The fortitude and teamwork behind the group of underprivileged young men spotlighted in “The Boys in the Boat” is why actor George Clooney chose to direct the upcoming Christmas release.
That’s what Mr. Clooney, now 62, and at the top of the Hollywood A-list, said in one of the recent interviews he gave the press while promoting the biopic.
“It’s about the journey to get there, which I think is the important part,” he said.
The film, which is Clooney’s ninth movie as director and seventh that’s set in the 50-year period between the 1920s and 1970s, is based on the true story as told in Daniel James Brown’s 2013 book. It centers around the University of Washington’s eight-oared crew team and their quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Set in Seattle, Washington against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the impending threat of World War II, the story follows its protagonist Joe Rantz and his journey from a beleaguered upbringing to becoming an Olympic gold medalist.
Rantz, alongside his other young teammates, who are also from blue-collar backgrounds, are guided by their coach, Al Ulbrickson. They learn to set aside individual differences and through pure grit and determination work together to triumphantly make it to the 1936 Games in Nazi Berlin, presided over by Adolf Hitler.
Before Tinseltown
“It’s a funny thing because things have worked out for me later in life,” Mr. Clooney told The Christian Post, as he recalled his days as a tobacco farmer cutting tobacco for $3 an hour and his time when he first moved to California when he didn’t have a car or insurance.“You don’t forget what it’s like to parse out how you’re going to pay for food, what you can afford and what you can’t afford,” he said. “You watch [Joel] go to the soup line, and he ends up not getting it because he sees a kid there that would recognize him. And so I absolutely related to that as a human being.”
Mr. Clooney said he “understood the idea of living, no check to no check mostly, and trying to live on the floor of a closet for five years and relying on the kindness of my friends, and sometimes my family.”
The “Oceans 11” actor also said that Rantz’s story was “especially compelling and a testament to the power of sheer will in the face of poverty.”
Trauma Brings People Together
Mr. Clooney also pointed to the story’s theme of cohesiveness and the ability for people to come together despite their differences. He likened that to the state of America and its current divisiveness.“I think that we’ve all been beating each other up a lot for the last few years. I go home to visit my friends from Kentucky, who probably don’t vote the same, and we all really like each other, and we all get along, we all root for one another. I think we forget that sometimes, and we lose sight of it,” he told the Post.
“Even when there’s great trauma, like there was during the Depression, and there certainly has been recently, and people seem so divided, the reality is we’re probably not really (as divided). We all kind of root for one another. We all, for the most part, care about one another,” he continued. “And all those things on the fringes are just distractions from the idea that working hard together is the only way we get it done.”
When asked why he is so drawn to the mid-20th century, Mr. Clooney chalked it up to nostalgia.
During the holiday season, the actor said he hopes “The Boys in the Boat” serves as an uplifting and meaningful reminder about the depth of human endurance and the power of teamwork.
“This is a story about people coming together. You can’t do it on your own. You have to do it together. I felt like I needed it. We felt like it was a good time around Christmas to remind ourselves that, in general, we’re really better together. I liked that theme,” he said.
“All of these guys went on to do some really unique and beautiful things,” he added. “They all became something pretty special.”
