FSU Football Documentary

FSU Football Documentary, An Early Sneak Peek

A group of about 75 Florida State boosters, supporters and staff members were treated Tuesday night to a sneak preview of the upcoming feature-length documentary on Bobby Bowden and the Seminoles football team.

The film, which was produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker George Butler, takes viewers from the end of the 2005 season to the end of the 2006 campaign. It begins with the Orange Bowl loss to Penn State and ends with the Emerald Bowl victory against UCLA.

Along the way, the audience rides an emotional roller coaster filled with highs and lows that shape the character of a young team and shine a spotlight on the inner strength of Florida State's legendary head coach.

"What recruit would see this film and say, 'I don't want to go to Florida State,'" Butler asked the audience following Tuesday's viewing at the Moore Athletic Center.

It was a rhetorical question, of course.

Though Butler said he didn't expect that the Seminoles would endure a 7-6 season during the filming of his project -- it was Florida State's worst record in three decades -- he said it did nothing to diminish the film. To the contrary, he said it gave Bowden, his players and assistant coaches the opportunity to respond valiantly to adversity.

"Character triumphs as the Seminoles upset UCLA at the end of a strife-filled season," Butler wrote in a director's note to the audience.

Butler gained world acclaim in the 1970s with "Pumping Iron," the documentary that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger's career and turned bodybuilding into a social phenomenon. The success of that project rested on the unrestricted access Butler was granted to a seldom-seen world, and the director takes the same approach with "One Heartbeat," the title of this film.

Aside from the locker-room speeches, sideline rants and player pranks and jokes, the film features a number of more poignant moments.

Following are some of the highlights of Tuesday's 60-minute screening (Note: The actual film will likely be about two hours long and will contain some, but not all, of the scenes shown in the preview.)

* At one point, during Florida State's late-season collapse, Bowden wakes in the middle of the night and creeps into his kitchen, where he sits by a lamp and silently reads scriptures from The Bible.

* There are several moving scenes involving embattled offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden. In one, he talks about feeling "paralyzed" during the humiliating Wake Forest loss, which ultimately led to his departure. He says he told a fellow coach immediately following the game: "I can't do this to Coach Bowden."

* Jeff, Bobby and Ann Bowden are later shown sitting around a pool, candidly discussing Jeff's departure. Bobby says he didn't like the way things ended, but he finally admitted that Jeff "made a wise decision."

Butler's project was funded by a budget of about $3.3 million, and the primary reason for Tuesday's screening was to gauge the interest of potential investors. Butler said he would like to raise another $1 million in capital to offset the final expenses, which will include promotions and showcasing the film at Sundance and perhaps other film festivals.

The film is in the editing process and is expected to be completed in September or October. More than 300 hours of film were shot by Butler's crew.

The documentary will be set to a major musical score, Butler said, and will be released in thousands of movie theaters early next year.

Butler said he also has been approached by television executives who want to run the film as a series of six one-hour episodes.

The director noted that more than 500 million people have seen "Pumping Iron."

"I have proven that a good sports film can go around the world," he said.

For more information or to invest in Butler's project, contact White Mountain Films in New York. The e-mail address listed on the group's Web site ( whitemountainfilms.com ) is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it