Top Gun meets the Mighty Ducks but avoids Dr King

Rating: Null/10 (24 April 2001)

Spoilers herein.
A travesty.
Sports thrive because they simplify reality. Anyone who believes they can learn important life lessons from sports doesn't know much about life. (Sports can be readily justified by other means.)
Films thrive because they simplify reality -- unlike books which can amplify reality. It is in the very nature of film (quite apart from the Hollywood machine) to abstract, simplify and theatrically enhance for effect.
This is all well and good -- films and sports -- when we want to exercise our minds and bodies. But when we cast the huge truth of the world in these simple terms and call it truth, well there's a big problem. Just think, there are millions and millions of people for whom this film (and many like it) will convey the reality of what racial struggle was all about in the sixties and seventies.
Here, all the whites (except the dumb fat kid who clearly doesn't know better) are ignorant racists. All the blacks are noble victims. All it takes to solve the problem is some Marine Corps discipline to get these kids to know each other. If it were that simple, we would have shed the problem long, long ago. It wouldn't bother me if this were a cartoon, or a simple morality play (like say `the Contender'). But this is represented as REAL.

If people don't face the reality of problems, they will never make progress. `The Patriot' was an affront to history, and Mel deserves much blame. But after all, Americans and Brits don't have anxieties that threaten the very core of society.
Denzil, shame.