"Gee, Who Do You Think Wins the Big Game?"

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2007)

The Roland E. Zwick review of Disney's Glory Road is a good, solid opinion piece, so my addition will be simply to acknowledge that this movie is a basket-shooting, rebounding cliché, but a visually impressive one.
I don't know a lot about cameras, lenses, and film stock (if movies still use film anymore?), but there's a grainy, orangey patina to the movie that gives it its old feel, and it's very effective.
Besides that, it's a solid, journeyman, underdog sports movie (with a whole lot of racial tension thrown in). Besides the color of the film, there's a laying open of the frustration and surrender black players felt after a relentless barrage of hate from opposing teams and their respective communities. Finally, key members of the team surrender to reverse hatred and lump all "crackers" together.
That was intellectually honest for the screenwriters to put in to Glory Road, the knee-jerk response to bigotry being more bigotry. This struggle--and the response to it by the coaches--raises the movie above its fairly low performance.
There's just a bit more to this cliché fest than first meets the eye.