DVD REVIEW: HISTORY OF USC FOOTBALL, THE

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STUDIO: Warner Brothers
MSRP: $19.99
RATED: NR
RUNNING TIME: 102 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Second Banana Featurette
• The McKay Mystery featurette
• Heisman Club featurette
• Extra Interviews

The Pitch

“We’ll use a series of interviews and stock footage to string together the history of USC football. It’ll be great, just like USC. Because the USC is great. Everyone will know we are great. Won’t that be great?”

The Humans

Some football players, a few coaches and a shit-load of National Titles.

The Nutshell

The University of Southern California has a long history of winning. This DVD is a string of interviews from current and former players (current QB Matt Leinart is taking only one class this semester – Dance – so he obviously had the time. Oddly, OJ was mentioned but there are no interviews with him), coaches and sports writers. The interviews are intertwined with a boat-load of footage giving visual proof of the Trojans’ dominance.

USC Family Management majors face a tough final exam of ultimate hopscotch.

The Package

This package of Trojans isn’t anything too spectacular (definitely not the jumbo size). Like many documentaries it is faced with a few problems. First, in many cases, they are using old stock footage. There’s only so much you can do with that.

Second, when it comes to extras, what are you going to put on the disc? More interviews? Yeah. That’s what we get with this disc – more of the same. Some of the stories told in the extras are interesting (like the one about Coach McKay getting death threats) and I can see why they weren’t included in the main documentary. But, after watching a 100 minute documentary, you want the extras to feel a little different.

“Brad Pitt ain’t got nothing on me!"

The Lowdown

If you are big into USC football, this disc is probably a must own. If you are a fanatical College Football fan (in general), this is probably a fascinating thing to watch. If you confuse Coach McKay with John McClane (or John McCain for that matter), you’ll probably be bored off your rocker.

The interviews throughout the documentary are OK. There is nothing too special about them. The old football footage is rather interesting. Especially when they go way back and the helmets are barely more than leather hats. Makes the team look like they are wearing strange condoms on their heads.

However, after an hour and a half of spliced film and interviews, you might reach two conclusions. One, that USC does have quite an impressive football legacy. Two, that no one, except USC alumnus and aficionados, really cares.

"During the war, I killed many Trojans. I had to hike six miles uphill in the snow to do it. Did I ever tell you in my day you could buy a hamburger for a nickel."

2 out of 10