Concussion

Before I say anything, I want to make it clear that, taken simply as a movie, this film is quite good. The script was tight and explained dense medical knowledge well, and the direction was solid. Will Smith was quite excellent and certainly deserved an Oscar nomination for his work. My problem here is personal and beyond the movie. As a life-long professional wrestling fan, I have spent the last two decades watching great men and woman die tragically because of concussion trauma. I have met many who have lost their lives to CTE, including Chris Benoit, who tragically killed his whole family and then himself. Omitting the part pro wrestling played in this story is just strange and sad to me. In point of fact, Christopher Nowinski from the WWE was the person who sent the case of Andre Waters to Dr. Omalu, but that is omitted in the film. The fact that pro wrestling and the WWE were very active in the fight to get CTE recognized and were among the first to institute concussion protocols is something I would have loved to hear about that. This is not the fault of the film itself, but rather what was, I think, a poor decision on the part of who designed the film. So, despite my personal reaction, this is a very fine film. 4/5

Concussion on Netflix