Netflix is always proud to honor veterans. But this year, Veterans Day took on special meaning as we hosted early screenings of our new historical war drama The Mosquito Bowl.
Based on a true story, as well as the book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger, the film follows four of America’s top college football stars who set their fame aside to enlist in the Marines following the attack on Pearl Harbor. As they prepare for the brutal invasion of Okinawa, they’ll play in a legendary football game featuring some of the greatest players in history — a game that, for many, will be the last they ever play.
Honoring Veterans Day
On November 10, to mark the Marine Corps’ 251st birthday and the evening before Veterans Day, we held a special screening at the US Navy Memorial Theater for policymakers at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans groups like the Blue Star Families, HillVets, LOC Veterans History Project, Student Veterans of America, US Vets, Veterans in Media & Entertainment at the Navy Memorial Theater in Washington D.C. Following the screening, director/writer/producer Peter Berg and Bissinger discussed the film with moderator, CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper.
“I hope that it can be a little bit of a message to anyone who sees this film that we have a responsibility to take care of the men and women who are willing to serve for this country, who are willing to fight for this country,” said Berg. Earlier in the day, Berg and Bissinger also visited the Marine Barracks Washington, the oldest active post in the United States Marine Corps.
In honor of Veterans Day, we also hosted a reception and screening at Purdue University (which one of the film’s main characters, Tony Butkovich, attended) in partnership with the school’s Veteran and Military Success Center. Guests included members of the Veteran and Military Success Center and Purdue ROTC students.
Given The Mosquito Bowl’s central themes of service and sports, these were just the latest early previews of the movie for military communities and football programs across the country leading up to its November 25 debut on Netflix.
Movie Screenings at Military Bases Across the Country
More than 1700 service members at 10 military bases across the country previewed the film, including MCB Yuma in Arizona; NAS Pearl Harbor in Hawaii; NAVCBCTR Gulfport in Mississippi; MCB Camp Lejeune in North Carolina; NAS Oceana in Virginia; NAS Whidbey Island in Washington; and MCAG 29 Palms, MCAS Miramar and NAS North Island in California.
Berg attended the screenings at Parris Island in South Carolina and at California’s Camp Pendleton, where he was joined by the film’s four stars, who met with service members and toured the facilities. “It’s very important to me that the actors understand the cultures that they’re portraying and in this case, it’s football and it’s the military,” said Berg.
Berg, Bissinger and the cast also toured the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Louisiana, where they received an installation briefing from Commanding Officer Capt. Drew McGinly and met with Marines and Sailors.
Later that evening, we held a special screening at the nearby National WWII Museum in New Orleans, followed by a Q&A moderated with Berg, Bissinger and the cast moderated by Dr. John Curatola, the museum’s Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian.
We also invited the US Marines Silent Drill Platoon, which has performed precision exhibition drills without verbal commands or vocal cadence for over seven decades, to the film’s world premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles.
Passing the Ball to College and Professional Football Programs
We also shared the movie with half a dozen professional and college football programs. We screened the movie for three NFL teams — the Indianapolis Colts, the Las Vegas Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers — and three other college football programs, including Brown University, the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin.
For three of these schools, the screenings were especially poignant given that the real-life soldiers depicted in the film were former students: John McLaughry attended Brown and Dave Schreiner and Bob Bauman played together at the University of Wisconsin.
Since three of the film’s four central characters hailed from Big Ten schools, we also previewed The Mosquito Bowl for conference employees. Berg, Francis and Nicholson also screened the film and toured the military wing of the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, including the display for HOF inductee Schreiner.
Preparing for Battle (On and Off the Field)
For the San Francisco 49ers and Parris Island events, the screenings marked full-circle moments. Francis and Nicholson trained with the 49ers’ star running back Christian McCaffrey during pre-production (in addition to shadowing the New York Giants). And Honorary Gunnery Sergeant of the US Marine Corps Stephen Price served as the Parris Island military consultant on the film, teaching drill, marching, weapons safety, squad formations and Marine Corps discipline to the cast and extras. James Dever, a Retired Sergeant Major of the US Marine Corps, was the film’s military advisor.
“These are real people and the least you can do is pour your every ounce of effort into trying to bring their stories to life in an honest way,” said Galitzine of the preparation that went into the film.
The Mosquito Bowl debuts globally on Netflix on November 25.
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