Just last night I attended a showing of the movie Murderball in the Connelly Cinema here at Villanova. It was a good chance to get out and attend one of my three cultural events. The night began with a speaker who actually went to Villanova as an undergraduate and graduate student. He now works here. He is a paraplegic and spoke on behalf of the documentary and his own experience as a paraplegic. He gave an interesting speech on how his disability has impacted his life and his career. He did not clarify the accident or reason for him being in a wheelchair nor did he explain when it occurred. He commented on the fact that he chose the particular documentary because of its realness and explained how usually in film and media paraplegics are portrayed in the wrong sense.

The film was about the wheel-chair sport of rugby and the journey of the USA team throughout the 2004 Greece Olympics in Athens. It traced each individual player and described how they were injured. Many lost limbs thanks to disease, motorcycle accidents and car accidents. They all described their own experiences adjusting back to life at home after being paralyzed. The documentary showed one male leaving rehab finally and getting home to his family when he realized how much "it sucked". It surprised me that even those without hands or legs could still manage to drive themselves around in cars. They spoke about how lots of people treat the like the mentally disabled and they take offense to that. Lastly, they described how they discovered their individual love for the sport of rugby.

It was extremely interesting to see normal people like me get hurt by freak accidents and have to adjust their entire life based on a traumatic incident. It reminds me to not try and test the rules and to take care of myself. Although most were due to illness from birth, some incidents were avoidable. It also was inspiring to see that even with the limitations paraplegics have, they discovered a sport that they love and compete to intense levels in. It was incredible to see how much time and effort they invested in the sport and how it truly meant the world to them. They tried to recruit others injured to play as well. Overall, the film was educational and refreshing at the same time. I enjoyed Murderball and would like to attend more films in the future.