Harvard Beats Yale 29-29

Playing at the Kimball Theatre this week is Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. This documentary tells the story of an infamous November 1968 matchup between the two schools’ football teams. Through interviews and an old copy of the game, filmmaker Kevin Rafferty lets the players tell what they went through on the field as well as off the field.

Rafferty was able to interview most of the players on both the Harvard and Yale teams. He interviewed the stars, key players, and Tommy Lee Jones; who played on the Harvard squad that year. Also on the Crimson squad was George Bush’s roommate while he was at Harvard. These interviews give you an insight into familiar characters as well as the players who made this game such a memorable one.

The simplicity of this film is noticeable right away. As shown in the credits, Kevin Rafferty directed, produced, filmed, and edited the film by himself. While there aren’t any graphics or sound effects, the film doesn’t require any. Rafferty lets the material stand by itself. Giving us this film with no frills tells the audience the director is confident with his material and he thinks the story is strong enough naked.

Although this film’s outcome it apparent upon seeing the trailer, it doesn’t detract from the tension. You saw this recently in Slumdog Millionaire. In the end, Harvard and Yale end up tied at 29. This detail helps build suspense because with 42 seconds left, the game wasn’t close. While the director drags out those 42 seconds, you are thinking, “No this is impossible!” As the seconds count off, the tension grows wondering how they are going to do it. I won’t spoil it but the score ends up 29-29.

Also in the film was Dr. George Bass, an Associate professor of Education at William and Mary played left tackle for Yale at the time. Even though he was injured early in the game, Bass remembers the experience fondly and thought the film was a great representation of what happened that day. Since he was on crutches the coach told him to head towards the locker room with only a minute left and Yale up by 16. By the time he had made it to the other end zone, Harvard had scored and recovered their onside kick. He remembers being dumbfounded that they did not win. But like other players on the Yale squad, he knows the game would not be remembered today if it had not ended in a tie.

Taylor Roesch