''Forever Strong'' is a 2008 American
sports
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Ryan Little, written by David Pliler and released on September 26, 2008. The film stars
Sean Faris
Sean Faris (born March 25, 1982) is an American actor and model. He is known for his roles as Jake Tyler in ''Never Back Down'', Kyo Kusanagi in ''The King of Fighters'', and Rick Penning in '' Forever Strong''. He also played Tom in ''Ghost M ...
,
Gary Cole
Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the ...
,
Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough (born February 13, 1966) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton in the HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers'' (2001), Deputy District Attorney David McNorris on ''Boomtown'' (2002–20 ...
,
Sean Astin
Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' (1993), Dou ...
,
Penn Badgley
Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012) and as Joe Goldberg in the Netflix thriller series '' You'' (2018 ...
and
Arielle Kebbel. The film is about a troubled
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
player who must play against the team his father coaches at the national championships. ''Forever Strong'' is based on a compilation of individual true stories.
Plot
Rick Penning (
Sean Faris
Sean Faris (born March 25, 1982) is an American actor and model. He is known for his roles as Jake Tyler in ''Never Back Down'', Kyo Kusanagi in ''The King of Fighters'', and Rick Penning in '' Forever Strong''. He also played Tom in ''Ghost M ...
) is captain of his high school rugby team whose coach Richard Penning (
Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough (born February 13, 1966) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton in the HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers'' (2001), Deputy District Attorney David McNorris on ''Boomtown'' (2002–20 ...
) is his father, and whose players indulge in drugs and alcohol. After losing the championship to their rivals the
Highland Rugby Team, Rick drinks and drives, resulting in a crash that seriously injures his girlfriend, Tammy (
Tyler Kain).
He is sentenced to a boys' Juvenile Detention Center in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
. The manager of the center, Marcus (
Sean Astin
Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' (1993), Dou ...
) puts him on the Highland rugby team much to his chagrin, coached by
Larry Gelwix (
Gary Cole
Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the ...
). He struggles to adapt to this new team's ways. A friend sends him a rugby ball with drugs hidden in the stitching. He uses the drugs until, influenced by something one of his new teammates tells him, he throws the drugs away. He works hard and finds the strength to become a member of the widely admired Highland team. Each day when he arrives at team practice he criticizes the coach for sitting around chatting with different team members and not doing any real coaching. Then it is his turn to sit with the coach and finds himself confessing to the drugs hidden in the rugby ball. The coach deals with it and tells him that his teammates want him to be a captain. He is influenced by brotherhood and can cope with his homesickness.
Driving home after a celebration meal, the team are helping a mother and two children with a flat tire when a passing car clips one of the boys. Rick now must deal with the death of his first true friend Kurt (
Michael J. Pagan). Rick is released and returns to live with his parents. His father wants him to tell about the Highland team's moves and plays but Rick resists and they argue. His father makes it up by lending Rick the keys to his sports car, and Rick drives to meet up with Tammy and his old friends. They too become angry that Rick won't reveal the Highland team's secrets and a fight breaks out. They plant drugs and alcohol in the sports car and Rick is arrested when the police show up. Tammy tells the police what really happened and Rick is released. Rick finds himself again in the national championship, this time against the former friends on his old team coached by his estranged father. The game is hard fought. Players from his old team try to hurt Rick through cheap shots to collect the bounty on his head. Coach Penning tells Rick if he stays down Rick will end up like him. Rick gets back up and, in the final seconds, scores the winning try for Highland. As the film ends it is shown that in real life, under Coach Gelwix, Highland has been winning almost every year.
Cast
*
Gary Cole
Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the ...
as Coach
Larry Gelwix
*
Sean Astin
Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' (1993), Dou ...
as Marcus Tate
*
Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough (born February 13, 1966) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton in the HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers'' (2001), Deputy District Attorney David McNorris on ''Boomtown'' (2002–20 ...
as Coach Richard Penning
*
Sean Faris
Sean Faris (born March 25, 1982) is an American actor and model. He is known for his roles as Jake Tyler in ''Never Back Down'', Kyo Kusanagi in ''The King of Fighters'', and Rick Penning in '' Forever Strong''. He also played Tom in ''Ghost M ...
as Richard 'Rick' Seymour Penning, Jr.
