The Boys in the Boat is a 2023 period sports drama film directed by George Clooney, based on the 2013 book of the same name by Daniel James Brown. It follows the underdog story of a rowing team from the University of Washington as they compete their way up from their home university, facing first the more experienced Washington varsity rowing team, then Ivy League colleges, and finally Nazi Germany at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Callum Turner and Joel Edgerton star as rower Joe Rantz and coach Al Ulbrickson.
The Boys in the Boat contains examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The movie presents the boys as having all joined the rowing team in 1936 and having been a single team for all their races. The movie also suggests that the entirety of the story took place over one year. In real life, many of the boys joined the rowing program in different years (Joe joined in 1933), and while they were all part of UW crew, rowed in different boats. Finally, only three races are shown in the movie, with the Poughkeepsie race being the Olympic qualifier. In real life, the boys did win the Poughkeepsie race in 1936, but the Olympic qualifying race was separate and took place at Princeton. From the book
- The movie also streamlined Joe and Joyce's relationship. In the movie they're portrayed as childhood sweethearts who lost touch after Joyce moved away and rekindle their romantic interest in each other as college students. In real life, while Joe and Joyce were separated for a while as teens, by the time they graduate high school they are engaged, and Joyce is described in the book as having explicitly gone to Seattle to be near Joe, rather than running into him again by chance.
- Adaptational Personality Change: In the book, Roger is described as gruff and quiet. In the movie, he is quite talkative and openly friendly.
- Almighty Janitor: George Pocock manages the gear and builds new boats for the team, also being considerably older than Coach Ulbrickson. Ulbrickson nonetheless does turn to him for advice from time to time and Joe helps maintain the shop as he becomes a mentor figure.
- Always Someone Better: The varsity UW team thinks they're this for the junior varsity team, taunting them for feeling tired after their first day of training and confidently assuming Ulbrickson is about to announce he's going to send them to Poughkeepsie.
- Based on a True Story: Some of the elements that seem like they would have been added for drama (Don Hume getting sick right before the final, the city of Seattle having to raise money to fund the trip) happened in real life.
- Big Damn Kiss: Joe gets off the train to give Joyce one after having previously given her a casual kiss on the cheek before he boarded the train. His decision to go back may have been due to Joyce telling him shortly before that she was in love with him.
- The Cameo: Jesse Owens has a short conversation with the boys at the opening ceremony, saying he wants to prove his worth not to the Germans, but to people in the United States.
- Chastity Couple: Joe and Joyce are the main couple, but are never seen doing anything more than kissing. At one point they are alone in Joyce's dorm room, but she asks Joe to turn around while she changes out of her party dress and simply puts on a normal outfit.
- The Big Race: Several, but the Olympic final is obviously the biggest.
- Crowd Chant: The German crowds during the Olympics shouting "Deutschland" before the final starts.
- David Versus Goliath: The Goliath role is variously taken on by the UW varsity team, Cal, the Ivy League Teams, and then the Germans.
- Defeat Means Respect: Ky Ebright, coach for the Cal Bears rowing team, gives the UW team the last $300 (worth roughly $6,835 in 2023) they need to get to Berlin as a sign of his respect for Ulbrickson and the team.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance:
- The team go to the 1936 Olympics in Germany overseen by Adolf Hitler. There is a slight unease to all of the Nazi symbology but is more treated as national rivals or an Opposing Sports Team, as they had not quite earned their infamy at this point.
- Joe's dad had left the family trying to find work in another city, so Joe basically took care of himself. A random encounter finds that he had moved back some time earlier and never bothered to contact him. A Disappeared Dad trope of this type would typically be unforgiveable, but given the circumstances of The Great Depression the messy situation wasn't good for anyone. He even told Joe they don't owe each other anything.
- Disappeared Dad: Joe's dad left him for work and so he had largely lived on his own since he was 14. He randomly comes across his dad picking up materials, having moved back in town some time ago. While not a pleasant encounter, his dad considers himself a failure and felt Joe was doing just fine without him.
- Down to the Last Play: A three-way finish between the US, Germany, and Italy is too close to call in the moment and requires a photo to confirm the winner.
- Drench Celebration: The boys throw Bobby into the water in celebration after their first win.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Averted since the Space Needle wasn't built until 1962, almost thirty years after the movie is set. However, an establishing shot of the Seattle skyline does show Smith Tower, which was built in 1914 and was the tallest building in Seattle until the Space Needle.
- A later shot of what is meant to be the Montlake Cut, the canal where the UW team trains, has the Montlake Bridge in full view.
- Enter Stage Window: Joe is forced to climb out of Joyce's dormitory window to escape when a dorm caretaker realizes Joyce has a boy in her room and is demanding she open the door.
- Establishing Team Shot: Twice: once when the team is chosen and their photo is taken for the local newspaper; the same shot closes the film.
