Starring: Callum Turner, Joel Edgerton, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jack Mulhern, Sam Strike, Luke Slattery, Thomas Elms, Tom Varey, Bruce Herbelin-Earle, Wil Coban, James Wolk, Hadley Robinson, Courtney Henggeler
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story: Bio-sports drama directed by George Clooney and written by Mark L. Smith. Based on a true story, The Boys in the Boat (2023) centers on the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin and follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world.
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Best Inspirational Quotes from The Boys in the Boat
Roger Morris: [to Joe] The rowing team. You’re on it, you get a part-time job including a cheap place to live. I could get free of them cats. All you got to do is make the team. How hard can that be?
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Now, you’re all here because we’re looking for the eight most qualified young men to fill out JV boat. That means that most of you will not be chosen. In fact, the majority of you will most likely walk away on your own within the next few weeks, because your bodies will hurt. Your minds will tire. And you’ll decide this dream of yours to compete against the greatest crews in the world is just not worth it. There’s no shame on that. Eight-man crew is the most difficult team sport in the world. The average human body is just not meant for such things. It’s just not capable of such things. But average is not going to get a seat on my boat. So good luck.
Shorty Hunt: You got any idea what we’re in for?
Joe Rantz: I don’t know.
Shorty Hunt: Good. Me either.
Coach Tom Bolles: Catch, drive, finish, and recovery. You can’t skip any of them. And you know why we’re not going in a straight line? Because number twenty-two here is the only one that’s listening to me.
Professor Stone: Excuse me, young man. Would you like me to speak quieter so you can rest?
Roger Morris: I feel like that’s maybe a trick question.
Joyce Simdars: Do you like it? Rowing?
Joe Rantz: Well, getting a job out of it. And a room. So, I guess.
Elderly Joe Rantz: There are some moments in life you never forget.
Joyce Simdars: You’re all going to be famous. Then you really will forget about me.
Joe Rantz: I don’t think I could if I tried.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Each seat on the boat has its own purpose. Like eight separate parts of one great racehorse.
George Pocock: Most of you boys don’t have an interest in a boat until you can sit in it.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Technique is more important than power. You have to be able to pull a perfect oar, stroke after stroke. It’s called swing. When all eight are all rowing in such perfect unison, that no single action is out of sync with the rest of the boat. Then you aren’t fighting each other. You’re moving with less effort. Each one of your strokes is worth one and a half of the other boat’s. Most crews never find it. But when they do, rowing is more poetry than sport.
Jim McMillin: “If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended. That you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear.” Thank you. It’s some fella called Shakespeare, right?
Coach Al Ulbrickson: They’re a strong a group as I’ve ever seen come through here, and they might also be the worst crew I’ve ever seen. It’s a bad mix.
George Pocock: Well, maybe those names aren’t the problem. Sometimes young horses need a louder jockey.
Bobby Moch: Yeah, good ride. And my favorite part is how my nuts vibrated when you guys were all hitting the water at different times. We were moving slow as s**t, but the sensation was nice.
Bobby Moch: Coach told me if you guys don’t get yourselves figured out, you’re not only missing the regatta, you’re not racing at all this year. That’s a whole hell of a lot of work to just do nothing with. So, feel like trying it again? I’m ready.
George Pocock: How’s the crew coming along?
Joe Rantz: Lot harder than I expected.
George Pocock: Well, that’s what practice is for.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: [referring to the rowing boat] Here she is, boys. Maybe the finest George has ever made. Now, this is your new home. Treat her that way. Care for her. Protect her. Most of all, you better respect her.
Coach Tom Bolles: [referring to Ulbrickson’s speech] Inspiring.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Well, you missed the part where I told them just to try not to tip over.
Bobby Moch: Alright, boys. You heard Ulbrickson. Stick close and hope they make a mistake. That’s his way of saying don’t embarrass him, because that’s what he thinks you’re going to do. I say the hell with all that. All these people didn’t just come to see you stick close. Let’s show Ulbrickson what’s in this boat.
Coach Tom Bolles: [after the boys win their first competition] I got nine seconds under the course record.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Same. And the final third is faster than the first.
Coach Tom Bolles: Where the hell did that come from?
Coach Al Ulbrickson: I guess that little runt knew what he was doing.
