The Rugby Player

The Rugby Player (2013) is a documentary directed by Scott Gracheff. It stars a remarkable woman--Alice Hoagland, the mother of Mark Bingham, who died on United Flight 93.

Mark Bingham was a large, strong athlete and businessperson, who happened to be gay. He had a wonderful relationship with his mother Alice, who narrates most of the film. Alice is a verbal, intelligent person. She can paint a portrait of her son that makes us feel as if we'd known him.

Gracheff interweaves comments by Alice with interviews with Scott's friends and associates. We also see many videos of Scott, so that we can watch him progress from a shy young man to someone who was outgoing and sociable.

We can certainly believe that he was one of the passengers who apparently fought with the hijackers on the doomed flight, although we'll never know this for certain.

However, we know for certain that Scott was strong, tough, and fearless, and being gay was incidental to any of these qualities. The film is a reminder to judge people by what they say and do, not by their sexual orientation. (We shouldn't need this reminder, but we do.)

We saw this film at Rochester's Dryden Theatre, as part of Image Out--the Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen.