Murder Ball: Film Review

Murder Ball is a film following some of the men on the United States and Canada Paralympics quad rugby team. This film is an in depths look at how many people with “disabilities” are just as capable as able-bodied people are. This film is not the typical depiction of disabled people described in the blog Good Cripple. Good Cripple describes the archetype-disabled person as being cheerful, upbeat, and having an obstacle to overcome. This film shows disabled people as any other athlete, with different personalities, relationships, struggles, and triumphs.

In “You’re Not a Retard, You’re Just Wise,” Steven Taylor writes that disability is a social construct that turns into a stigma. He continues to say, “A stigma is not merely a difference but a characteristic that deeply discredits a person’s moral character.” (Taylor, 2000) Therefore, disability is definitely seen in society as deviant. The film Murder Ball is an attempt to remove the stigma from people with mobile impairments.

The most profound statement in the film was by Mark Zupan, USA team spokesperson. He said, “The mind is a bigger disability than all the physical stuff.” When he said this, he was explaining that once one accepts that they are not going to walk again and get over it than one can flourish in their wheelchair and accomplish what they set their mind to. I found this most convincing because it really shows that the ideas society has about disabled people wishing they were able-bodied all the time are not necessarily true. Keith, a young man recently released from rehab after an accident, comes home and says, “This sucks, I’m in a wheel chair.” Although reality, I thought this could have been edited from the film because it was somewhat reaffirming to societies ideas.

In the film, Keith really seemed to enjoy the prospect of athletics in a wheelchair. Therefore, a good research study would be to introduce sports into rehab for people newly disabled. It would be interesting to see if groups of people that engaged in sports in rehab would have lower levels of depression, after returning home, than those who did not.

Over all this is a very good film that shows many aspects of life after an altering accident or disease. This film should be shown to people in rehab facilities across the county in an effort to show there is life after impairment.

Taylor, S. (2000). You're Not a Retard, You're Just Wise. In A. Thio, T. Calhoun, & A. Conyers, Readings in Deviant Behavior sixth edition (pp. 173-179). Boston: Pearson Education Inc.