(Picture: copyright -videodetective.com)One of the perks of being a teacher in High School is to be with students who are so "up to date" on what films to see and why. Before Christmas all my seniors had to work on a project where they chose a topic related to the subject Norwegian and presented it orally, a 15 minutes presentation, to 15 of their class mates. A lot of them naturally chose films and film analysis or studied book and film and how sucessful the film adaptation was. It was in this process one of my students introduced me to"Glory Road". Believing that the students have SO much to teach me, too, I borrowed it over the holidays and finally sat down to see it yesterday.
"Glory Road" is based on a true story and from Texas in the 1960s when coach Don Haskins led the Texas Western to the NCAA National Championship with an all-black starting line up. I must admit I thought this film would be a lot of basket and not so much more, but I was totally wrong! Just the fact that Josh Lucas (from "Home, Sweet Home") played coach Don was a huge and great surpise. I simply love his Texas accent! One of the main characters from "Bones", Emily Deschanel, played Don´s wife and even Angelina´s Dad, Jon Voigt, had a minor part, too.
First and foremost this film again made me painfully aware of how bad racism was in the South in the 60s. These boys had so much going for them because of their baseballskills, but were put down again and again by rude comments, violence, whites trashing their stuff etc. No wonder they did not believe in themselves! It is therefore so great that there are people in the world like coach Don, who saw beyond color and who chose these guys for their skills regardless of color and what others said and thought!
I know this is yet another "pursuit of happyness" and "American Dream" film, but I was still very touched by it. In addition to the basketball scenes (which I totally loved!), this film has so many other topics - dignity and never to stop believing in yourself, love, friendship, hatred, family values and more.
If you love sports, but also want to learn more about the American South in the 60s from a true story, and like a blend of various topics in addition, it is well worth spending a couple of hrs on this one!
For trailer, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvsICT_HLfY
