball
or even having sex, they are capable of doing it. A theme that I noticed
throughout the film was, even though someone has been physically "broken", it does not
mean that they are any less mentally or physically tough and resilient. All the men featured
in the film were equally as, or more aggressive, tough and resilient than people I know who have no physical limitations.
In conclusion, I would suggest this
documentary to anyone who wants to know more about physical disabilities. The
film is a useful for anyone who wants to be better educated on the life of
someone who is quadriplegic or living in a wheelchair. I would also recommend
this documentary to teachers who want to inform their students on physical
disabilities. I would strongly recommend it if there is a student with a physical
disability in the class. In doing so, their classmates can gain a better
understanding of what life with a physical limitation is like. Or, how similar their lives are.
There is a misconception that
someone who is in a wheelchair is fragile and can easily break again. Murderball is a reminder, or a realization,
that what appears to be a limitation may not be such a detrimental one. Most importantly, that despite
our differences everyone is still capable of accomplishing great things. The
documentary was overall extremely eye-opening and educational.
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