RAUCOUS RUGBY TEAM WINS AT LIFE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

MOST SPORTS movies are about what it takes to win. ``Murderball,'' much more interestingly, is about what goes into really living.

To call this documentary about quadriplegic rugby uplifting would not do justice to its tough, raucous nature. Yes, it's inspiring to see guys who have lost some degree of function in all four limbs get out there and compete like other athletes, albeit in armor-plated wheelchairs. But what's really heartening is the undiminished ferocity, team spirit and vulgar verve with which they play - and the complete emotional brio they apply to whatever they do off the court as well.

Directed by Dana Adam Shapiro (a journalist who first wrote about the sport for Maxim magazine) and Henry Alex Rubin (``Freestyle''), ``Murderball'' follows quad rugby Team USA from its upset defeat at the hands of archrival Canada at the 2002 world championship to their rematch at the Paralympics in Athens last year. Along the way, we get to know the flaws and fears of several complex individuals for whom physical limitations are just a part of living.

Among the most charismatic to emerge is Mark Zupan, the tattooed, severely goateed star of Team USA, whom you'd assume might be a particularly intimidating garage mechanic if he got around in a different set of wheels. More thoughtful than his appearance might indicate, Zupan's got a sexy girlfriend, runs a thriving business and, through the course of the movie, works out an unsentimentalized reconciliation with the guilt-ridden friend who was drunkenly responsible for breaking his neck.

Just as intriguing is Joe Soares who, cut from the U.S. team after turning 40, went on to coach the Canadians. Joe's resentment - and his former colleagues' resentment of him - is engrossingly visceral. But Joe's relationship with his own son, as well as the fallout from his intense approach to everything he does, is a rich domestic drama all by its freestanding self.

Played on a basketball court, where the tricked-out wheelchairs become both gracefully fluid chariots and blunt battering rams, quad rugby is a terrific spectator sport. And very dangerous-looking, which only adds to its entertainment appeal. But it is the full-bodied personalities we meet in ``Murderball'' that really make it more than either a sports movie or one about overcoming disability.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

MURDERBALL - Three stars

(R: language, sexual content)

Director: Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro.

Running time: 1 hr. 26 min.

Playing: Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Monica, Santa Monica; Westside Pavilion, West L.A.

In a nutshell: Quadriplegics play rugby - and play it for keeps - in this rough-and-ready documentary that inspires with neither hand-wringing nor sugarcoating.

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``Murderball,'' about the United States' quadriplegic rugby team, is far from being a sentimental sports film.