More Coach Carter content

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2005)

Coach Carter is a good sports movie. The fact that it is based upon a true story makes it more compelling. It revolves around tough love and the idea that if you do thousands of push-ups and thousands of suicides (wind sprints) then you will develop the necessary respect for yourself and your fellow man. Ahh if everyone would just go to boot camp then wouldn't the world be a better place?
I liked that this movie asked the question, "what really is a student athlete?" The answer is that in today's schools "student athlete" is an oxymoron unless a contract is signed and enforced. And it is the enforcing of this contract that made this an unique sports movie.
Samuel L. Jackson is well cast and gives an excellent performance although in some scenes I was wondering if he was still training Jedi Knights.
During the filming of the "big" basketball games it appeared several of the cameramen were having seizuresthe equivalent of my wife operating our camcorderor maybe it was just the editor who was seizing?
Although Ashanti is really nice to look at I wasn't sure why her character was necessary to tell the story. Either her influence on the team (not just an individual) and the plot needed to be integrated better or her character should have been scaled down or cut.
I would have liked to have seen more about what made Coach Carter take the job (he was only paid $1,500 a season) and more on why he didn't have his son enroll in Richmond in the first place instead of sending him to a private school. I already know about drugs on the street and teenage pregnancy through many other films. What I don't know enough about is what motivates a Coach Carter type personality and in turn why there are so few like him.
The objective of life is not to try to reach one's peak during high school sports but rather to be prepared for the long haul. This movie conveys this message well but I still would have liked to see more of Coach Carter off the court and less of the basketball players off the court.