More successful in its portrayal of the American civil rights struggle than in its depiction of a basketball team, this movie shows just how far American society has come in only a few short decades.
Coach Don Haskins, played by Josh Lucas (“A Beautiful Mind”), is promoted from coaching high school girls ball to division one men’s college basketball. Moving his family into the Texas Western dorms, he begins to put together the best team he can. With a minimal budget Haskins turns his eye to the largely overlooked contingent of talented black players without any hope of playing NCAA basketball. Sending his assistant coach on a scouting mission to the blacktop courts in Harlem, and driving himself to the factories of the Midwest, Haskins builds his team with an almost unheard of 7 black players out of twelve. Short on hope but willing to dream, the Texas Western players suit up for practice and over the course of a season come together as players, as teammates, and as people.
Many elements of other classic sports films are in “Glory Road”. The demanding coach, the rebellious yet talented team leader, the intimidating big city opposing team, the game where the refs make bad calls, the big comeback, the doubting world, the reluctant fans, it’s all there, but it has the feel of a formula, unlike “Hoosiers”, “Miracle” or “Remember the Titans”. There is nothing new in the basketball scenes, either in team practices or even on the court. Director James Gartner uses fast cuts between the game, the scoreboard, and the coaches to add tension and keep the action moving at a head turning clip but it costs in the continuity of the actual games, games which hold an innate drama that won’t be topped by anything found in the editing room. It’s really the off-the-court moments that make this movie unique. It’s the scene where the slow-to-integrate team has a black on white pride game in the middle of the cafeteria, at lunchtime, it’s the breakfast at a roadside diner where one of the players gets jumped in the bathroom, it’s the night where the team sneaks out of the dorm for Mexican food, and the time when the black guys take the white guys off-campus to one of their parties that keep “Glory Road” from forced comparisons to other great sports movies.
The tone of “Glory Road” is mostly spot on. Jon Voight as Kentucky’s Adolf Rupp showed his passion for playing the villain, but again he was good. Unfortunately, new comer Emily Deschanel (from TV’s “Bones”) as Mrs. Haskins only appears from time to time in Gartner’s reluctant attempt to show the coach’s home life. Even the mostly inexperienced group of players do their part. Only Lucas’s performance was questionable among the whole cast. His try at intensity seems in contrast with the warm if not laidback style he’s shown in films like “Sweet Home Alabama”. He never found his stride in this film, his sensitive moments, too, are out of place or at least off-key, such as his speech to the players on the eve of the big game. It may be that expectations from the sports formula or familiarity with past performances, like Gene Hackman as Norman Dale in “Hoosiers”, help to fill in what gaps Lucas left open and allow for “Glory Road” to still impact its audience, for it does have impact.
Texas Western’s groundbreaking success in NCAA basketball should never be forgotten, and it can’t be said that “Glory Road” didn’t do it right. Sports films abound but any movie that sheds light on a darker and easily forgotten, or never learned, period in our society’s history, with all the struggle and dignity of this one is a success, if only for inflaming our passions and turning our hearts. That triumph as much any accomplishment on the court will make you cheer at the end of this film.
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