Offishul Boys in the Boat movie thread
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Not a suburban legend percreepycoug said:
It was reported to me by someone (another creepy tall tale I suppose) that Hume wasn't really that into having the big win be his primary identity in life, at least certainly not in the way it was for Rantz. The same source said that he had an aloof snicker (like most Oly guys, see our own @RaceBannon ) and was said to periodically chuckle - but not quite guffaw - over the fuss the other guysms made about it all.whlinder said:
Why do you hate knocking chicks up but not committing?RaceBannon said:
If he never married then he's a (gay) uncle not the dadwhlinder said:
So the Wikipedia entry is almost directly copy-pasta from the Boys in the Boat. It didn't mention him having a kid, but does mention him never marrying.RaceBannon said:Don Hume moved to Olympia and had a son I went to school with. He was a member of the Olympia Country and Golf Club and ran the Husky Coaches caravan when they came by every summer
You're welcome
But likely he was the uncle or the other dad. From his 2001 Obit:
https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/don-hume-member-of-uw-s-legendary-36-crew-team-1065992.php
The surviving members of the crew -- with the death of Hume, four are still living -- have continued to meet on a regular basis. The wild card was always Hume, who spent much of his time on the road, due to business.
"Ninety percent of the time you'd never know if Don would be there," Moch said. "But each time he'd show up, with a bottle of champagne in each hand."
Hume is survived by a brother, Dale, of Olympia.
Hume is also the guy, I believe, who stayed at the family residence in Everett after they moved to O Town to finish out college or something and, when it was time to go, packed his shit in an actual row boat and made his way down the sound. Maybe suburban legend, but with those guys that would not have been that crazy as it might sound to one us here in soft ass land.
https://www.cascadiadaily.com/news/2023/dec/19/uws-1936-olympic-rowers-shaped-by-hard-work-struggles/
The whole series on Hume and Adam is absolutely worth a read. -
I watched it.pawz said:
I really enjoyed the movie. I didn't suffer from having high expectations because Hollywood AWAYS water's down the original book.
Quite honestly, was pleasantly surprised by how much love UW got. Could it have been more? Sure. Am I going to hold it against the movie makers? Absolutely not.
The scene from the slum with the Smith Tower in the background could have been shot today. I know i know, TITTT.
Would have preferred a scene of Rantz's girl getting 8-manned (swidt?). Se la vie.
Will watch again.
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Except there was no dole for the Bums of ‘36 and unemployment was 25 percent.pawz said:
I watched it.pawz said:
I really enjoyed the movie. I didn't suffer from having high expectations because Hollywood AWAYS water's down the original book.
Quite honestly, was pleasantly surprised by how much love UW got. Could it have been more? Sure. Am I going to hold it against the movie makers? Absolutely not.
The scene from the slum with the Smith Tower in the background could have been shot today. I know i know, TITTT.
Would have preferred a scene of Rantz's girl getting 8-manned (swidt?). Se la vie.
Will watch again. -
Finally took the little pisses to the movie last week.
It was fine, but we're not going to win any Oscars with it.
Pros:
- So much FREE PUB for MY Team and MY University
- Little pisses all excited about row boat now and are doing erg pieces out in the garage and organized my collection of jerseys from the loser teams
- George Pocock scenes are cool (although they don't explain who this English guy is building the boat)
- They did a good job recreating the ASUW Shellhouse and what Montlake looked like in the early 30s after it was clear cut in previous decades.
- Ulbrickson's wife is hot AF
- Hitler got really mad at the end
Cons:
- They butchered the book and tried to condense 3 years of team history into 6 months (e.g., they didn't send the JV boat to Olympics); none UW rowing historians won't be as bothered by this.
- Little to no character development
- The recreated Lake Washington race course looks like nothing like the real thing (Poughkeepsie and Berlin looked more realistic)
- The quality of the rowing by these actors is terrible, but again the average movie goers won't notice or care -
Joe’s gal was wood worthy too.
Hoping Ubrickson’s wife gets some more roles with less clothes. -
But I was told Clooney hired the Olympic rowboat coach to work with the actors for 6 mos. Just what I heard, don’t twist.YellowSnow said:Finally took the little pisses to the movie last week.
It was fine, but we're not going to win any Oscars with it.
Pros:
- So much FREE PUB for MY Team and MY University
- Little pisses all excited about row boat now and are doing erg pieces out in the garage and organized my collection of jerseys from the loser teams
- George Pocock scenes are cool (although they don't explain who this English guy is building the boat)
- They did a good job recreating the ASUW Shellhouse and what Montlake looked like in the early 30s after it was clear cut in previous decades.
