Foxcatcher a poignant retelling of chapter in local history

Foxcatcher opens with the words ‘based on a true story’, and then it’s all seriousness from there. The story of the 1996 murder of David Schultz begins.

The film tracks the lives of John du Pont (Steve Carrell), an heir to the du Pont family fortune and amateur wrestling coach, and two Olympic gold medalists and brothers Dave (Mark Ruffalo) and Mark (Channing Tatum) Schultz.

Du Pont wants to bring in wrestlers to Foxcatcher Farms, located in Newton Square, Pennsylvania, to train in order to compete at the 1988 Olympic Games. Du Pont yearns for a gold medal and he believes he knows the guys to do it – Dave and Mark.

Mark Schultz’s life is dramatized as the film shows his struggle to jump back into life after he won the 1984 Olympics. He’s shown living in a ratty, old apartment with nothing to live for. It wasn’t until du Pont reached out to Mark that he began to get a sense of being wanted.

Du Pont moves Mark to his estate desperately wanting Dave to come along. A year later, Dave finally joins Foxcatcher Farms as the new head coach to Mark’s dismay. Between Mark, Dave, and number of other wrestlers, du Pont had pulled together a 1988 Olympics wrestling team.

Even though an Olympic gold medal is the goal for all the wrestlers, Foxcatcher does not focus on that as much as each character’s struggle. The actors brilliantly captured the hardships and mental struggles the characters were facing. Carrell and Ruffalo were each nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for their portrayals of du Pont and Dave Schultz.

The scenes in the movie were short and to the point, so there was no miscellaneous “fluff” to drown out the seriousness of the story. Each scene, especially in the beginning, left the audience with questions and a desire to know a little bit more. As the film went on, questions were slowly, but surely answered and the puzzle began to come together.

The whole film is captivating in its portrayal. With a lack of background music, the audience is able to focus entirely on the cutting edge story being told. With its quiet, but intense scenes, it was hard to lose focus of the big picture.

This whole story of Foxcatcher was actually written about first by Mark Schultz himself. Schultz found the movie hard to watch, and he also thought it was done wrong. He did not like the fact that the time frame was compressed for the movie. Schultz blames the director of the film Bennett Miller, who was actually nominated for an Academy Award for his directing.

Although the film seemed off to Mark Schultz, there was something about this film that seemed right. Far from a comedy, this dramatic film captivates the minds of its audiences.