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I saw it. Pretty good flic. Pretty sad too.
"Concussion" trailer, starring Will Smith, in theatres Dec 25th
- Thread starter Led
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Couldn't pay me to watch this. The trailer gives me a vibe of self-congratulatory preachy blather.
Thing is, people have known that football causes head trauma since the '40s. I've read an old boxing book from the era that described pugilistic dementia and actually suggested that football players among other athletes were at danger from it. That's not to say that the more recent studies didn't confirm what was already known and increase knowledge, or that the NFL didn't have a hand in downplaying the studies.
This article sums up a lot of why I think this movie is likely misleading to the general public:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/00e9...ovie-subject-exaggerated-work-researchers-say
Thing is, people have known that football causes head trauma since the '40s. I've read an old boxing book from the era that described pugilistic dementia and actually suggested that football players among other athletes were at danger from it. That's not to say that the more recent studies didn't confirm what was already known and increase knowledge, or that the NFL didn't have a hand in downplaying the studies.
This article sums up a lot of why I think this movie is likely misleading to the general public:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/00e9...ovie-subject-exaggerated-work-researchers-say
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The movie was pretty good, and it was about as accurate as most "true" stories.
It also contributes to an important discussion about what we accept as a society for the purposes of entertainment. Does it matter that that this guy did or did not discover CTE? No, I don,t think so. What matters is CTE, and maybe now more people will be talking about it.
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Wow. I actually find this post absolutely stunning.
While medicine and society has recognized punch drunkenness for almost a century, we have only recently in the 21st century begun to describe and study, much less understand what we're now calling Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, it's etiology and epidemiology, it's signs and symptoms, etc. The world of academic medicine has only begun to study it seriously in the past ten years. Before this time, we had no idea that football players as young as 17 years old could be subject to displaying symptoms.
But you, you already know all you need to know.
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I thought the movie was cheesy melodrama.
Here is the documentary PBS did a few years ago.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/league-of-denial/
Here is the documentary PBS did a few years ago.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/league-of-denial/
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I think you misunderstand me here to a degree.
My main problem here is NOT the development of knowledge related to brain trauma. I believe strongly in the pursuit of scientific information. Contrary to your conclusion, I do not already know everything I need to know. I know just enough to understand that as opinionated as I might be at times; I am not, and never will be enough of an expert on any topic to be able to make that sort of a statement.
My main problem here is that this seems like a terrible subject for a major Hollywood feature, at least in the way it was presented in the trailer. I still think the whole idea that Dr. Omalu "found a disease that no one has ever seen" seems to be a major exaggeration.
I'm not much a fan of the hagiographical whistleblower genre in any case. They end up being tedious beyond measure, and I'd rather watch something like the Revenant or Star Wars to be honest. That does not mean that I do not want to READ more on this subject, but I'm not going to the theater to watch something that holds little appeal to me.
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Movie was ok. It ends with a statement about a settlement the league had with some former players. The condition in the settlement being that the league didn't have to reveal what they knew about brain damage. No real resolution concerning the main theme of the NFL's denial and lack of action.
^^ Aaaaaaand now I think even less of the movie after reading that article.
^^ Aaaaaaand now I think even less of the movie after reading that article.
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The Frontline series where they have the high school players tested and scanned by MR for cognitive performance is downright scary. Almost all of the players had did not have a concussion had a lower score after the season compared to their pre-training camp scores.
Go to 29:00
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/football-high/
