The Boys in the Boat proves uplifting cliches are worthwhile
Jeremiah Poff
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If I can offer one bit of moviegoing advice this week, it’s to go see the George Clooney-directed film The Boys in the Boat.
Replete with typical sports movie cliches and a feel-good story, the movie recounts the tale of the junior varsity eight-man rowing team from the University of Washington that competed at the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany.
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The movie is based on a book by the same name and stands apart from most of Hollywood’s productions these days in its simplistic, feel-good storytelling that is free of any underlying intersectional agenda. It is a two-hour boat ride of fun that celebrates an underdog story anyone can identify with.
Sitting in the theater watching this team of college athletes row their way to Olympic glory, I found myself tensing as if I were watching a live sporting event, rooting for that crew of blue-collar boys as they battled legacy rowing schools such as Harvard, Yale, and Cal and unable to suppress a smile as they celebrated victory after victory.
We tend to often ridicule cliches, whether they be in real life or in the arts. We groan at cheesy pickup lines, and we roll our eyes at the action hero’s one-liner as he attempts an impossible rescue and emerges triumphant. We’ve all seen it play out a million times.
But the cliches that remind us that it is good to be human and there are good things in this world are worth embracing. The Boys in the Boat is full of cliches, from the suspense filled rowing races to the cheesy lines about how rowing changed the lives of that group of nine college athletes from a state university in the Pacific Northwest.
It’s OK to be cheesy, and it’s OK to be cliche. There’s something perfectly good about cracking a smile while reliving the inspirational story of a team of champions who reached their heights 88 years ago. Sometimes we need a healthy dose of cliche in our lives.