TRUE BLUE - Cast:

Johan Leysen (Daniel Topolski), Dominic West (Donald Macdonald), Josh Lucas (Dan Warren), Brian McGovern (Rick Ross), Ryan Bollman (Morrison Black), Andrew Tees (John Smythson), Edward Atterton (Freddy Prideaux-Jones), Nicholas Rowe (David Ball), Jonathan Cake (Patrick Conner), Andrew Clover (Rob Atkins), Alexis Denisof (Ed Fox), Dylan Baker, Geraldine Somerville, Robert Bogue, Tom Hollander, Noah Huntley, Brian McGovern, Patrick Malone.

True Blue isn't just about rowing. It's about passion,' says Brian McGovern, actor and rower. Based on the book by Daniel Topolski and Patrick Robinson, the film recounts the 1987 Oxford Boat Race mutiny, when misunderstandings and uncompromising wills upset the normally civilized atmosphere of this British institution.

The film begins in April 1986 when Oxford suffered its first defeat in 11 years in 'The Boat Race', the annual rowing contest between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Angered by the result, one of the Oxford oarsmen, fiery American Rick Ross (Brian McGovern), swears to avenge the defeat .

The following October Ross returns with some of his friends from the US national rowing team. Enrolling as students they expect to redeem the failing Oxford team.

However, the crew does not stay united for long. Disagreements over training methods and crew selection soon lead to a bitter clash between the Scottish president of the Oxford Dark Blues, Donald MacDonald (Dominic West) and the American oarsmen.

In the ensuing battle the Americans pull out six weeks before the race. The stage is then set not only for MacDonald's fightback but for Oxford's coach, Topolski (Johan Leysen), to mould an inexperienced reserve crew into a winning team.

Both the 'real' Daniel Topolski and Donald Macdonald were on set during filming. MacDonald was involved with the project as it developed, while Topolski not only helped train the actors but plays the umpire.

Co-producer Davina Belling dismisses the idea that the extremely visual True Blue might be the next Chariots of Fire, suggesting instead that 'the film is more akin to a British Top Gun. It's a male movie that women will love because it's beautiful to look at.'

According to director Ferdinand Fairfax, True Blue is much more than a sports film: 'It offers a superb metaphor for life. It is a story of honour, betrayal and triumph against the odds.
- by Donna Wasserstein

The Guardian - 14/11/96 - from the review by Derek Malcolm:

"The film's strong point is undoubtedly the photography of Brian Tufano, who shoots the final and the endless training sessions on the watery Thames with a real feeling of what it must be like to kill yourself in one of the toughest marathons."

"It's a good enough plot, but to make it into another Chariots of Fire you need to get rid of the Americans earlier and concentrate more on the heroes."

The London Times - 14/11/96 - from the review by Geoff Brown:

"True Blue never makes the characters or the issues seem important. Who cares who sits in the boat? Who cares who wins?"

"The trouble is, neither cast, nor script, nor Ferdinand Fairfax's dull direction, makes either side in the conflict worth embracing... True Blue is a gray, damp experience, a little film striving to be big."

The Evening Standard - 14/11/96 - from the review by Alexander Walker:

"The US freshmen form no personal ties with anyone in town or gown, no girl friends, no eccentric profs, no colourful mishaps. They behave like bad sports. For a film pitching its appeal at US audiences, I'd say they've thrown the box office out with the bilge water."

Rupert Walters's screenplay is 'docu' without the 'drama' - and I'm not sure it's very 'docu' at that. American accounts of these events differ radically from the home-grown ones."

Guardian film critic Derek Malcolm in Regatta magazine:

"In True Blue, they are not jolly decent, a bloody nuisance or just a mite indistinguishable from lead, they cavort across the screen either loving or loathing Dangerous Dan Topolski, and trying, with might and main, to convince us as actors that they really are the leading young oarsmen of their generation.