- The Film of the Book: Based on the book of the same name by Daniel James Brown.
- Football Fight Song: The boys sing the UW fight song during a celebratory bonfire after being chosen for the team.
- Framing Device: The movie starts and ends with Joe as an old man watching his grandson rowing on a river, and reminiscing about his time on the UW rowing team.
- The Great Depression: Set in 1936. Joe lives out of a car in one of Seattle's Hoovervilles and his clothes and shoes have holes in them.
- Heroic Second Wind: It's said the team's main advantage is that their second half of the race is always faster than the first. They always get off to a rough start but once they find their rhythm will almost always overtake the competition in the final stretch.
- Hidden Depths: Don, who is normally The Stoic, begins playing the piano while other team members were cleaning up a cultural hall. Initially embarrassed over the attention, they actually applaud him for it.
- International Showdown by Proxy: The UW team arrives at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin at the height of Nazi power, to compete at an event that was largely dominated by the Germans, who won five out of the seven gold medals in rowing that year. The UW boys winning is a major upset and a figurative F-you to the Nazis.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Subverted as a contrast between UW and more prestigious schools. Whereas the teams at those schools tended to come from money and were groomed into the sport from a young age, the UW rowers were largely working class kids who were trained when they signed up. Joe specifically was looking for something to pay for his tuition.
- Jerk Jock: The varsity UW team.
- Limited Wardrobe: Invoked; the costume designer mentions how all the boys wear the same suits whenever they attend a formal event, and don't have many other changes in wardrobe for most of the movie. Justified, due to the Great Depression setting and dire financial situation most of the characters are in.
- Miracle Rally: In the Olympic-qualifying race in Poughkeepsie, they fall behind by four boat-lengths but win. Then in Berlin, the boys miss the starting gun and start off again in last place. Once Don snaps out of his illness-induced stupor, they're able to make up the deficit for a photo-finish victory.
- Mundane Luxury: After making the team, Joe and Roger revel in the fact that they each get a bed of their own, despite the beds barely being large enough for them to stretch out fully in. Likewise, when the team arrives at their hotel in Berlin, many of the boys say it's better than what they have at home.
- Old Fashioned Row Boat Date: Joe invites his childhood crush Joyce on one after he makes the team. Subverted since it cuts to Joyce rowing them along, instead of Joe, which she playfully lampshades after struggling to get the movement right.
- Opposing Sports Team: The UW team's main collegiate rivals are the Cal Bears; much is made over Ulbrickson's desire to beat them after an especially poor previous rowing season. The ultimate opponent team is of course the German team at the 1936 Olympics.
- Organization with Unlimited Funding: Averted. The UW rowing program is shown to be perpetually on the brink of not having enough funding, with Ulbrickson feeling the pressure to get a major win to improve the prestige of the program and thereby attract more funding and donations. After winning the Poughkeepsie race and qualifying for the Olympics, the promised funding to send the team to Berlin is revoked, leaving the team scrambling to raise $5000 (roughly equivalent to over $100,000 in 2023) through small dollar donation drives.
- Out of Focus: Of the 9 boys in the boat, Joe, Don, and Bobby are the ones with the most screentime. Roger quickly fades into the background once the team is formed, and of the remaining 5 boys, only Chuck has a meaningful scene with Joe.
- Real-Person Epilogue: Pictures of the actual team are used in the end credits.
- Snooty Sports: Rowing already had a long and storied history in the wealthier and more prestigious schools like Berkeley and the Ivies, not to mention places like Cambridge. Part of the reason the boys were not taken seriously at first was because they didn't fit this mold: they were a bunch of working-class guys from a city that didn't have the national prominence or importance as it does now, nor did they have any background in the sport.
- Soup of Poverty: Joe walks into the cafeteria at UW, discreetly counts how much money he has, then leaves and lines up at a soup kitchen instead.
- Team Spirit: The main theme of the book and the movie.
- Training from Hell: In a bit of a twist, the training from hell starts before the team is officially formed. Dozens of boys who are hoping to make the rowing team are put through a several weeks long gauntlet of exercises to weed out the majority of the contenders. Once the eight who make the team are chosen, the training continues from there.
- Training Montage: Two, one of the tryouts training, and one of the initial rowing training once the team is formed.
- Underdogs Never Lose: The UW team wins every race they participate in throughout the movie.
- Unskilled, but Strong: The UW row team was largely made up of working class college students, most of whom were just looking for a way to pay for tuition. They find out that they don't have the finesse of most other teams but make up for it with sheer power, overtaking other teams as they start to tire.
- Victory by Endurance: Bobby's strategy for the boys during the Poughkeepsie race. He keeps the boys to a slower but steady pace for the first half of the race, waiting for their competitors to tire themselves out before telling the UW team to up their pace and pull ahead.
- Villainous Breakdown: Downplayed, but Hitler does not look happy when the Americans beat the Germans at rowing.
