A classic, one of my top 10 (& I'm a non-football female!)

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2006)

Not usually a football fan, I rank this well cast and directed dramatic true story as one of my top 10, truly and movingly evoking an era I lived and schools I attended in the 60s-70s, but also with larger, deeper, and timeless themes of human rights, change, and acceptance, that make you think and test your attitudes, while also uplifting with the inspiring power of vision, courage, perseverance, and unity.
Youths, adults, and entire cultures clash and make history in the struggle to meld or not to meld, to face and entrench or overcome cultural differences in order to achieve a common goal, and in so doing, also develop interesting new relationships and the discovery of hitherto unknown qualities in themselves against a dramatic backdrop of challenging events including unfairness from trusted adults to dependent youths. "Let the boys play," appeals Coach Herman Boone!
Supported with humor, interesting and likable real-life characters and their actors, as well as the classic and alive music of that era, you're transported to a time in America before the 21st Century, when our culture was less jaded and world-weary, with more vitality, vulnerability, jubilance, and depth.
As the movie ends I wish I could continue to know these people and experience more of life's twists and turns and ups and downs in their company. You want to watch them continue to grow and see what happens in the lives of people you've come to know. As a result, I've looked up here in the IMDb the movie's writer, director and actors to find more of their movies, especially Ryan Hurst, Kip Pardue, and Hayden Panettiere!(Denzel Washington was already a favorite.)