GLORY ROAD (2006)

Starring Josh Lucas, Jon Voight, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols, Damsine Radcliffe, Al Shearer. Drama/Historical/Sports. Synopsis:The story based on the 1966 Texas Western (now theUniverstiy of Texas-El Paso/UTEP) University basketball team and its coach, Don Haskins, who became the first major college team to start five African-American players en route to its national championship victory over the Kentucky Wildcats in the final. Directed by James Gartner.

This one was certainly up my alley from the beginning: sports, history, and in a film, three things I love dearly. The first thing that you should know is that it is not a completely accurate historical rendition. Some of you know that I have railed against this typical Hollywood practice before, but I did not have a problem with it in Glory Road , as none of the ultimate facts are changed, nor are things simply made and/or attributed to specific real life people in a false fashion, and then passed off as fact. What the film does do, however, is take some dramatic license, not necessarily changing any facts or general themes, but either embellishing them or making them more dramatic in typical movie fashion.

The story is told from the point of view of legendary Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas), a young coach still in his early 30's whose previous head coaching experience was as a girl's high school coach. Haskins proceeds to start to recruit black players, fairly controversial at a time when no major college programs in the Deep South has a single black player, and many other schools across the country had only one or two. The movie gives the incorrect impression that the story unfolds over one year and also that the seven black players on the '66 team were the first at the school. In fact, Haskins had been coaching at Texas Western for three years before the championship team, and had black players on the roster prior to '66. (One of whom was Nolan Richardson, coach of the '94 champion Arkansas Razorbacks). This, however, is a common compression/composite tactic used in many historical movies, especially sports movies such as Eight Men Out.

The movie jumps right into the story, dealing with Haskins' single minded approach to building a successful basketball team, and it is clear that racial/social change is not the sole or even primary objective, either of the coach or the players. I especially appreciated the depiction of the players, both black and white, though the black players' characters were much more developed in the film. The players are not shown as one dimensional civil rights martyrs or jealous bigots, which would have been very easy to do. We see the players probably as they were in 1966: aware of the world and its realities and changes, but also young men who loved a sport, having fun, music, girls, and worried about their classes. This,  to me, made the film more real and I empathized with them even more than I knew I would going into the picture.

All the young actors playing the team do a good job, you will find something in most of them that will remind you or yourself or someone you know/knew at a similar age, whether that was last year, 10 years ago, or  30 years ago. Probably most recognizable is the character of Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke. Antwone Fisher, Friday Night Lights) a key player from Detroit who is the only member of the team, if I'm not mistaken, who is deceased.

Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy) makes an appearance as the legendary Adolph Rupp, a giant among college coaches who was long thought to be a racist and did not integrate the Kentucky team until the 1970's. The movie does not dwell on the racism or problems the team faced, in fact, in my opinion, it could have been dealt with much more. Instead, we see good side story lines about the health and commitment to academics of the players and their families.

Josh Lucas is superb as Don Haskins, the only drawback being that he is obviously much, much smaller than the real Haskins. His portrayal of the coach grabs you from the first scene, and his intensity does not let up. 

The film is fast moving, with no lulls in the story or wasted scenes. The finale against the Kentucky is well shot and basketball fans will appreciate that the action passes as legitimate major college action. Gartner takes some license especially in the final, the film has it going down to the wire with Texas Western staging a comeback in the final two minutes, while in reality Texas Western led by double digits through most of the second half and the game did not go down to the last minute.

If you see this on DVD, there are some wonderful special features on the real players, as well as Coach Haskins who consulted on the film. A nice feel good, sports movie with a story that many of us already know, or can figure out as we've seen similar things before. But, the reason that sports films are so often winners is because we like to see the struggle that leads up to the ultimate victory (or heartbreaking defeat), and it works again here. You'll see shades of Miracle, Hoosiers, and Remember the Titans here. If you love basketball at all, you owe it yourself to check this out, even if you are not into the old time stuff. (The presence of Pat Riley-the current Miami Heat President-as a character in the film as the Kentucky star will make it more modern to you).

I don't know that Glory Road is the best sports movie you'll ever see, but it will be in most people's top ten.