Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29 – 8

After a great game – and this was inarguably a great game – what’s more fun than sitting around dissecting the key plays? Now imagine having the chance to do that with all the key players who were involved in that game! Well, that’s only part of the pleasure of this film, which shows the TV replay of the Harvard-Yale game in 1968. An equal pleasure is meeting up with the participants 40 years later, seeing the contrast between the Yalies and the Harvards, seeing how they have come to terms with the event for which they all, except for Tommy Lee Jones, will best be remembered by history. Needless to say, the Crimson alums came across as more diverse, less privileged, less arrogant, and were especially fun to relate to the classmates I had just seen at my 40^th reunion. (One also wondered about Mike Bouscaren: was he joking when he described his evil intentions, and if so, does he think anyone other than his close friends will get it?) Kevin Rafferty’s documentary style – one camera, one interviewer, graphics-free credits – also reminded one that characters and the story make the movie, not bells and whistles.