Concussion (2015) Movie Review
Concussion (2015) Movie Review
Concussion was intense, well-written, and fun to watch. It was intense in the sense that it was emotionally intense, not violent and action-packed. This was a very emotional movie, and it had some parts that really made you think.
There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just tell you: Mike Webster was really creepy. I’m talking about a guy who died of a heart attack because his brain smashed against his skull a few too many times. I guess he really enjoyed football, but playing it had a cost: his sanity. The guy was insane beyond help. He was ripping his teeth out of his mouth and super-gluing them back in. That is the mark of the madman right there. Mike was dying, mentally and physically. He then paid the price of all that football: death. As they said in the movie, playing football killed Mike Webster. To me, this was a little scary, especially because I played football. He was really in rough shape, limping around, looking like he just got attacked by a grizzly bear, looking very cold, in raggedy clothes, his hair afright. Mike, to be honest, really weirded me out.
I couldn’t figure out why everyone made such a big deal about Mike Webster and not Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk and Andre Waters when they all had the same disease/experience/death. Bennet stressed out over Mike way more than the rest, maybe because the others weren’t groundbreaking. The NFL didn’t freak over any of them except for Dave Duerson.
The way Justin Strzelczyk and Mike Webster had a friendship was interesting. They both seemed to know the other was about to die or something. Also, one thing about Mike Webster was that he was really old, even though he was only fifty. Fifty isn’t old to a lot of people. But to football, it’s old. No fifty-year-old plays football except for Mike Webster. So why the heck was he so old? It was strange to see that old man in football pads wrestling guys decades younger than him.
Bennet was pretty cool. It took me a second to realize that Will Smith’s voice was not actually like that, because I have seen Men In Black. He definitely made it seem like he was not American, which was good, because he wasn’t. It seemed like he had a couple things going on for him: his work, his country, and his family. I will talk about each one of these, starting with work.
It was very strange the way he hated blood and was a surgeon. Anyone who hates blood in my mind should not be a surgeon. Yet, he did not say his job was just a plain surgeon, so maybe he liked the other part of it better. When he said that he wanted someone else to find the concussions in football, not him, that was somewhat relatable. Sometimes I have something I don’t want and think, “can’t some other guy have to do this?” For me, it was a tiny bit difficult when he was at work and explaining what his job was. He said what he did for a living in pure adult language. Is it me, or do other kids not know what a forensic pathologist is? The job name does not really match with, “oh, I cut dead corpses up with knives and do tests on their brains and liver and see why they died, of course.” So that was a little confusing. But over all, I liked his work.
When he did the test on Mike Webster’s brain sample, the movie made it obvious that something was clearly wrong with it, even though I do not specialize in messed-up brain samples. When he shook the fruit (brain) up in the jar (skull) it was very dramatic, and it made an obvious connection to what the items were supposed to be. It also made me think about the dangers of sports and football.
Even though football is dangerous to some extent, it makes me think about if other sports are harmful to different parts of the body. Like in soccer, if pressure on shin guards presses into your bones and damages your leg use, or something. I don’t know. Whatever, back to the point. It made me wonder about other sports, such as soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming, or running, and if they cause deadly side-effects also.
I could see why the NFL in this movie hated Bennet. He was basically criticizing their elite, popular, organization. It was odd in the end when they said the NFL knew all along about the concussion dangers of football. Even if we knew that the NFL had kind of a hidden dark side in this movie, they could’ve announced it earlier than the end of the movie. But the NFL didn’t even think they were that bad. They probably weren't even the bad guys of the movie. In fact, they thought they were saviors. They gave thousands of kids educations (full football scholarships) and gave hope to the hearts of many. Yet, they seemed very antagonist-like. Maybe because we weren’t really in the education world, but we were in the medical world, so we cared much more about the medical issues. But still, I think football was the main villain. It was the source of the problems, author of agony, and bringer of death in this movie.
So, for the second part of Bennet’s section in this review: his country. I couldn’t tell what he wanted most; to be a true American or have his work succeed. He said he wanted to be an American most of all, but the entire movie was about his work. In the end, he becomes part of the United States of America, and I guess he is happy about it.
Family: I saw Bennet and Prema getting married several miles away. It was very obvious. For a child like me, it was hard to tell when Prema had lost her baby. I had to ask my dad what had just happened. Also, who was in the car that was seemingly chasing her? It was very unknown. It still is. I would like to know who was in the car and what was actually happening. That confused me. The epilogue said that the family, in the end, had two children. But it only showed one kid, so they could’ve showed us the other offspring. And when Bennet started punching holes into his new wall in his new house, that was unexpected. I didn’t really see a reason for him to be that mad. I mean, I know work wasn’t going exactly as planned, but was that good enough of an excuse to slash a big wooden plank into a wall and have a giant hole forever? Eh… not in my opinion.
So, Bennet was probably the best character. Dr. Maroon was my least favorite character. That’s all I have to say about that sniveling, mindless, dumb mean guy. What other characters were there… oh yeah: Julian Bailes. Even though he is a main-ish character, he doesn’t mean much to me. I mean, he’s OK as a character, but I don’t have much thought on him. He’s just another doctor. I’ve seen enough doctors for awhile thanks to this movie.
What else… it was weird how much Bennet watched live football on fields when pretty much the entire thing is a campaign against part of football. Was he watching it and thinking, “You know, maybe football is actually a really fun and cool sport.”? Or was he thinking, “Wow, football looks as pointless as can be. I’m glad I never played it. I promise I never will.”? Or was the dude just studying it? They could’ve explained that further.
One thing I did not realize until the end was that Prema liked football, enough to scream at the TV while watching it, which shows you the level of football liking that is going on there (although, we all must admit, we have shouted or even screamed at the TV while watching football once or twice… or a lot).
Another thing I didn’t notice until the end was how little humor was in this film. Overall, it was a pretty serious movie. There was little of the following: humor, action, or orcas involved. That’s right, there weren’t that many orcas. But still, it wasn’t really going to be a funny movie. Or an action flick. It was clear that it was going to be a more subtle, solemn movie. But also, they could have added a few laughs to liven it up. Dr. Maroon is still bad. I think he is worse now than he was the last time his name came up! That creep. Anyway, this was a great movie. I don’t know why it got such a low score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it gets a pretty swell score here on my website: 91%. So, if you just happen to come across this movie, make sure you end up watching it. It’s worth a buck or two. Good job on this movie, Columbia Pictures.
