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
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Fun with Dick & Jane (2005)

—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters(Jim Carrey)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads

“Sometimes, the best cure is a Clean Conscious�. A very insightful comment by Dick Harper (played by Jim Carrey) that helps one to understand the Message in the Movie. Fun with Dick and Jane is a remake of 1977 movie, by the same name, that starred George Segal and Jane Fonda. There has been a flood of movies remaking hits, primarily from the 70s, and actually the mid-70s (e.g. Longest Yard, Bad News Bears). Does that say something about that time in history? Hmmmm, don’t know, but an interesting topic that maybe we should visit sometime.

As with many of this year’s remakes, this one was an excellent update to a strange, yet somehow understandable story-line. The Director was able to take this story, set in the 70s, and update it so it felt familiar in the 21st century. This would be even funnier if bad fortunes weren’t true life for many people. But making a farce out of the failure of large corporations and the sudden change in fortune for many people is maybe just what a lot of people need to see. Especially when the management of the corporation is made out to be such vile villains – makes it seem normal.

Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni (Jane) give great performances as the married couple who are on top of the world, living the American Dream, when they are stuck with the American Reality. Alec Baldwin, as Jack McCallister the CEO of the Globodyne (an Enron-like company), comes across as the perfect bad guy. Together they provide a great cast for this film.

Whereas the original 1970s version of the film was also billed as a comedy, this new version was funnier (duh – Carrey) and while still attempting to provide a social commentary on big business, the timing is a bit difference. We have become used to the giant corporations toying with the life of it’s employees and stockholders; and have become almost numb to the daily slashing and cutting. But I guess that is part of the difference between the 1970s and the 21st century – the movie, Texas Chainsaw Murders (1974), was a shocker back then also. Almost sad that we are little affected by either.

Social commentary aside, I really enjoyed this film. It is hard to not laugh at Carrey when he is on a role and really trying to be funny (which he was in this flick). And I have loved Leoni every since she starred in Spanglish with Adam Sandler. Your side will definitely be a hurting at the end of this movie.

Some people will be concerned that the movie is about a couple who end up in a life of crime and wonder how I can promote such a story. Well, if you look at it on the surface, than you would probably be right. However, if you look at the Message in the Movie, you come away with a whole different view of what takes place.

First, we need to look at what happens to this couple. Just about everything that can happen to really mess their lives up. You can almost see Job going through the same thing and saying to himself – why me? But even with everything that happens to Dick and Jane. They have each other. At first there was some blame by Jane, but as things got worse, they got closer. No matter what the world through at them, they got through it – and I believe it was because they had each other.

And, I think everything that happened to them was necessary. I have had a lot of hard times in my life. I used to ask why God did these things to me. There came a point where someone told me that it wasn’t God doing anything to me. It was people doing stuff to me (and some might say Satan), and in many cases, I was doing it to myself. But that God was always there with me – not necessarily making my life easy or making everything go away – but giving me the strength to get through it. At first I couldn’t understand this. It made no sense. Why would God let me go through everything I would go through? And then I read a verse in the bible where it said that all things were for God’s plan and that God let me experience many things so that I would be prepared to deal with things that much harder.

This turned out to be true for me and I think it was true for Dick and Jane. All the hard times that they went through made them learn how to be crooks. Yes, that is not good. However, if they had not learned the skills necessary to perform their thefts, and more importantly the bravado to carry out the thefts, they would never had been able to carry out their final mission and change the lives of thousands of their pervious co-workers. I can not imagine Dick and Jane, prior to their life of crime, having the guts, timing, or flexibility to, when faced with challenge of helping out their co-workers (and subsequently themselves), find “the best cure…� and have a “clean conscious�.

All-in-all, I highly recommend this movie to everyone. A good time and well worth the price. Enjoy a funny flick this new year and check out Fun with Dick and Jane.

—Overview