verbatim: Two Thumbs Up

I'm starting to believe that any documentary that begins with the letter M has to be a winner. I've already reported that "March of the Penguins" was breathtaking and that "Mad Hot Ballroom" was beautiful and touching. Add to the list "Murderball," which just blew me away this weekend. It's the story of the U.S. quadriplegic rugby team, but if you think you're in for a feel-good human-interest story or a don't-drive-drunk pity-party, you're only about 10% right. This is an amazing look at real people whose lives changed in just about the hugest way imaginable (nearly everyone featured broke his neck in his teens or twenties) and how they moved on with their lives. In one of the special features on the DVD (trust me, you won't be able to get enough of these guys), Larry "What an Idiot" King asks them what they'd do if someone came to them with a magic pill that would make them able-bodied again, and not one of them said they'd take it. They are medal-winning athletes who travel the world, meet lots of people, get interviewed on TV, have wives and girlfriends, etc. They claim that they're living a life that is in many ways greater than what they ever dreamed for themselves. Most of them are also doing very rewarding work helping newly injured people (including soldiers arriving home from Iraq without limbs) realize that a full life is available to them. I promise you, once you meet Mark Zupan and his teammates, you'll never look at a person in a wheelchair the same again.