Sad Story

Rating: 5/10 (24 October 2004)

I am a huge sport fan and was looking forward to this movie. However, I was really disappointed in how shallow it is. Maybe it is just a sad commentary on modern America that winning in sports depends only on one's willingness to die for one's team and has nothing to do with how it is done. I assume that Coach Grimes actually taught his players something about the game and not just how to love one another. Why is that not included in this movie? At least in Hoosiers, we see Coach Dale as a teacher and not just a motivator. I came away with no sense of why Grimes is an excellent coach. He cares about his players and screams at them, but that is all. The well done part of this movie is the depiction of a community's willingness to spend too much money on sports while academics are ignored. This was done without any overt commentary or by beating us over the head with the views of the film makers. It was just obvious. We love our circus.