Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
Encyclopedia
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is a 2008
documentary
by filmmaker Kevin Rafferty
, covering the 1968 meeting
between the football teams of Yale
and Harvard in their storied rivalry. The game has been called "the most famous football game in Ivy League
history".
of the WHDH
telecast, with Don Gillis doing the play-by-play
. The film was set to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1968 game between Yale and Harvard.
The documentary includes game footage with contemporary interviews with the men who played that day, as well as contextual commentary about the Vietnam War
, the sexual revolution
, Garry Trudeau
's Yale cartoons, and various players' relationships with George W. Bush
(Yale), Al Gore
(Harvard), and Meryl Streep
(Vassar
).
were each undefeated with 6-0 records in their conference (8-0 overall) when they met for their season's final game on November 23, 1968 at Harvard Stadium
. Led by their quarterback captain Brian Dowling, Yale was heavily favored to win and they quickly led the game 22–0. With two minutes remaining on the clock they still led 29–13. As the last seconds ticked down, Harvard, coached by John Yovicsin
, tied the game, scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds. The Harvard Crimson
declared victory with a famous headline, "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29," providing the title for Rafferty’s documentary.
of Village Voice wrote "This may or may not be the greatest instance of college football ever played, but Brian's Song
, Jerry Maguire
, and The Longest Yard notwithstanding, Rafferty's no-frills annotated replay is the best football movie I've ever seen: A particular day in history becomes a moment out of time." Michael Sragow
of the Baltimore Sun called the film "Kevin Rafferty's magnum opus". Mark Feeney
of Boston Globe called the film "terrifically entertaining". Manhola Dargis of the New York Times found the film to be "preposterously entertaining". Tom Keogh of Seattle Times called it a "a delightful documentary". In greater depth, Bob Hoover
of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
wrote "Despite his annoying style of lingering a bit too long on his subjects, Rafferty, mainly a TV documentary maker, pries fascinating stories and insights from the now aging players," and Kenneth Turan
of Los Angeles Times
wrote "A look at the legendary Nov. 23, 1968, game, "Harvard Beats Yale" is both an irresistible human story and as fine a documentary on football as "Hoop Dreams
" was on basketball", calling the film "a memorable winner". He further notes that the passage of 40 years allowed a unique perspective as the players spoke about "what was not only the game of their careers but possibly the experience of their lives", and made note of how time led to other celebrity for some of the players, with Tommy Lee Jones
becoming an Oscar-winning actor, Brian Dowling becoming the character "B.D." in the Doonesbury
comic strip (Garry Trudeau
attended Yale), and player Bob Levin remembering dating a Vassar undergraduate named Meryl Streep
."
Underscoring that the film had appeal to more than just sports fans, Bruce Elder
of All Movie Guide
began his review with "it is only fair of this writer to point out that he cares not one whit about, and has not a scintilla of interest in football. Having said that, we can also say, without equivocation, that Kevin Rafferty's Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is a dazzling, engrossing, must-see piece of film all about...football. Except that it's also about a lot more."
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
by filmmaker Kevin Rafferty
Kevin Rafferty
Kevin Rafferty is an American documentary film cinematographer, director, and producer, best known for his 1982 documentary The Atomic Cafe.-Background:...
, covering the 1968 meeting
1968 Yale vs. Harvard football game
The 1968 Yale vs. Harvard football game was an American college football game between the team of Yale University and the team of Harvard University played on November 23, 1968. The game ended in a tie with a score of 29–29...
between the football teams of Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and Harvard in their storied rivalry. The game has been called "the most famous football game in Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
history".
Production
Created essentially as a one-man production, Rafferty followed a simple production plan by inter-cutting broadcast video of the game with interviews he'd done with close to 50 of the surviving players. The broadcast video was a color kinescopeKinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
of the WHDH
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
telecast, with Don Gillis doing the play-by-play
Sports commentator
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
. The film was set to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1968 game between Yale and Harvard.
The documentary includes game footage with contemporary interviews with the men who played that day, as well as contextual commentary about the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
, Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
's Yale cartoons, and various players' relationships with George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
(Yale), Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
(Harvard), and Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
(Vassar
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
).
Story
For the first time since 1909, the football teams of Harvard and YaleYALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
were each undefeated with 6-0 records in their conference (8-0 overall) when they met for their season's final game on November 23, 1968 at Harvard Stadium
Harvard Stadium
Harvard Stadium is a horseshoe-shaped football stadium in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Built in 1903, the stadium seats 30,323. The stadium seated up to 57,166 in the past, as permanent steel stands were installed in the north end of the stadium in 1929...
. Led by their quarterback captain Brian Dowling, Yale was heavily favored to win and they quickly led the game 22–0. With two minutes remaining on the clock they still led 29–13. As the last seconds ticked down, Harvard, coached by John Yovicsin
John Yovicsin
John Michael Yovicsin was an American football player and coach. He played college football at Gettysburg College from 1937 to 1939 and then professionally with Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL in 1944...
, tied the game, scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds. The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
declared victory with a famous headline, "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29," providing the title for Rafferty’s documentary.
