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Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
EMAILPRINTKevin Rafferty Productions
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by: Kevin Rafferty
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 19, 2008
DVD: July 28, 2009
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
The movie Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is, on one level, about a football game. Director Kevin Rafferty allows fifty of the players from he game to tell the story. On another level the film is about 1968—Vietnam, SDS, birth control, fate, class, tear gas and sex. (Kino International)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Village Voice J. Hoberman
This may or may not be the greatest instance of college football ever played, but "Brian's Song," J"erry 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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Filmmaker Kevin Rafferty makes the case for remembrance and for the art of the story in his preposterously entertaining documentary Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, preposterous at least for those of us who routinely shun that pagan sacrament.
Read Full Review >Variety John Anderson
How many thrillers could put the outcome in the title and still provide as many white-knuckle moments as Harvard Beats Yale 29-29?
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Not just a great sports movie, Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 captures a pivotal moment in recent history.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The aura of shock-and-awe surrounding this game is laid on a bit thick, and sometimes you feel like you're just watching an ESPN special. Still, it's fun. The interviewees include Harvard's stone-cold-serious Tommy Lee Jones and Brian Dowling, Yale's wonder-boy quarterback who became the model for B.D. in classmate Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Both an irresistible human story and as fine a documentary on football as "Hoop Dreams" was on basketball.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
A ripping good yarn, like a Fitzgerald short story rewritten by John Updike, with an uproarious, impossible Hollywood ending.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Even if you're familiar with the details of the game, Rafferty's suspenseful editing draws you to the edge of your seat and beyond, back into 1968 itself.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
An engaging chronicle not only of a memorable game but also of an era that seems at once more innocent and combustible than our own.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The film isn't much as cinema, but it doesn't really matter. The final half-hour, in particular, generates the sort of suspense you rarely get in a sports documentary.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Mark Feeney
The larger point Harvard Beats Yale makes, perhaps, is about the inevitability of loss. Many of these men, now in their early 60s, look terrific. Others, let us say, do not. Either way, all of them look very different from the helmeted young athletes of 40 years ago. A sense of mortality shadows the documentary. On or off the gridiron, time is the only opponent who always wins. Even at Harvard, even at Yale.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The 37 Yale and Harvard players Rafferty interviews are such a rich and articulate cast of characters that the season leading up to the game and the game itself become an epic story.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Much like the recent "remember when" documentary "Man On Wire," Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 builds strong momentum in its home stretch, and sends the audience out on a high.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Rafferty keeps the structure so blandly standard, the title is nearly the most intriguing element of the whole film.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Nor does the movie try to use the game to make some larger point. Here's one: Even at its best and luckiest hour, Harvard can aspire only to equal Yale.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John gave it a10:
Great! It is difficult to understand why this movie would be so riviting given that this is Ivy league football and 40 years ago. But the players are great characters and the game may be the most suspenseful of all time. Must see!
Edward K gave it a9:
An excellent documentary. As a Yale graduate, I hated the ending, of course, but I loved the film. It's really about the players and their roller-coaster of emotions during and since The Game. Except for "Man on Wire" it's the best documentary I've seen in years.
