Glory Road 2006. Directed by James Gartner, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Starring Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Damaine Radcliff, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Mehcad Brooks, Emily Deschanel, Tatyana Ali, Jon Voight, and others. 106 minutes. Rated PG for racial issues including epithets, violence and mild language.
If nothing else, you have to be impressed by the true story behind this predictably feel-good sports flick. "Glory Road" takes viewers back to 1965, when former girls' basketball coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) lands his first NCAA coaching job at Texas Western University in El Paso.
The school's basketball team, called the Miners, has a lousy reputation. Haskins is determined to change that by recruiting more talented players.
Who cares if those players happen to be black?
In the South at that time, a whole lot of people, as it turned out. Things get ugly -- though not too ugly for Disney -- when Haskins insists on adding seven black players to the team, many of them in starting positions.
Haskins' courageous decision endsup transforming the whole culture of the sport, and it also transforms the Miners into a winning team. They storm through the season with only a single loss.
As the team's athletic performance heats up, so do the racial tensions surrounding -- and among -- the players. They learn (of course) they have to stick together, fight hatred with dignity and never quit. Hardly a surprising message, but a good one nonetheless.
The film's weakest point is the acting. Lucas, who previously starred in "Sweet Home Alabama," delivers a stale and scripted sense of moral outrage. His blue-eyed glower does convey a necessary intensity in the role of Coach Haskins, but there's no emotional intelligence behind it.
Derek Luke puts in a solid performance as the suave, likeable point guard Bobby Joe Hill, and the rest of the cast does its best to fill out their roles in a script with little room for character development.
Jon Voight is the best actor in the bunch, but he doesn't show up onscreen until the end. He plays the coach of the all-white University of Kentucky team, facing off against the Miners in the final championship.
Even the most jaded viewer can't help but admit the sense of historical significance surrounding that game, and in the end, that's what makes this movie worth watching (though perhaps just as a rental).
The luxury of perspective makes it easy to laugh now at the blind stupidity of some of the old white men portrayed in the film. They shook their head at the sight of color on the court, saying things like:
"Negroes playing professional basketball? Can you imagine?"
Yeah, I think we can sort of picture that.
Want more?
If you like this, check out "Remember the Titans (2000)," starring Denzel Washington, which is arguably a more satisfying version of the familiar "racially mixed underdog sports team overcomes prejudice and beats the odds" plotline.
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