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The Slaughter Rule - Ryan Gosling, David Morse, Clea DuVall, Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith

Threat advisory: Under evaluation

Movie propaganda

In life, every season counts.

Winter in Montana, USA, and everything breaks down. Just days after his estranged father dies, Roy Chutney (Ryan Gosling) gets cut from his high school football team. Football, for Roy, meant more than a proving ground - it promised escape from his lonely rural existence and salvation from the passivity that dominates his life.

Joined by his best friend, Tracy Two Dogs, (Eddie Spears) - a Blackfoot Indian with no small trouble of his own - Roy drowns his frustration in a mixture of tequila and self-pity. But in Blue Springs, Montana, alcohol begets violence and the soon-reached limits of small-town Saturday night only add brutality to Roy's despair.

Enter Gideon Ferguson, (David Morse) a canny giant of a man who ekes out a life among barflies, hawking newspapers in the two am nether world of closing time. Gid is seeking "gamers" - kids who scrap hard - to play on his Six-Man football squad and he recruits Roy to be his quarterback.

Over the course of the season, Gid and Roy enter into a cautious friendship. For Gid, the football team provides a sense of purpose in a life nearly bled dry. For Roy, the game is a pure response to life - if you break enough tackles and keep sprinting for open ground, you might outrun your inside trouble. It's as if they complete each other: Roy permits Gid a dimension of grace, a glimmer of innocence Gid has never known; Gid grants Roy a portal into adulthood.

Entering Gid's world, Roy becomes witness to a tender side of Gid, who constantly looks after his old pal Studebaker, (David Cale) a sad-luck drifter. More importantly for Roy, the honky-tonk nightlife introduces him to Skyla, (Clea DuVall) a dark-eyed bartender several years Roy's senior. Their burgeoning romance interferes with the fragile bond of trust between Roy and Gid, complicating all of their lives.

The Slaughter Rule is a rough season in a young man's life, a season of exposure, prejudice, and ultimately - compassion.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film football American drama grid iron high school sport team fight coach community

Persons of interest

Ryan Gosling .... Roy Chutney
David Morse .... Gideon "Gid" Ferguson
Clea DuVall .... Skyla
David Cale .... Floyd "Studebaker"
Eddie Spears .... Tracey Two Dogs
Kelly Lynch .... Evangeline Chutney
Amy Adams .... Doreen
Ken White .... Russ Colfax
Noah Watts .... Waylon Walks Along
Kim DeLong .... Lem Axelrod
Geraldine Keams .... Gretchen Two Dogs
Douglas Seybern .... Uncle Peyton
Cody Harvey .... Coach Motlow
Melkon Andonian .... Devo
JP Gabriel .... Jute
Chris Offcut .... Charlie
John Henry Marshall .... Kibbs
Juliana Clayton .... Fran
Alex Smith .... Screenwriter
Andrew J Smith .... Screenwriter
Alex Smith .... Director
Andrew J Smith .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

The Slaughter Rule official movie site
Awards and film festivals:

IFP Independent Spirit Awards 2003: Nomination: John Cassavetes Award (Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith, Greg O'Connor, Michael A Robinson)
Santa Fe Film Festival 2002: Milagro Award (Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith)
Stockholm International Film Festival 2002: FIPRESCI Award Competition (Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith - For its depiction of a young man breaking his armour of masculine cowboy mentality told in a confident classical style)
Sundance Film Festival 2002: Nomination: Grand Jury Prize Dramatic (Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith)

FYI: The Slaughter Rule:

Football (aka the Mercy Rule): When one team gets ahead of the other by 45 points, the officials end the game. Only applicable in the second half of the game, the Slaughter Rule is designed to end games in which there's no real competition, to prevent teams from "running up the score" and demoralising their opponents; it also is designed to reduce the chance of injuries in a lop-sided game. Such rules also exist in amateur baseball, softball and other sports.
Beef industry (aka the Over 30 Month Rule): With some exceptions, the rule prohibits the sale of meat for human consumption from cattle aged over 30 months at slaughter.

See also Any given Sunday, Remember the Titans, The replacements, Varsity blues, We are... Marshall

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

The Slaughter Rule? Never heard of it. Don't understand it. I think I'd rather be beaten by 142 points in the Rugby World Cup (Namibia vs Australia) than have the game ended because someone reckons my team isn't good enough to continue. Go hard or go home!

Meanwhile, there's a film called The Slaughter Rule that uses sport as a metaphor for life. You can be in the game or on the sidelines. Roy Chutney chooses the sidelines. He has issues. He has issues because his parents have/had issues. They were messed up and then they had a kid and they messed him up, too. Parents can be like that because no-one checks to see if they are going to be good parents. Parents just pop babies out any time they feel like it. Good one.

Oh yeah, Roy. Roy bought into the whole macho coyboy myth (or, was indoctrinated by his father) and tried to be like the tree instead of the reed. [The tree is stiff and tries to resist the wind but is blown over, the reed is flexible and blows over in the wind then rebounds when the wind stops - Director of Intelligence.]