- Ulbrickson's wife is hot AF
- Hitler got really mad at the end
Cons:
- They butchered the book and tried to condense 3 years of team history into 6 months (e.g., they didn't send the JV boat to Olympics); none UW rowing historians won't be as bothered by this.
- Little to no character development
- The recreated Lake Washington race course looks like nothing like the real thing (Poughkeepsie and Berlin looked more realistic)
- The quality of the rowing by these actors is terrible, but again the average movie goers won't notice or care
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You can learn how to fake it in 6 months, but it won’t look pretty.pawz said:
But I was told Clooney hired the Olympic rowboat coach to work with the actors for 6 mos. Just what I heard, don’t twist.YellowSnow said:Finally took the little pisses to the movie last week.
It was fine, but we're not going to win any Oscars with it.
Pros:
- So much FREE PUB for MY Team and MY University
- Little pisses all excited about row boat now and are doing erg pieces out in the garage and organized my collection of jerseys from the loser teams
- George Pocock scenes are cool (although they don't explain who this English guy is building the boat)
- They did a good job recreating the ASUW Shellhouse and what Montlake looked like in the early 30s after it was clear cut in previous decades.
- Ulbrickson's wife is hot AF
- Hitler got really mad at the end
Cons:
- They butchered the book and tried to condense 3 years of team history into 6 months (e.g., they didn't send the JV boat to Olympics); none UW rowing historians won't be as bothered by this.
- Little to no character development
- The recreated Lake Washington race course looks like nothing like the real thing (Poughkeepsie and Berlin looked more realistic)
- The quality of the rowing by these actors is terrible, but again the average movie goers won't notice or care
And I don’t think they were doing college level practices 6 days a week. -
I watched it this week and Yellow Piss is pretty spot on (not shocking)
I had not read the book and loosely knew the story (WINNING) … but didn’t know the details
The JV boat thing made zero sense in the movie and felt like PURE HOLLYWOOD … to any sport knowledgeable person the idea that you’re going from novice to Olympic Champion in a 6-12 month period just isn’t believable
The lack of character development really didn’t sit right with me … the title is The Boys In The Boat but it feels like Rantz and everybody else. You shouldn’t leave the movie and feel like you don’t know who each rower was and what seat they were in
As others noted, the lack of an epilogue was a GIANT MISS
I’ll need Yella to confirm this or not … but did Cal actually give UW the money to get over the finish line? Feeling grateful to Cal about anything makes me feel sick
What I did like was I thought they did a good job of highlighting the struggles that many in that time period went through to just get to the next day
As a rowing novice I thought they did a good job of highlighting how important the midget runt coxswain is to the operation
All in all … the story is pleasant enough and hits the cliff notes of the story in a relatively watered down manner that is easily consumed
As others noted, this isn’t an award winning movie and it does make me wonder what could have been done with this story in the hands of a more experienced director -
Cal did not fund the last part. That was a Hollywood script edit. The boys were Washingtonians funded by Washingtonians winning for Washington.
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The piano playing scene was stupid and entirely unnecessary.
Joe losing his V card with Coukee City hookers would have been a better use of tim.
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We have kids that wanted to see the film @PurpleThrobber dont be selfish.PurpleThrobber said:The piano playing scene was stupid and entirely unnecessary.
Joe losing his V card with Coukee City hookers would have been a better use of tim. -
Kids today need to learn the facts of life just like we did - on the streets, on Cinemax and from dad’s stolen Playboy mags.YellowSnow said:
We have kids that wanted to see the film @PurpleThrobber dont be selfish.PurpleThrobber said:The piano playing scene was stupid and entirely unnecessary.
Joe losing his V card with Coukee City hookers would have been a better use of tim. -
Good … as always FUCK CALwhlinder said:Cal did not fund the last part. That was a Hollywood script edit. The boys were Washingtonians funded by Washingtonians winning for Washington.
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It was good character development … that they ended up doing nothing withPurpleThrobber said:The piano playing scene was stupid and entirely unnecessary.
Joe losing his V card with Coukee City hookers would have been a better use of tim.
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The Seattle Times kicked off donations with $500. Fundraising also was very much spearheaded by Royal Brougham at the times. Donations flooded in so fast from depression Era Washington they had the 5K in two days.whlinder said:Cal did not fund the last part. That was a Hollywood script edit. The boys were Washingtonians funded by Washingtonians winning for Washington.
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My child went a second time to see it, this time with her Penn State college friends and after having read the book. Her friends all liked the movie and none of them would have had any exposure to UW rowing in their lives (Pittsburgh/Philly/Boston).
It has also started showing up for rent on streaming services for those who are so inclined.
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If we’re all being honest this movie was just OK. Very B-movie-esque.
