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Glory Road [2006]


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Ticks all the boxes
Review date: 2007-08-06 Rating: 8 out of 10

As sports movies go this one is a basic by the numbers job, based on a true story. It has just the right blend of action, humour and drama to keep the viewer interested and its not too heavy handed on the more serious aspects so its good entertainment for all the family. Largely ignored in the Uk because its a basketball film, this is definitely worth a look if you enjoy sports movies.

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Reviews


Players of all colours unite!
Review date: 2007-07-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

We see more and more of these films and that rejuvenates my heart and my mind tremendously. Here it is about the 1966 NCAA Basket Ball competition in which Texas Western lined up the first ever all black basket ball team in the final game, and the black players were a majority in the team from the very start. The film is decent about the difficulties encountered by the coach who made that choice: make them respect his rule, his rhythm and his life discipline while training and then competing; make them live with their differences inside the team, and with the hostility of many outside the team; make them accept to play a unified game as a team even if some would like to play their own personal games. And there are many others. He managed to keep them united even for the final game when he decided to have an all black team then, the white players becoming privileged supporters. Was he conscious he was setting an objective that went a long way beyond the game itself? How can we know? It is sure today that it was a milestone in the civil rights struggle, at least it became one: the 1966 declaration of independence of black basketball players at the national level. The extremely important dimension of this film is that it is not only saying or showing the blacks are better, because after all they might not be better, but showing that their game, their way of playing is better because they are able to unify their ambitions within the whole team and to integrate their white team mates even when it might be considered like bringing the wolf among the sheep by taking them to an all black party one week-end. The film shows how much the civil rights struggle was an all-race team struggle. Without the support of some whites in the public as well as in the hierarchy the struggle might have been a lot longer and even a lot less successful. That has to be said over and over again and demonstrated with as many case studies as possible. That's what Ralph Ellison demonstrated in his books: blacks are invisible but to become visible to whites it is some of these whites who have to open their eyes and see. Without these white eyes seeing the blacks around them, the blacks cannot become visible, no matter what they do. In fact everything they may do might even make them more invisible or might justify some into making these blacks become invisible by erasing them from the picture. And that attitude, so well illustrated in this film, has to be the model for us to deal with all the groups of people who are different from us, no matter what this "us" might stand for.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne


''Let my boy play''
Review date: 2006-09-09 Rating: 8 out of 10

Set in 1965, Glory Road could easily be mistaken for just another triumphal basketball movie. Thankfully the film is so much more and most viewers be pleasantly surprised by this bio of the 1966 Texas Western Miners, the first college basketball team to win an NCAA championship with a starting lineup of mainly "Negro" players.

Josh Lucas - in possibly the best role of his career - plays Don Haskins, young and good-looking coach who spends much of his time coaching women's basketball teams. Suddenly given his shot at coaching Division I basketball in football-mad Texas, where part of the job meant living in the dorms with his wife (Emily Deschanel) and three kids.

Haskins is determined to build a winning team, but with pathetic recruitment resources, the coach is forced to use his imagination. So he tours Northeast ghetto playgrounds and ends up busing half a dozen African-Americans to the banks of the Rio Grande. This proves to be a culture shock on both sides.

The local whites and Latinos don't know what to make of the new scholarship students - some of them have probably never seen a black person before - while the Northern urbanites get their first tastes of deserts and tacos. Of course, there's some inevitable racial tension, but Haskins soon gets his white and black players working together.

There's no doubt Haskins is a tough taskmaster, and he hates to see the boys wasting time with wine, women and song. He also refreshingly acknowledges that he's not that talented and doesn't have all the answers. As the team rises in the national rankings, they are forced to endure racism and suffer various indignities especially in the South - from being pelted with food as they enter arenas to having racial epithets scrawled on their hotel-room walls.

When the attacks on them grow more vehement and even violent in their animosity, their morale is affected and in one near-brilliant sequence, the black players refuse to work with their white teammates, resulting in a rare, humiliating loss. When the Miners reach the final against "Baron" Adolph Rupp's (Jon Voight) Kentucky Wildcats, Haskins decides to make a statement by only playing the African-Americans.

The film has a great look and feel of the sixties, with Lucas perfectly cast as Haskins and Mehcad Brooks leads a solid cadre of youthful players who manage to both look convincing on the court and convey the mix of anger and enthusiasm that the youths felt. Although Glory Road is essentially a Disney Film, it doesn't shy away from showing the ugliness of racism and it's as much a civil-rights drama as a sports story.

There's a real the commitment to believability here and it's felt mostly between the interaction between the black and white teammates, whose path to total solidarity is more complex than merely learning to appreciate each other's cute little music. Although Glory Road is ultimately a C+ film, it is buoyed along by its earnestness and for the most part is pretty well executed. Mike Leonard September 06.


Fantastic Feel Good Movie
Review date: 2006-06-30 Rating: 10 out of 10

I have just finished watching a Region 1 copy and I just had to write a review. Although I was sceptical to start, as I am the least sporty person you will ever find, I must say I am so glad I watched this movie.
It centres on the year 1965, on this time in Ron Haskins(played by Josh Lucas) life as manager of a Texan Basketball team. He has just been recruited and it is expected of the team, called the Miners, to lose. However Haskins has other ideas and sees this as his big break. Once he realises that no self respecting white basketball player will join his team, he decides to recruit black players who, up until this point have been deemed by the majority as being too inferior to play. Although this does not sit well with the Dean etc, he does it his way with both surprising and dramatic conclusions!
Based on a real-life story, with very good DVD extras,this is not only one to watch, this is most definately one to buy!!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Red West
Derek Luke
Jon Voight
Tatyana M. Ali
Joshua Lucas

Creators:
Joshua Lucas (Primary Contributor)
Tatyana M. Ali (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
EAN: 8717418091958
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-08-07
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 113 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2006
Language: English (Original Language)

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