Glory Road (2005)
—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Josh Lucas)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Last night I sat in a packed theater and watched an advance screening of Glory Road. Normally I view a movie for not only it’s entertainment value, but also to see what the movie says to me, what gives the movie it’s spirit -- or what is the Spirit in the Movie. I find that there are one or two things that the characters will say that capture this spirit. In the case of Glory Road, for me, it was when Coach Haskins (played by Josh Lucas) says to one of the basketball players, Bobby Joe Hill (played by Derek Luke) after Bobby states that the bigots and others were “taking away their dignity�. Haskins says “Your dignity is in you, and no one can take it away unless you give it to them�.
If you are not aware of the movie’s plot, it is about a new coach (Haskins) who is a high school girl’s basketball coach who is hired to coach at a small college in El Paso, Texas – Texas Western College. The main reason he is hired is to keep the boys dorm under control – no one expects him to do much of anything with the basketball team. But Haskins surprises everyone by going out to Detroit, New York City, and other cities to recruit players that had been ignored by most other colleges. Not because they were bad players, but because they were Negroes.
The movie is based on a true story and is set in 1965-1966. Very few Blacks played on college basketball teams, especially in Div I – the league of the elite athletic schools like the Kentucky Jay Hawks. And definitely not as “Starters�. Yes, there may be one Black Starter on one or two teams, but a oddity at best. Coach Haskins with virtually no recruiting budget and from a school without any athletic reputation to draw the better players, Haskins went out and as he told one of the players when he was recruiting them – he isn’t interested in the color of the player, but the skill of the player. So, as a result the Texas Western Miners fielded a 1965 basketball team with 7 Blacks out of their 12 players.
This movie was one of the better “Sports� films I have seen, but it was so much more. It could just as easily have been social commentary on the United States in the 60’s. Sort of like a “Remember the Titans� type of film. I attended the movie with my 15 year old daughter and we were both looking forward to the movie, but it exceeded both our expectations. There was the excitement of sports – even though I knew what was going to happen, I was on the edge of my seat (sort of like I was watching the final hockey game in “Miracle�). It provided some interesting conversation between my daughter and I as it brought home the problems of the South during that time in our history. And as an extra added benefit, there was a lot of humor to offset the inherent drama of the story. In fact, we both found ourselves (along with the entire audience) laughing quite a bit of the time. A nice contrast (like hot fudge on cold ice cream).
From everything I have read leading up to the film, the movie takes some liberties with the true story (e.g. Coach Haskins was at the college for 5 years before going to the NCAA tournament and other events that led up to the tournament). However, the important events and core themes portrayed in the movie are factual and relevant to what happened to the coach and these players. For instance, the players (both Black and others) and the coaches received a lot of harassment whenever they took to the court and even off. They were threatened, they were abused….and they never gave up.
Luckily the audience was warned that we should hang around through the credits because some of the original players and coaches are shown during commenting on the historic events of that time, along with some original clips from the final NCAA Championship game of 1966. One comment from Pat Riley (who was the star Forward for the Kentucky Jay Hawks, during that championship game, and later became one of the most popular players in the NBA) really stuck with me long after the lights came up. He captured what I thought was an important aspect of the real life event when he stated that the NCAA Basketball Championship game of 1996, and what Coach Haskin and his players did was more than just win a game, it was, in Riley’s words “the emancipation proclamation of 1966�. And its impact went well beyond just the sport of college basketball. It changed the view and perspective of many people in all parts of our society. I highly recommend that when the movie ends – stay in your seat and watch this short commentary.
— Overview
DOWNLOADABLE BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
PDF Format
and Production Notes
Word Format
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Josh Lucas)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Last night I sat in a packed theater and watched an advance screening of Glory Road. Normally I view a movie for not only it’s entertainment value, but also to see what the movie says to me, what gives the movie it’s spirit -- or what is the Spirit in the Movie. I find that there are one or two things that the characters will say that capture this spirit. In the case of Glory Road, for me, it was when Coach Haskins (played by Josh Lucas) says to one of the basketball players, Bobby Joe Hill (played by Derek Luke) after Bobby states that the bigots and others were “taking away their dignity�. Haskins says “Your dignity is in you, and no one can take it away unless you give it to them�.If you are not aware of the movie’s plot, it is about a new coach (Haskins) who is a high school girl’s basketball coach who is hired to coach at a small college in El Paso, Texas – Texas Western College. The main reason he is hired is to keep the boys dorm under control – no one expects him to do much of anything with the basketball team. But Haskins surprises everyone by going out to Detroit, New York City, and other cities to recruit players that had been ignored by most other colleges. Not because they were bad players, but because they were Negroes.
The movie is based on a true story and is set in 1965-1966. Very few Blacks played on college basketball teams, especially in Div I – the league of the elite athletic schools like the Kentucky Jay Hawks. And definitely not as “Starters�. Yes, there may be one Black Starter on one or two teams, but a oddity at best. Coach Haskins with virtually no recruiting budget and from a school without any athletic reputation to draw the better players, Haskins went out and as he told one of the players when he was recruiting them – he isn’t interested in the color of the player, but the skill of the player. So, as a result the Texas Western Miners fielded a 1965 basketball team with 7 Blacks out of their 12 players.
This movie was one of the better “Sports� films I have seen, but it was so much more. It could just as easily have been social commentary on the United States in the 60’s. Sort of like a “Remember the Titans� type of film. I attended the movie with my 15 year old daughter and we were both looking forward to the movie, but it exceeded both our expectations. There was the excitement of sports – even though I knew what was going to happen, I was on the edge of my seat (sort of like I was watching the final hockey game in “Miracle�). It provided some interesting conversation between my daughter and I as it brought home the problems of the South during that time in our history. And as an extra added benefit, there was a lot of humor to offset the inherent drama of the story. In fact, we both found ourselves (along with the entire audience) laughing quite a bit of the time. A nice contrast (like hot fudge on cold ice cream).
From everything I have read leading up to the film, the movie takes some liberties with the true story (e.g. Coach Haskins was at the college for 5 years before going to the NCAA tournament and other events that led up to the tournament). However, the important events and core themes portrayed in the movie are factual and relevant to what happened to the coach and these players. For instance, the players (both Black and others) and the coaches received a lot of harassment whenever they took to the court and even off. They were threatened, they were abused….and they never gave up.
Luckily the audience was warned that we should hang around through the credits because some of the original players and coaches are shown during commenting on the historic events of that time, along with some original clips from the final NCAA Championship game of 1966. One comment from Pat Riley (who was the star Forward for the Kentucky Jay Hawks, during that championship game, and later became one of the most popular players in the NBA) really stuck with me long after the lights came up. He captured what I thought was an important aspect of the real life event when he stated that the NCAA Basketball Championship game of 1996, and what Coach Haskin and his players did was more than just win a game, it was, in Riley’s words “the emancipation proclamation of 1966�. And its impact went well beyond just the sport of college basketball. It changed the view and perspective of many people in all parts of our society. I highly recommend that when the movie ends – stay in your seat and watch this short commentary.
— Overview
DOWNLOADABLE BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
PDF Format
and Production Notes
Word Format
1 Comments:
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Post a Comment
<< Home