Gosh our media are out of whack. Having read some of the critics reviews on Chasing Great, I went along expecting to see an doco of Richie's life without any great insights into his character. Luckily for me they were so wrong!! The reviews stating that Richie does not open up implies to me that either they really just don't get it; or lack the emotional intelligence to recognise the messages in this doco. Or they are just miserable beggars with nothing good to say about anything that's not quirky dark art house. Lucky for us, the NZ public seems to have a higher level of EQ than the average reviewer, and have fed this back via their social media channels which is overwhelmingly positive.
There has even been anecdotal evidence of the way this doco has inspired the young folk of New Zealand. This week MAGs first fifteen won the National Championship. MAGS.Interestingly, they had just taken a team trip to the doco. " t was revealed, they (sic) had viewed the Chasing Great movie as a team on the Saturday and drew some inspiration from that Richie McCaw biopic.
I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this journey. I laughed and cried (even though Richie didn't). I felt inspired by his open and driven mindset to set goals of my own. I relived moments in sporting history - with sweaty hands over my eyes, my brain tricking me into believing that I didn't know the outcome. When the final World Cup was won and Richie's childhood haka played under this scene, it was a moment of pure magic for me, connecting this legend to the person he had become. This sent shivers down my spine.
If I could change one thing - if time had allowed I would have loved to have seen more of the mental side of Richie's preparation, with Ceri Evans. Overall, going again.......and probably again........and will add the DVD to the Santa list