A great feel-good-movie, well made with great acting

Rating: 8/10 (9 October 2000)

This isn't your traditional Disney movie. There are no cute little animals, no evil villain. But, this isn't a football movie either. So, if you liked Any Given Sunday, and are looking for the next best thing, look somewhere else, this movie an't for you.
Seeing how this is a Jerry Brockheimer movie I can tell you it has 4 things straight off: great cinematography, great editing, high emotions, and it's probably going to have Will Patton in it. Jerry (as I call him) has made some bad movies (Gone in Sixty Seconds, Armageddon) and he has made some good movies (The Rock, Enemy of the State, Beverly Hills Cop). This is one of his best movies.
The movie centers on the racial problems that develop when a Virginian high school is integrated back in the seventies. At first, the players hate each other, you basic racial hate movie. But after a long stay at a football camp, they all become friends.
That is one of the best parts to the movie. The friendship that bonds between the men also bonds between the audience. The characters are more like real people instead of talking cardboard cut outs.
Let me state one more time THIS IS NOT A TRUE DISNEY MOVIE. Disney owns a little company you may have heard called Touchtone that is considered the "adult" version of Disney. Jerry just so happens to work for Touchtone. Whenever Touchtone makes a family friendly movie (like Mission to Mars) Disney takes it away from them, and markets it as their own. This isn't considered stealing because Disney owns Touchtone, making it legal. There is a lot of content in this movie that kids won't get. This is just a movie that is "okay" for them to see not one that they will enjoy seeing.
Denzel Washington is great playing the ferocious Couch Boone. I haven't seen him this cruelly-energized since The Hurricane (another great racial movie). He won't win any Oscars for this, but if you're a fan, don't miss this movie. As far as Will Patton goes, normally I don't like him. But he does a really good job in this movie., better than I had expected.

Overall, the movie isn't best picture worthy. Its emotions sometimes get too emotional, and any macho guys will start to get a little uncomfortable. It can get a little too unrealistic in its friendly tone, but it doesn't cross that line of too nice that Mr. Smith Goes to Washington crosses.
But, despite that, this is a movie that I would recommend to anyone. Husbands take your wives to this. Take you kids too, they might just like it. Note: this is a good date movie on top of that.
By the way, as dramatic as it is, the movie is also very funny. Boone's idea of football camp is really a junior military boot camp, which gets very funny at times.
I give it an enthusiastic 8 out of ten.