The Slaughter Rule
| The Slaughter Rule | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster | |
| Directed by | Alex Smith and Andrew J. Smith |
| Written by | Alex Smith and Andrew J. Smith |
| Starring |
Ryan Gosling David Morse |
| Edited by | Brent White |
| Distributed by | Cowboy Entertainment |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Slaughter Rule is an independent film, released in 2002 and starring Ryan Gosling and David Morse. The movie, set in contemporary Montana, explores the relationship between a small-town high school football player (Gosling), and his troubled coach (Morse). The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
Plot
A teenager at a personal crossroads finds himself questioning the things that have given his life meaning in this independent coming-of-age drama. Roy Chutney (Ryan Gosling) is a high school senior in the fictional Montana town of Blue Springs. Roy does not have an especially close relationship with his mother Evangelline (Kelly Lynch), and he has not seen his father in years. That does not prevent Roy from feeling emotionally devastated when he learns that his father has killed himself, and Roy's self-esteem takes a beating when he is cut from the high school football team shortly afterward. Roy whiles away his time by swilling beer with his best friend, Tracy Two Dogs (Eddie Spears), and falling into a romance with Skyla (Clea DuVall), a barmaid at a local tavern, but it seems that Roy's short time on the high school gridiron impressed Gideon Ferguson (David Morse), a local character who coaches an unsanctioned high school six man football team when he is not delivering newspapers or trying to score a gig singing country songs at nearby honky-tonks.
Gideon thinks that Roy has potential and asks him to join his team; encouraged by Gideon's belief in him, Roy agrees, and he persuades Tracy to tag along. While playing hardscrabble six-man football helps restore Roy's self-confidence, he finds it does not answer his questions about his future or his relationship with Skyla. When Gideon's overwhelming interest in Roy begins to lend credence to the rumors that Gideon is gay, Roy starts to wonder just why he was asked to join the team.
Production
Jay Farrar, the founder of the acclaimed alternative country bands Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, composed the film's musical score.
Filming for the movie largely took place in Great Falls, Montana and a series of small towns in the Great Falls vicinity.
The title of the film comes from the term "slaughter rule." it provides for an athletic competition's premature conclusion if one team is ahead of the other by a certain number of points prior to game's end to avoid the losing team being further humiliated by the winning team. An example is the 45-point rule used in six-man football competition in Texas.