SOCIAL MEDIA

Friday 7 July 2017

Team Foxcatcher (Jon Greenhalgh, 2016)


Starring: Dave Schultz, Nancy Shultz and John du Pont

Summary: Filmmaker Jon Greenhalgh examines the life of Dave Schultz, a professional wrestler who was part of Team Foxcatcher, funded by philanthropist John E du Pont.

Genre: Documentary

Watched: April 20th, 2017


Back in February I did a post on 12 Documentaries to Watch on Netflix Right Now, and Team Foxcatcher was one of those documentaries.

The film kept popping in my recommended films on Netflix so I did a Google search to find out who John du Pont was, although I did try not to read too much about him as I really wanted to watch the documentary. Months later, I finally downloaded it on Netflix to watch on my commute to and from work.

I thought this documentary was absolutely fantastic. Not only is it an incredibly intimate view of Dave Schultz and his family but also Du Pont and some of the other wrestlers from Team Foxcatcher who lived and trained on Foxcatcher Farm.
The whole thing is a little unsettling, especially when hearing from people who lived and worked closely with the pair such as former members of the team, local police, colleagues, Shultz's wife etc., when they describe Du Pont's ever increasing erratic behaviour and how no one thought much of it at the time until it was too late.

I loved that it looks at everything, including the aftermath of the shooting, the trial and even the years following the shooting. It's definitely something I would recommend watching!
There is another documentary on the same subject, an ESPN film called 30 for 30 The Prince of Pennsylvania and I think I'm going to have to watch that now that I have seen Team Foxcatcher.


Rating: 8/10
One Final Word: Unsettling

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