Concussion [Includes Digital Copy]

Director: Peter Landesman Peter Landesman

Overview

Filmmaker Peter Landesman (Parkland) wrote and directed this sports-themed drama based on Jeanne Marie Laskas' GQ article "Game Brain," about the potentially horrific cost of playing football. Pittsburgh-based neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) discovers a degenerative brain disease now known as CTE in the autopsies of several deceased pro-football players, but after presenting his research, he finds himself under fire from the NFL. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Luke Wilson, Alec Baldwin, Bitsie Tulloch, and Albert Brooks co-star.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/29/2016
UPC:	0043396462991
Original Release:	2015
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:03:00
Sales rank:	7,107

Special Features

Inside the true story: discover the true story and meet the real people who inspired the film; Commentary with director Peter Landesman

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Will Smith	Dr Bennet Omalu
Alec Baldwin	Dr Julian Bailes
Albert Brooks	Dr Cyril Wecht
Gugu Mbatha-Raw	Prema Mutiso
Stephen Moyer	Dr Ron Hamilton
Eddie Marsan	Dr Steven DeKosky
Luke Wilson	Roger Goodell
David Morse	Mike Webster
Matthew J. Willig	Justin Strezelczyk,Justin Strzelczyk
Paul Reiser	Dr Elliot Pellman
Arliss Howard	Dr Joseph Maroon,Composer
Mike O'Malley	Daniel Sullivan
Hill Harper	Spellman Jones
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	Dave Duerson
Bitsie Tulloch	Keana Strezelczyk,Keana Strzelczyk
Richard T. Jones	Andre Waters
Sara Lindsey	Gracie
Kevin Jiggetts	Agent FBI
Gary Grubbs	Agent FBI
Randy Kovitz	Deputy Mayor
L. Scott Caldwell	Waters' Mother
Dan Ziskie	Paul Tagliabue
Larry John Meyers	Father D'Amico
Joni Bovill	Mrs. Scott
Dan Anders	College Coach
Joshua Elijah Reese	Graveyard Tech
Holt McCallany	Angry Neurologist
Mike Clark	TV Reporter (Interview)
Jared Pfennigwerth	Techs
Phillip Chorba	Techs
David Flick	Hospital Security Guard
Kelley Davis	Assistant,Defense Attorney
Alison Moir	Colleen Bailes
Samara Lee	Strzelczyk's Daughter
Nathan Hollabaugh	Young Reporter
Michael Schaich	Security Guard
Hennessey Joseph	NFL Employee
Lisa Earley	Lodi Morgue Tech
Dihlon McManne	Reporter at Westin
Britanni Johnson	Actor
Carmen Gangale	Doctor
Jeb Keller	High School Coach
Jackie Schafer	TV Reporter (Webster Site)
Scott Conner	ER Doctor
Dino Rende	Strzelczyk's Son
Cindy Jackson	Paramedic
Scott Miller	Contractor
Antonia Long	Piano Player
Ann B. Betters	Cantor
Britanni D. Johnson	Rachel Green
Dawn Vocke	Nurse In Bailes Office

Technical Credits

Peter Landesman

Jeanne Marie Laskas

Peter Landesman	Director,Screenwriter
Giannina Facio	Producer
Ridley Scott	Producer
David Wolthoff	Producer
Larry Shuman	Producer
Elizabeth Cantillon	Producer
Michael Schaefer	Executive Producer,Producer
David Crockett	Executive Producer,Producer
Greg Basser	Executive Producer,Producer
Bruce Berman	Executive Producer,Producer
Ben Waisbren	Executive Producer,Producer
David Esparza	Sound/Sound Designer
Mary Vernieu	Casting
Lindsay Graham	Casting
Lee Orloff	Sound Mixer
James M. Emswiller	Sound Mixer,Sound Effects
Howard Berger	Makeup Special Effects
Jeanne Marie Laskas	Screenwriter
Ando Johnson	Sound Effects
Christian P. Minkler	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

At a time when most football fans are gearing up for Super Bowl 50, the movie Concussion has made itself impossible for even casual observers of the sport to ignore. The film, written and directed by Peter Landesman and largely based on Jeanne Marie Laskas' GQ article "Game Brain," centers on Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith), the man who discovered the presence of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the autopsies of several former NFL players. Unsurprisingly, the doctor experiences some major roadblocks while trying to get his findings validated by league official and doctors. The portrayal of former footballers such as Mike Webster (in a deeply wounding performance from David Morse) tell the story of a traumatic injury with symptoms that are difficult to diagnose, and which leads to a crippling, maddening downfall for men who are discarded by the NFL after years of playing at full speed. Smith does some of the best work of his career as Dr. Omalu, a Nigerian immigrant who wants nothing more than to become a "true American" -- even after being exposed to the ugliest side of one of its most iconic institutions. Speaking in a thick accent, Smith moves out of his comfort zone and sheds much of the effortless, smooth-talking charm from his past roles. No matter: He shines here, expertly depicting Omalu's drive to do right by the deceased patients he had pledged to help. We acutely feel both his breakthroughs and his disappointments and fears, the latter arising when the NFL doesn't accept his findings and instead smears him and his colleagues. Concussion skillfully merges its dramatized scenes with heart-pounding in-game footage, which highlights the sport's beauty as well as its brutality. The always superb Albert Brooks provides some much needed levity as Dr. Cyril Wecht, the man who employed Omalu and gave him permission to proceed with his independent research on Webster's brain. As Dr. Julian Bailes, Omalu's champion and colleague, Alec Baldwin overcomes a shaky Southern accent to adequately portray a man who is torn between his love for the game and his desire to do the right thing (his scene with an ailing Webster is particularly affecting). Meanwhile, Gugu Mbatha-Raw does superb work as Omalu's cerebral wife Prema, who encourages his crusade even as pressure from the league and the public force the couple to uproot themselves from football-obsessed Pittsburgh to California. The NFL has often ended up on the wrong side of issues ranging from player safety to pensions to domestic abuse by its employees, and it fully deserves the film's scrutiny; that said, Concussion's moral righteousness and desire for heightened cinematic drama cause it to step on its own feet at various points. In a movie with no dearth of material to draw on, the melodramatic scenes between the Omalus and Dr. Bailes seem unnecessary at best, and treacly and distracting at worst. The film also fails to adequately address the efforts of real-life lawyer Bob Fitzsimmons, an ally of Omalu's who worked with players such as Webster to fight for disability payments that the NFL owed them following serious injuries. One of the men standing in Fitzsimmons' way was Dave Duerson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), whom the movie depicts as a heartless NFL player-turned-consultant who denies the seriousness of CTE, essentially turning his back on his former teammates and colleagues. While Duerson certainly does not have a shining reputation among ex-players, some of his scenes in this film seem particularly callous, especially one that suggests that CTE-afflicted former Eagles safety Andre Waters committed suicide just after being rebuffed by Duerson on the street. There is certainly a story to be told about a player who tows the company line because of professional aspirations, but relegating Duerson to three scenes that cast him in a villainous light feels like a cop-out. Landesman had the potential to make a whistleblower drama of epic proportions here, but he frequently settles for Hollywood clichés instead of providing a deeper examination of this issue's underlying problems and possible solutions. In spite of these somewhat glaring flaws, Concussion is a pulsing, if uneven, drama that pays tribute to the efforts of a headstrong hero who helped reveal the potentially horrific cost of America's most popular sport.