*
Penn Badgley
Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012) and as Joe Goldberg in the Netflix thriller series '' You'' (2018 ...
as Lars
*
Michael J. Pagan as Kurt Addison
*
Nathan West
Nathan or Natan may refer to:
People
*Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name
*Nathan (surname)
*Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible
* Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David an ...
as Quentin 'Q' Owens
*
Max Kasch
Joseph Maxwell Kasch (born December 6, 1985) is an American actor and musician. He played "Zig-Zag" in '' Holes'' (2003), T-Dog in '' Waiting...'' (2005), and Troy in '' Shrooms'' (2007).
Early life
Kasch was born in Santa Monica, California
...
as Griggs
*
Julie Warner as Natalie Penning
*
Arielle Kebbel as Emily Owens
*
Tyler Kain as Tammy
*
Larry Bagby
Larry Bagby (born March 7, 1974) is an American actor and musician, who is best known as Ernie 'Ice' in '' Hocus Pocus'', Larry Blaisdell in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', Pvt. Shirley "Hickey" Kendrick in '' Saints and Soldiers'', Marshall Grant ...
as Coach Cal
* Ryan Roundy as Himself
Production
The movie was filmed in Salt Lake City beginning in July 2006 at three local high schools.
Sean Faris ran six miles twice a day to get in shape for the film.
During filming, Faris sprained his ankle, but had the ankle taped, and continued filming.
Several All-American rugby players, predominantly from the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
and
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
, played in the film. Some Highland Rugby alumni and current players also played roles in the film.
The name of the film is based on a phrase that Gelwix often shares with his team members, "kia kaha" which in the Maori language means ''Stay strong''. The longer version: "Be forever strong on the field, so that you will be forever strong off the field." The players call them "Gelwixism".
''Forever Strong'' is based on an amalgam of true stories about the Highland Rugby high school team.
The character Rick Penning is based on a real member of the rugby team who played in Flagstaff, Arizona and was sent to a group home in Salt Lake City.
The story attracted the production company Go Films.
"Forever Strong" was the first sports themed film Go Films had made. Producer Adam Abel and Director Ryan Little were attracted to the story because of Highland Rugby's tradition of winning both on and off the field. The film name "Forever Strong" is taken from the team motto of the Highland High School rugby team.
''Forever Strong'' was released in the fall of 2008 and distributed by Crane Movie Co., a short-lived division of
Excel Entertainment Group
Deseret Book () is an American publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, that also operates a chain of bookstores throughout the western United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), the ...
.
Soundtrack
# "Ready Or Not" –
Manbreak
# "Pimpin Hard" – B.A.S.K.O.
# "Nothing Less" –
The Travezty
# "Mele Kalikimaka" – Mugsy
# "Corporate Logic" – Stereoliza
# "Don't Make Me Dance" –
Joshua Creek
# "The Deal" –
Clay Duncan & Allday
# "Forever Strong" –
Sink To See
Maori culture
''Forever Strong'' contains use of the ''
haka
Haka (; plural ''haka'', in both Māori and English) are a variety of ceremonial performance art in Māori culture. It is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted or chanted accompani ...
'' (traditional Maori dance and song) "
Ka Mate
"Ka Mate" () is a Māori haka composed by Te Rauparaha, war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe of the North Island of New Zealand.
Composition
Te Rauparaha composed "Ka Mate" circa 1820 as a celebration of life over death after his lucky escape fro ...
". The ''
iwi
Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...
'' (tribal grouping)
Ngati Toa
''Ngati'' is a 1987 New Zealand feature film directed by Barry Barclay, written by Tama Poata and produced by John O'Shea.
Production
''Ngati'' is of historical and cultural significance in New Zealand as it is the first feature film written an ...
chief
Te Rauparaha
Te Rauparaha (c.1768 – 27 November 1849) was a Māori rangatira (chief) and war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe who took a leading part in the Musket Wars, receiving the nickname "the Napoleon of the South". He was influential in the origina ...
is credited with composing this particular haka. The film contains a scene in which one player translates the lyrics of "Ka Mate" for his teammate.
Critical reception
As of October 10, 2008, the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reported that 29% of critics rated the film positively based on 14 reviews.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
reported the film had an average score of 37 out of 100 based on 9 reviews — indicating generally negative reviews.
However, the public rated the movie much more favorably, according to
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
, which reported an average score of 7.3/10 from 8,204 users.
See also
*
List of American films of 2008
*
Sports film
A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the s ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Ryan Little
2008 films
Rugby union films
Sports films based on actual events
Films shot in Salt Lake City
College rugby union in the United States
Cultural depictions of American men
Cultural depictions of rugby footballers
Films set in Utah
Films set in Salt Lake City
Films directed by Ryan Little
2000s English-language films
American films based on actual events
American sports drama films
2000s American films