Cast
- Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
as himself - Harvard Tackle - Brian Dowling as himself
- Don Gillis as himself
- George Bass as himself – Yale Tackle
- Frank Champi as himself – Harvard Quarterback
- Bruce Freeman as himself – Harvard End
- Rick Frisbie as himself – Harvard Cornerback
- Vic GattoVic Gatto-External links:...
as himself – Harvard Captain - Kyle Gee as himself – Yale Tackle
- J.P. Goldsmith as himself – Yale Safety
- Calvin HillCalvin HillCalvin G. Hill is a retired American football running back who had a 12-year NFL career from 1969 to 1981. He played for the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns...
as himself – Yale Halfback (archive footage) - Ray Hornblower as himself – Harvard Halfback
- Ron Kell as himself – Yale Defensive Back
- Mick Kleber as himself – Yale Defensive Guard
- Bob Levin as himself – Yale Fullback
- Ted LivingstonTed LivingstonTed Livingston is a former professional American football player who played offensive lineman for four seasons for the Cleveland Rams....
as himself – Yale Tackle - Fred Morris as himself – Yale Center
- Ted Skowronski as himself – Harvard Center
- Bruce WeinsteinBruce WeinsteinBruce Weinstein is an American ethicist who hosts "Ask the Ethics Guy!," a question-and-answer series on Bloomberg Businessweek online and writes an ethics column there...
as himself – Yale End - Mike Bouscaren as himself – Yale Linebacker
Reception
The documentary received numerous positive reviews: Steven Rea of Philadelphia Inquirer wrote "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is a comeback story, a classic underdog yarn. But this winning doc also offers serious reflection on how events from our past continue to loom large in our lives - as regrets still counted, as lessons learned, as triumphs that awe and amaze." J. HobermanJ. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
of Village Voice wrote "This may or may not be the greatest instance of college football ever played, but Brian's Song
Brian's Song
Brian's Song is a 1971 ABC Movie of the Week that recounts the details of the life of Brian Piccolo , a Wake Forest University football player stricken with terminal cancer after turning pro, told through his friendship with Chicago Bears running back teammate and Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale...
, Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe...
, and The Longest Yard notwithstanding, Rafferty's no-frills annotated replay is the best football movie I've ever seen: A particular day in history becomes a moment out of time." Michael Sragow
Michael Sragow
Michael Sragow is a film critic and columnist who has written for The Baltimore Sun, The New Times, The New Yorker , The Atlantic and salon.com...
of the Baltimore Sun called the film "Kevin Rafferty's magnum opus". Mark Feeney
Mark Feeney
Mark Feeney is a Pulitzer Prize-winning arts critic for The Boston Globe. Feeney graduated from Harvard in 1979 and has been working for the paper almost ever since, as a researcher, writer, and editor, in various capacities. Feeney is also the author of the book Nixon at the Movies. In addition,...
of Boston Globe called the film "terrifically entertaining". Manhola Dargis of the New York Times found the film to be "preposterously entertaining". Tom Keogh of Seattle Times called it a "a delightful documentary". In greater depth, Bob Hoover
Bob Hoover
Robert A. "Bob" Hoover is a former air show pilot and United States Air Force test pilot, known for his wide-brimmed straw hat and wide smile. In aviation circles, he is often referred to as "The pilots' pilot."-Aviation career:...
of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
wrote "Despite his annoying style of lingering a bit too long on his subjects, Rafferty, mainly a TV documentary maker, pries fascinating stories and insights from the now aging players," and Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
of Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wrote "A look at the legendary Nov. 23, 1968, game, "Harvard Beats Yale" is both an irresistible human story and as fine a documentary on football as "Hoop Dreams
Hoop Dreams
Hoop Dreams is a 1994 documentary film directed by Steve James, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students in Chicago and their dream of becoming professional basketball players....
" was on basketball", calling the film "a memorable winner". He further notes that the passage of 40 years allowed a unique perspective as the players spoke about "what was not only the game of their careers but possibly the experience of their lives", and made note of how time led to other celebrity for some of the players, with Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
becoming an Oscar-winning actor, Brian Dowling becoming the character "B.D." in the Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
comic strip (Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
attended Yale), and player Bob Levin remembering dating a Vassar undergraduate named Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
."
Underscoring that the film had appeal to more than just sports fans, Bruce Elder
Bruce Elder
Bruce Elder is a journalist, writer and commentator. He is currently a full-time journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald specialising in travel and popular culture. His other areas of expertise include film, television, and popular music. He has written extensively around Australia and has a...
of All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
Allrovi is a commercial database launched by the Rovi Corporation in 2011. It compiles information about music and movies from the former services Allmovie and Allmusic.-Content:...
began his review with "it is only fair of this writer to point out that he cares not one whit about, and has not a scintilla of interest in football. Having said that, we can also say, without equivocation, that Kevin Rafferty's Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is a dazzling, engrossing, must-see piece of film all about...football. Except that it's also about a lot more."
External links
- Arts of War on the Web review, November 20, 2008
- Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 at All Movie GuideAll Movie GuideAllrovi is a commercial database launched by the Rovi Corporation in 2011. It compiles information about music and movies from the former services Allmovie and Allmusic.-Content:...
- Official web site