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Yeah butt still …. the circle-jerk of FREE PUB for the University of Warshington makes it an A+
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I think most people here as been fair in their reviews, myself included. I have more reason than anyone to doog out about the film, but having known the story well even before the book was written, I was bound to come away thinking it was "fine, but nothing special".
I could look up at the Big W Club Board in the Old Connie Shellhouse in the 90's and clearly see that Joe Rantz was a Varsity letter winner in 1935 and didn't just show up in 1936 to try out for crew.
But to @pawz 's point, any FREE PUB, is good FREE PUB and the average movie goer doesn't care about the minor details.
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3 part series challenging some of the narratives around the story of our 1936 team.
Part 1: Only Joe Rantz really qualified as a pour and they weren't a bunch of hillbillies. After all in the depression if you could get to college you were way ahead of the average American.
Part 2: We're Washington Dammit and winning was not surprising; the Eastern schools were maybe more elite but our team was still very well known and had already natty'd many times. Most of their coaches came from us anyway.
Part 3: The German 8 actually sucked and we were expected to win the Gold, though the Swiss kinda fucked themselves.
(Making the score closer than it should be due to the flu is a UW tradition)
Yeah, we've kinda summarized the issues we have with the movie. This does take some issues with the way the book frames their story, especially with Brown (and others) latching on to the "they were pours from farms who overcame great odds to beat the rich and Nazis" narrative.
Counter to this series is the fact we had to beg the people of Seattle to donate just to get to go, which was not an issue for the rich eastern schools.
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Kind of skimmed. I kind of laughed a bit when he mentioned 'Well Off' and Montesano in the same sentence. I'm certain the jeweler selling to loggers, farmers and fisherman of Montesano were constantly operating in the black. I kind of feel like the author doesn't truly understand what the PNW, or hell, America, but especially the PNW looked like 100 years ago. Yes, UW was good and respected, and that was definitely lost in the movie.
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He provides good commentary on how the @YellowSnow row boat journey is no longer possible…
The notion that rowing was dominated by the wealthy upper class in 1936 is just nonsense. Given the cost of the sport, the upper class may have had the most participants in the sport. But they were by no means always the most successful. When UW coach Al Ulbrickson spotted Joe Rantz working out in a high school gym in 1932, he didn’t ask him what his father did for a living. He saw a big strong kid he could mold into a rower and told him to come down to the boathouse when he got to UW. And UW had a lot of Joe Rantz types to build their rowing team. Brown tells us that 185 freshmen boys showed up to try out for crew Joe’s first year at UW. In 1935, it was 210.
Here’s your choice. You can try to build a rowing team with an incoming freshman squad of:
a) 200 country boys, many of them with years of farm or other manual work under their belts,b) 40 prep school boys who rowed a few months each spring on their school crew teams.
A crew coach in 1936 would take option a) every time. After one intense year of rowing on the freshman team, any advantages the prep school rowers would have from their limited prior experience would be erased.
Of course, things are very different today. At the top college programs, rowers now arrive on campus fully formed with years of experience rowing year-round and they go straight to the varsity. And most of them arrive from overseas, having rowed for years in international regattas. (The Washington men’s varsity eight that took second place at the 2023 IRAs had just one American among the nine boys in its boat, sitting in the bow seat.) There are no longer many varsity slots for U.S. prep school rowers in the top men’s rowing programs. And essentially no slots at all for athletes with no rowing experience.
But in 1936, start with the nation’s premier college rowing program and feed it 200 big, motivated guys each year, you’ve got a formula for success. It didn’t matter in the slightest what their parents did for a living. And make no mistake, the University of Washington had what was widely recognized as perhaps the nation’s premier college rowing program in 1936. That is the subject of Part 2 of this article, which will be published tomorrow.
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Agree. The movie takes way too many historical liberties for my taste.
I don't think Daniel James Brown does in the book, however. Joe Rantz is the main protagonist and was dirt ass poor. UW has won 3 natties in the 1920's but CAL was dominating of late and there was intense competition for Ulbrickson to get back to #1. And we did beat Hitler.
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Finally watched. I agree it's better if you aren't from Seattle or know anything. It was a good sports underdog movie and an enjoyable watch
But montlake looked like the everglades. The cut was complete in 1916 20 years before the movie. Many homes of that era are still there. Big mistake not using it
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Yes, but the cut of the 1930's didn't look much like today. This is 1925 but still. Pretty barren at the time.
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By the way the 1936 football team played in the Rose Bowl
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And lost to MY (grandfather's) Pittsburgh Panthers
Roar? Snarl? Purr?
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But lost to the Steel City in the Rose Bowl.
