Harvard Beats Yale 29-29

A documentary about the 1968 Harvard-Yale football game which pitted two undefeated teamns. Yale was vastly favored for this game I had never heard of, which was an extremely exciting match. Despite the fact that you're aware of the end score, thanks to the title, it's a compelling game to see. The film intercuts broadcast footage of the game with talking head interviews of the players today (who recall the game with amazing clarity). The first half of the film self-consciously sets up the time and place. A lot is made of the fact that several teammates are Vietnam vets and others are anti-War protestors. There's a lot of effort to include the celebrities near the two school. Tommy Lee Jones gives one of his least mannered performances in years by recounting his time as a Harvard Guard (and of course some stories about Al Gore). Yalies mentions George W., one player was dating Meryl Streep at the time and Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" started in the Yale school paper and many of the early characters were inspired by the players on the Yale squad. Eventually the "cultural impact" of the game gives way to the football game and although it probably takes ten times as long as the actual last four minutes of the game took, it was interesting to watch. This is not a well-thought-out production. The interviews are static with ugly and uninteresting backgrounds. The back and forth cutting with the game footage gets old and redundant.