8 on a scale of 10

Rating: 8/10 (2 October 2000)

Naturally, any movie that I rate an 8, I liked. It was an excellent story about racial tensions within the world of high school sports in the early 1970's - a period I can identify with since I graduated HS in 1971.
The movie was a tightly crafted retelling of a true story that took place in Virginia. As with all "true" stories, you have to wonder how much of it was embellished to make it more marketable.
Actually, I do not believe some things happened the way they showed. I wouldn't have bought them even if it was fiction, so I certainly can't buy them as nonfiction. And, they did detract enough to lower my rating from about 8 1/2 to 7 1/2. Interestingly, in either case, I would have given it an 8 - so in that respect, it was irrelevant except to the enjoyment of the movie.
I had just seen another football movie - Any Given Sunday, so I was thrilled to see a decent football movie after that fiasco. But, as football movies go, the best I have ever seen is Rudy.