Right up there with Hoosiers

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2003)

There are some comments about this movie that are from people who are either too young to have experienced the era, or have just never had the thought that some of this could have actually occurred. Some small spoilers may occur in these comments.
I was the age of the coaches daughters in 1971, and I can remember the tension in the nation during this period of integration. This movie captures that era - captures the feelings that were being spread at that time. It's obvious the language was cleaned up for Disney - the brick would have said Coach N, not Coach Coon.
By the same token, what it does also show is how a sports team in a community can bring pride to the community, no matter what the divisions are. It doesn't matter whether you understand football or not - the plays on the field were not the defining moments of the movie. Simply having one of your supposed teammates let you down - and then having to re-examine your own values because of what happened - THOSE ideas are what this movie is about.
Denzel gives in this movie an Academy Award winning performance. As a sports movie, this ranks up there with the pantheon of basketball movies, Hoosiers. (If you don't get football, then don't come to Indiana and ask about basketball. Football here is a sport - basketball is a religion.)