I had read the book many years ago, and saw the movie for the first time last night. This is the story of the 1987 Boat Race (NOT 1986), and many who were close to those events have claimed the book inhabits something of a world of fiction. Regardless of whether or not that is true, the movie most certainly does, suffering acutely from two problems. The first is trying to dramatise a real-life story but not be sued out of existence by those portrayed as less than perfect in character, especially if they are Americans, and the second is needing actors to acquire specialist skills in a very short space of time. So the rowing scenes looked pretty awful, except for the long-range shots with real rowers, and they didn't even attempt to make sure they sourced equipment of the correct era. But to the non-rower, apart from Topolski and McDonald, everyone else seemed to be a cardboard cut-out of someone else. And then there were the accents. I have never met McDonald, but thought he was a Scot, not an upper-class Englishman. I have met Topolski, whose famous artist father Feliks was Polish, but left there ten years before Dan's birth. I think Dan was born in Britain, and certainly sounds as British as can be, so why cast a Belgian to play him with a Polish accent? I am a rower, and also a Cambridge man. Ultimately, since they were going to play so extremely fast and loose with the events of 1987, why couldn't they also depict a happy ending, with Oxford as gallant losers, but Cambridge well out in front????
Review of True Blue
