George Clooney’s 2023 film, The Boys in the Boat, forced people to watch something they heard about through Harvard scandals. Although it gave the public a show of hard work and determination, it left out important parts of the story and failed to capture the realism of rowing as a sport.

As a rower myself, the movie hit close to home. Rowing is an extremely unique sport, it is impossible to master and hard to get good at. There is always work to be done. A quote from the movie establishes this: “Technique is more important than power.” But these actors failed to capture the essence of real rowers. They were stiff, and their movements were not in sync with one another. Rowing is an art. Every body movement in the boat is in sync with the whole crew (being the people in the boat). For example, a strong hang (start of the stroke, arms are completely extended and you are “hanging” from the handle) is needed at the catch (when the blade enters the water aka the start of the stroke) of the stroke, but the hands have to be loose for the blade to move properly.

They enacted the growth of the boys personally and emotionally well but missed the growth of the rowing. It was too quick. You don’t start rowing with an amazing set, as a novice, that boat falls back and forth. The more you row together the more used to each other you become and the faster the boat goes. The movie's unrealistic tendencies cause a few disruptions within the development of the movie.

 An important character in the story is George Pocock, as a rower, it is inevitable to come upon the name at least once. Pocock now a brand of boats, came originally from George. In this story, he made the boat that took the boys to gold, but the way they portrayed George Pocock was decent, however, he should have played a bigger role in the movie. George Pocock was a pivotal figure in rowing with his high-speed boats as much as he is a father figure and pivotal character in the story. He fully believed in the boys; “That bunch of kids rowed like no one else who's ever come through here.” However, in the movie, it seemed like he was only close with Joe Rantz.

Even though the boat (with rowing the “boat” means the people and the ship is called a shell) is debatable, the production and the feelings are impeccable. The first race lit the fire in my heart in the cold of the winter. The sound of the oars in the oarlocks (the thing that holds the oars to the boat) was inspiring and made my heart race like I was sitting at the start docks of nationals. Chilled to the bone, with muscles raring to go.

 “You have to be able to pull a perfect oar, stroke after stroke. It’s called swing. When all eight are rowing in such perfect unison that no single action by anyone is out of sync with those of all the others…Rowing then becomes a kind of perfect language.  Poetry, that’s what a good swing feels like.” There is no higher desire in rowing than perfect, powerful, consistent swing. It is and will always be the most sought-after thing in rowing. The movie established this so perfectly, it was by far one of my favorite parts of the movie.

I would recommend watching for its production and overview, for the adrenaline and the feeling of gold.  Although it didn’t hit the bullseye, it didn’t miss the target either. The story had key parts including its depiction of the races, the basics of rowing, and some character development, with some good representation of races and rowing well. People need to remember that rowing doesn’t start this perfectly, there is a long, hard, but fun trek to it. Nevertheless, it is about the journey, the good rowers work hard to row well, but the best rowers love the hard work of rowing. I recommend it because it tells the essence of rowing and why you should row.