"But I have to admit that this is, however accurate or inaccurate, a sort of Yanks versus Us sage that makes you want to take sides. God knows what the Americans will think of it."

"It looks marvelous and makes even an idiot like myself, who was once a cox, remember all those ghastly, bitterly cold winter mornings which looked beautiful but were absolute hell to be out in. You had to have stiff upper lips even to contemplate such a life and, I always thought, flaccid lower appendages."

"Johan Leysen, who is Belgian, has a good shot at Topolski, who is not, and whom even Marlon Brando would have difficulty characterizing. But not far behind comes Dominic West as the Oxford President. Actually, there are no bad performances, on or off the river."

Dan Topolski, coach in 1987, quoted in the Guardian, November 8:

"With hindsight I should have been much tougher much earlier and it could have all been sorted. The Americans would probably have rowed, it could have been the greatest crew ever. But I let it go on because I couldn't believe anyone wanted to undermine the enterprise."

"When I wrote the book it was a very cathartic experience. The film is ten years after the events so it's bringing back some painful memories that I had forgotten, and it is a toe-curling experience watching someone playing yourself. He's a good actor. But I'm sure I'm not as glum as that."

"The days of students coming here just to row died in the Eighties. These boys have to study hard. The sacrifices they make are truly heroic."

Donald Macdonald, OUBC President in 1987, quoted in Regatta:

" I had a beer with Dominic West [who plays Macdonald in the film] at the time that they were filming some of the crucial meeting scenes.I also met some of the other actors and it struck me how they all end up really getting into their characters. Those who play the Americans went to great lengths to explain to me how their stance was being misunderstood, and, amazingly, I found myself coaching Dominic... to make sure that he won his arguments."

"Inevitably, the film is a precis. The key, I hope, is that it is entertainment...It will be a pity if it resurrects old conflicts. By now, I hope everyone has put all this to one side."

Gavin Stewart, mutineer and stroke of Oxford 1987, quoted in The London Times -12/11/96:

"True Blue might best be described as Chariots of Fire meets Rocky IV. Nostalgia for a probably non-existent golden age of amateur sport and a healthy dose of xenophobia are combined with great photography, rousing music and the idea that ultimate in modern training for a rower is running round the woods in a blizzard."

"The three main premises of the book and film are that the American rowers didn't want to train hard, that they started the 'mutiny' and that the result was good for the Boat Race. None of these accords with my memory....

"We often spent six hours doing two hours' training. Worse, Oxford's loss in 1986, its first since 1975, prompted Dan [Topolski] not to reassess his programme but merely to increase it. If I had turned up at Oxford that year having rowed internationally, I would have been horrified at the time-wasting and lack of quality training.

"As for the Americans starting the 'mutiny', well they didn't. The 'mutiny' happened because the squad had lost respect for Donald Macdonald as president, not least because he made it clear that he had a guaranteed seat... The spark was the decision to set aside the result of a trial between Donald and one of the Americans, giving them both seats and dropping another (British) rower. The Americans began by supporting British rowers, not the other way round.

"Winning the race was personally more of a relief than a victory... For 1988 , the college captains elected as president one of the infamous non-rowing Yanks - a nice irony and a public sign that all was not as it had been portrayed. A lot changed, including the training programme, helping Oxford to win the next five races."

Andy Lobbenburg, Isis cox promoted to the Blue Boat in 1987, quoted in the Telegraph Magazine, November 2:

"It's a great pity that the film is going to end up glorifying Dan and Donald, because had they managed the situation betterthere would never have been a mutiny. I don't think it was the boat club's most glorious hour."

Tony Ward, mutineer and Blue, quoted in The Telegraph Magazine, November 2:

"We weren't approached by the film-makers until after the script was written and filming was about to start. At that stage the approach smacked of tokenism and we felt that we didn't want to help promote a film that seemed a very one-sided account of what happened."

Chris Huntington, mutineer, quoted in Sunday Telegraph:

Tom Cadoux-Hudson, member of the crew and former British international world medalist: