An uplifting experience

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2001)

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (`Top Gun', `Beverly Hills Cop', `The Rock', `Flashdance', `American Gigolo') is a master of bringing crowd-pleasing films to the public. Once again, Bruckheimer hits with this inspirational human-interest story. This script was rejected dozens of times before it found its way to Bruckheimer's desk. He immediately saw the potential and began shopping it around until Disney picked it up.
It is a true story of a high school football team in 1971 during the first year of forced integration in the Virginia. The team members are compelled to confront years of racial hatred and bigotry if they are to come together as a team and win. To add to the tension, a black coach is installed as head coach, replacing a popular white coach with a history of having winning seasons.
Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) runs the team like a marine boot camp. He forces the boys to put their prejudices aside so they can coalesce into a winning football team. He faces obstacles within the team as well as those from the parents and the school board. Everyone is waiting for him to fail so they can pounce on him. He never gives them the satisfaction.
This is an stirring story that accurately represents the open racial hostilities of the time, especially regarding forced integration. It gives us excellent character development of coach Boone and coach Yoast (Will Patton), as well as players Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) and Julius Campbell (Wood Harris). Though the plot is predictable, it is such an inspirational story that it doesn't become tedious. There are a few oversimplifications of complex issues, like when the team overcomes a lifetime of bigotry in two weeks of football camp. However, there are also a number of memorable and emotional scenes.
The acting is terrific across the board. Denzell Washington gives the coach a very hard edge while maintaining a certain tough charisma. Will Patton does an outstanding job portraying coach Yoast, a man stuck in the middle of forces that are ripping his life apart. This is the best performance I've seen by Patton, who has always been a solid supporting actor. The selection of Wood Harris and Ryan Hurst for the student leads is a bit of a stretch age wise (Hurst is 25 and looks older, and Harris is 31). However, both actors deliver brilliant performances, supercharged with intensity on and off the field. Eleven-year-old Hayden Panettiere is fantastic as coach Yoast's football obsessed daughter, stealing every scene in which she appears.
The DVD has a good deal of interesting material including interviews with the real coaches Boone and Yoast as well as player interviews. The DTS sound on this DVD is nothing short of awesome, making the music powerful and sounds of the action on the field explosive.
This film is classic Bruckheimer. It sweeps us up and gets us totally involved with the characters, while putting impediments in their way so we can root for them. I rated it an 8/10. For most viewers, this will be an uplifting experience.