MOVIE MONDAY | The Boys in the Boat

As we continue in week two of "Movie Mondays," our summer devotional series featuring sports movies (last week we featured Little Giants, and upcoming are Rudy and Rocky), we unpack The Boys in the Boat.

This fascinating 2023 film, directed by George Clooney, is based on the 2013 book by Daniel James Brown. It tells the true story of impoverished college students at the University of Washington in 1936, who, despite their lack of experience, try out for the junior varsity rowing team in an attempt to survive the Great Depression. By being on the team (with only eight spots available on the boat), they received a room and a job on campus.

The movie centers on struggling student Joe Rantz, who makes the team and overcomes many challenges, and Head Coach Al Ulbrickson, who feels the pressure from boosters to beat rival Cal and qualify for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

While the JV boat becomes a stronger team than the more experienced varsity team, they set a course record during the big race against Cal, leading coach Ulbrickson to controversially give his JV boat the coveted spot in the Olympic qualifying race in New York.

This JV team continues to excel, surprise, and prove themselves, ultimately winning Gold at the 1936 Olympics, despite facing financial and health-related obstacles along the way.

It’s a classic sports story about perseverance, overcoming the odds, taking risks, and the underdog rising to the top. Many other interesting underlying storylines contribute to the movie, and the characters are likable, making it easy to root for them.

What makes this movie so intriguing is the period in which it takes place, and also because it’s about a sport that we, as sports fans, don’t necessarily follow. I enjoyed watching how this team trained and discovering what it takes to be a successful rowing team.

Ultimately, they demonstrated what it looks like at the highest level for a team of eight boys in a boat all paddling in the same direction, in sync, and as one.

The theme of “as one” was evident throughout the movie, as the coaches emphasized the concept during practice and the coxswain shouted it out during the race.

It was summed up perfectly with my favorite line from the film at the very end, when the scene shows Joe Rantz years later as a grandfather with his grandson near water carrying a boat, and this interaction takes place:

“Hey, Grandpa? You think someday I can row crew?

Well, you gotta keep at it.

Did you like rowing an eight-man crew?

Eight?

Yeah.

We were never eight.

We were one.”

I got so pumped about that line as it wrapped up the movie in a powerful way and spoke to the unity of the Washington rowing team when they were in the boat, gliding across the water together on their way to Gold.  

As this movie and the true story behind it inspire us, this concept of “oneness” isn’t exclusive to rowing, but is found throughout the Bible.

First, we must recognize that there is only one true God, in three persons representing the Trinity as Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit.

Jesus describes the Oneness He has with the Father and reveals His desire for our oneness as He prays this in John 17:21-23 (NLT): “I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are one—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in us so that the world will believe You sent Me.

“I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them, and You are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that You sent me and that You love them as much as You love me.”

In some ways, this beautiful passage is difficult to grasp, but the truth is that we have an invitation to join with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and other believers in unity and oneness.

Similar to the rowing team, it requires us to humble ourselves, surrender our selfishness, and remain in sync.

As followers of Jesus, we also understand that “He is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18), and we live “as one” as members of the body of Christ.

Romans 12:4-5 (NIV) tells us, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

This leads us to pursue peace, unity, and teamwork with others who are in Christ, so that we can accomplish great things together with and for the Lord as we fulfill our role in the body.

Another important example of oneness found in scripture is often heard at weddings. In a healthy marriage, we see a husband and wife “rowing in the same direction,” working together as one, and no longer living as two separate individuals with two distinct lives, but rather becoming one.

Genesis 2:24 (ESV) says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Today, let’s be encouraged to embrace the power of “oneness” in our own lives with Christ and His church and live out the example of The Boys In the Boat who knew, “We were never eight. We were one.”

I’m Bryce Johnson, and you can UNPACK that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I’m so grateful to be in Christ, and I pray that I will understand the reality of the oneness I’ve entered into. Please help me embrace my role in the body of Christ, strengthen me to pursue unity, and empower me to drop my selfish mindsets. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.