Chuck Day: You know, this might make all the times Morris puked on my back worth it.
Joyce Simdars: Did you know you were going to win?
Joe Rantz: No. My arms, they were shaking. I was so nervous.
Joyce Simdars: [to Joe] I bet you win every race. Just don’t get all stuck-up and everything.
Coach Tom Bolles: That’s how it usually goes. Kids back East are in boats before they’re in shoes. Schools just have more talent to choose from.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: That’s what money buys you. We need an edge, Tom.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Everybody else tires, and they just get stronger.
Coach Tom Bolles: We need a win this year, Al. The people who pay us, they need a win. You send a boat full of kids down there, and they trip up, you’re sticking your neck way out there. Makes it a real easy target. And mine too. I need this job.
Joyce Simdars: This might be a good time to tell you that I’m in love with you, Joe.
Hazel Ulbrickson: They’re just kids, Al.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: That’s why everybody told me I was wrong for bringing them. I just can’t afford for them to be kids. Not anymore.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: You’re rowing like you’re in a single. We’ve been doing this too goddamn long to forget you’re in an eight-man shell. Now, do you want to be in the boat, or am I’m going to put someone else in your seat?
Joe Rantz: I don’t care.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Coy! You’re in Rantz’s seat. Get out. You don’t care? Get out.
George Pocock: I’ve built a lot of good boats. But the best ones, the boats where every part fits exactly as it should, where every man trusts the one behind him, they are the boats people remember forever. That’s what this boat could be. Be a shame for anyone to miss seeing how fast it could go with all the right pieces.
George Pocock: Joe, your dad gave up on you. He quit on you. All you know is quitting. But it seems to me you’re not him. Or are you?
Joe Rantz: All that time I spent in it. The work we all did together. That boat, it’s all I got. The boys. It’s all I got. I can’t lose that.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: You know, one of the first things I said to you boys was there’s no shame if your body can’t hold up to this. The same goes for the mind.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Listen, I know it isn’t easy to trust every other person on that boat as much as you trust yourself. But it’s not about you. As good as you are, it’s not about you, Joe, or me, or anybody else. It’s about the boat.
Joe Rantz: Yes, sir. It’s where I want to be.
Royal Brougham: Today’s regatta is as much a social experiment as it is a race. A clash of character. Of old money versus no money at all. Six boats of want-to’s against one filled with have-to’s. These nine working-class boys arrived from the American West on the shoulders of a country that sees itself in their determined young faces. Sees their struggles, their grit, their spirit. And they’ve claimed the Husky Clipper as their own. Because it’s a boat full of underdogs representing an underdog nation. A nation of people who have been beaten down but refuse to go away. Refuse to stop working hard, because that’s all they know. All they have ever done.
Bobby Moch: Give me ten big ones for all the people who didn’t believe in you!
Coach Al Ulbrickson: You didn’t expect us to win, and we won. Yeah, you couldn’t win on the water. None of you. Now, you’re making up the rules. Bulls**t.
Roger Morris: We beat those guys.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: I know.
Bobby Moch: No way we let those rich p**cks go instead of us.
Coach Tom Bolles: Then we better find some money.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Athletes should be rewarded for performance. No politics, no adjusted scoring, or selection based on wealth and standing.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: May the best man win. That’s what they say. Well, that’s what it should be. These boys, Washington’s boys, this country’s boys, my boys, they have proven themselves to be the best.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Fellas, you’ve earned this. They don’t give gold medals for style. All that matters is how fast you are on the water. And nobody here is faster.
Coach Al Ulbrickson: Listen, every one of those teams have trained their whole lives for this moment. They’re all legacies. We’re not. Row for your country. Row for each other. Row for that one moment when everything that’s stacked against you can take a back seat. For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you boys.
Roger Morris: They might as well have stuck us out on the North Atlantic.
Royal Brougham: [after they’ve won the Olympics] Anything you’d like to say about those boys, Al?
Coach Al Ulbrickson: They are the finest I ever saw seated in a shell.
Joe’s Grandson: Did you like rowing eight-man crew?
Elderly Joe Rantz: Eight?
Joe’s Grandson: Yeah.
Elderly Joe Rantz: We were never eight. We were one.