‘The Dynasty’ director explains why Patriots’ early Super Bowl wins didn’t get much airtime
New England won three titles in four years. Here's why the documentary didn't spent more time on that.
Matthew Hamachek, who directed Apple TV+’s 10-part Patriots documentary “The Dynasty,” said he understands fans’ concerns about why New England’s victories in Super Bowls 38 and 39 did not receive more attention in the series.
But, storytellers pick and choose which parts of the story make it into the finished product, and Hamachek felt that part of the story had been covered well elsewhere.
Hamachek discussed his rationale for the decisions during a recent episode of MassLive’s “Eye on Foxborough” podcast.
“Those Super Bowls were covered,” Hamachek said. “They had been covered by NFL Films. They were covered by Three Games to Glory. Tom Brady covered it in his 10-part doc series. And so, the beginning of this story is about the little engine that could or the David that turns into Goliath. David slays Goliath and becomes Goliath.”
“I’m sure as a fan this is not what anybody wants to hear, but I just felt like those Super Bowls had been covered so well by a bunch of other people that it wasn’t really advancing our question that much to continue to go into them. It’s in these moments when you don’t have every weapon in your arsenal and you have to make something out of nothing where true greatness is formed.”
The question that Hamachek felt determined for the series to answer was inspired by former Patriots director of football research Ernie Adams.
“Ernie Adams says at the end of Episode 10 … everybody says that they want to win a Super Bowl,” Hamachek said. “But not everybody is willing to do what it takes to actually do it. I think a lot of what this series is is an examination of what it took for all these people to do it. I think that was always my approach, but coming at it from more of a human level.”
Hamacheck said there was footage from the 2003 and 2004 seasons that he considered using more of.
“We even started to cut the Lawyer Milloy leaves and Rodney Harrison comes in,” Hamachek said. “Then it’s like here we go we’re going to cover the practice where Rodney throws his helmet at someone and the whole team piles up on top of him and everybody says that was the moment. You know that story, everybody knows that story, and there’s a reason. It’s just been told so much.”
“I just didn’t feel like we needed to tell that story again,” Hamacheck added. “Because I think what we had captured was episodes 1, 2, and 3, which the concept of team first is really what episode 3 is all about. It’s the creation of a culture. … I feel like we had gotten a good sense of the culture and what worked so well to create those three Super Bowls.”
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