The controversial argument regarding concussions related to football has been made into a movie. The movie, Concussion, tells the true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu’s (Will Smith) study and his journey to prove that NFL players suffering from repeated concussions will eventually suffer from a brain disease that he named, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). After countless hours of tiring work, Omalu’s research becomes impossible for the NFL to ignore as they are forced to take concussions more seriously.

The movie begins with Mike Webster (David Morse) suffering from hallucinations and the not being able to sleep. This introduces the entire conflict of the movie; former NFL players are going crazy due to the suffering from repeated concussions. As news stations continually report the deaths and suicides of many former players, Dr. Omalu recognizes the possible relation to concussions. After completing autopsies, he orders for the brains of the dead patients and discovers that football players everywhere are at risk.

After Omalu publishes his findings, the NFL fights back. The doctor is threatened and accused of hating and wanting to end football for America. Despite being criticized, Omalu stands firm by his research. Eventually he is forced to leave his job in the coroners office in Pittsburgh and moves with his wife to Lodi, California. Over time, his argument and research gain more and more support and the case is presented to Congress. As a result of all of this, the NFL was forced to take concussions more seriously.

Concussion was directed by Peter Landesman. This was only the second movie that Landesman has directed. He made his debut in 2013 with the movie Parkland. Concussion was released on Christmas Day in 2015. On opening weekend the movie only made about $10,000 and the sales have not improved much since. As of February 7th the movie has made a total of $40,705,403 in domestic and foreign sales. Considering the budget for the movie was around $35 million, the profit on the movie was not pleasing.

Going into the theater I was skeptical about the movie because I did not want to sit through a movie telling me that concussions are life threatening and America must stop playing football. Though the movie did warn and inform viewers about concussions, it was much more than that. The story was more about Dr. Omalu’s struggle to get the NFL and America to recognize his findings regarding CTE. The acting was quite exceptional but the movie did lack action. At times I found myself getting bored waiting for the movie to end.

Despite the lack of action that the movie had, I still think it was a fairly good and interesting plot. I would recommend this movie to almost anyone who likes the NFL or is interested in medical research. Personally, I think it is the type of movie that you can only watch once. While I enjoyed it, I would not go see it again.

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For another movie review read, Star Wars: The Force Awakens latent 70s nostalgia.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @Phillip11499 and via email: Phillip Christopher