Entertaining, important

Rating: 8/10 (16 November 2004)

** HERE BE SPOILERS **
For the first time, the schools in Alexandria is integrated, and that means for the first time the schools football team will be mixed black and white. Coach Boone (Washington) is politically appointed to coach the team in place of coach Yoast (Patton). They have the work cut out for them, as they have to bring the two societies of black and white communities to work together as a team. To complicate matters, the coaches don't really trust each other either. To bring the team together, all the players go to training camp were they're forced to live and work together. But problems arise again when the team come back to town, and the ordinary life begins again and the divided community try to tear the team apart. However, they are successful on the field and for every game they win, they come closer to the championship.
This is an entertaining movie about an important topic. It is really great to see that a movie can show an important, and still current, issue and still be entertaining. This is mostly due to a nice plot and story, well thought through, that don't shy away from hard interesting situations and the very good performances from the entire cast. Both Washington and Patton is great as the coaches and the team is good as well, especially Hurst and Harris. Another part that makes the story very good is that there is time for individual development in the characters, and there are a lot of interesting characters in and around the team. The use of music is also very good, both the music in the movie and that from "outside". All in all, interesting cast, good acting, story and directing and an interesting topic. Very good.
8/10