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Editor's Note
The undefeated Ivy League football teams of Harvard and Yale clashed in 1968 for the championship. This documentary tells the story of the famed game and its stunning stalemate. The participants--including linebacker-turned-actor Tommy Lee Jones--offer fresh perspectives and the flavor of the time in this winning film from Kevin Rafferty (THE ATOMIC CAFE).
| Features | An incredible true story that unfolds like ?a ripping good yarn... With an uproarious, impossible Hollywood ending? (Andrew O?Hehir, Salon.com), Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is filmmaker Kevin Rafferty?s (The Atomic Cafe) acclaimed documentary depicting one of the most legendary games in the history of sports. Harvard Stadium ? November 23, 1968. With Vietnam raging, Nixon in the | | White House, and issues from civil rights to women's lib dividing the country, Harvard and Yale, both teams undefeated for the first time since 1909, meet for the annual climax of the Ivy League football season. On the blue-blooded Yale campus, gridiron fever has made local celebrities out of a Yale team led by quarterback Brian Dowling, who hadn?t lost a game that he finished since the 7th grade, and who was the role model for Doonesbury?s ?B.D.? At civil unrest scarred Harvard, a melting pot team of working class players, antiwar activists, and a decorated Vietnam vet set aside their differences for the Big Game. Together, Yale and Harvard stage an unforgettable football contest that baffled even their own coaches. Using vintage game footage and bracingly honest contemporary interviews with the players from both sides, including Harvard lineman and future Oscar® winner Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men), Rafferty crafts an | | alternately suspenseful, hilarious, and poignant portrait of American lives, American sports, and American ideals both tested on the playing field and transformed by turbulent times. |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 - DVD Review By: Paul Brenner - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 7/17/2009 4:48 PM | |
Whoa! What excitement! Hang onto your hats boys and girls, let's just watch! In the energizing sports documentary Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, announcer Don Gillis's voice is the truest form of escape for a world on the brink and even though this is really just the play-by-play for a 40-year-old matchup (though a famous one among those who care about such things as college football), Gillis's undiluted calling of the shots refreshes like a Detroit auto executive waiting for a government bailout of GM. The football game in question is the legendary final season game between Harvard and Yale on November 23, 1968, the first time the two teams met undefeated since 1909....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Kino International |
| Release Date: 8/4/2009 |
| Running Time: 105 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 6532 | | UPC: 00738329065324 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"[F]ilmmaker Kevin Rafferty makes the case for remembrance and for the art of the story in the preposterously entertaining documentary HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29..." 11/19/2008Los Angeles Times
"HARVARD BEATS YALE is both an irresistible human story and as fine a documentary on football as HOOP DREAMS was on basketball....The structure is especially effective because if the passing of 40 years does nothing else, it lends perspective to passions and memories." 03/06/2009 Entertainment Weekly
"Told through a mix of vintage game clips and new interviews with the graying players, this doc shows how competition can build character." -- Grade: A 08/07/2009 |
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