Glory Road (2006)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

they never trailed in the championship game. the coach wasn't in his first year. Hollywood never tells the truth in sports movies. part of why this movie sucks. they screwed up intentionally most of the actual games. a shame really. every movie about sports always over emphasizes the role of the white coach who is always a stereotype. they always use dramatic music even in the most mundane situations they depict which are always overblown. don haskins was known as the bear. this pantywaist looks like a douche. I bet a basketball in his hands would be lethal to himself. of course the viewers who watch this movie have no idea about the real life events. thats fine though because their world is so vapid that actual facts would be too much for them to handle

Although the storyline is quite touching, I did find the movie predictable and corny in parts. The fact that it's based on a true story, saved the film but I have seen this type of concept many times before. The movie was released at the peak of heroic sport movies like Gridiron Gang, We Are Marshall and Invicible so it went down well with audiences and it made a healthy profit. Anyway, the film is about a basketball coach, Don Haskins, who is out to find the best players to play for a small Texas Western College. After looking at many players, he finally recruits a few black players to join his team, which doesn't go down well with the people of that state. Whilst out on the road playing against various teams, the players have to go through some gruesome racism which nearly breaks there moral but the tough couch holds the team together and he makes them focus on the things that are important. Against all odds, the successful team changed history by becoming the first all black team to win a championship so it's quite an emotional film, especially the bonus footage of the real Don Haskins. After watching movies like Coach Carter with Samuel L. and Remember the Titans with Denzel, I honestly don't think that Josh Lucas was the perfect choice to portray such a powerful individual. I liked the chemistry between the players and they did pull of some good moves on the court but there's been too many movies after this, that have been a lot better. Average!Round-Up: What happened to Josh Lucas's career? At one point, he was in big movies like A Beautiful Mind, the Lincoln Lawyer, J.Edgar and Hulk but he wasn't the leading actor in those films. At 44, he still has a way to go before he becomes a household name but he has a Kevin Costner style of acting which is always needed in movies. As this movie was made under the Walt Disney umbrella, it was obvious that it was going to be a feel good movie that will touch your heart. It's the only movie directed by James Gartner so I can't really compare his previous work to this film. His only experience was on a short in 1983 as a producer so he really hasn't got that much experience in the movie making world. With that in mind, this movie made quite a bit of money at the box office so I'm surprised that he hasn't made any other movies. Anyway, it's a feel good movie about a man who searched for perfection from all of his players, no matter what colour they were and his determination and brutal training paid off at the end.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $43millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their sports/biopic movies about a basketball coach who hired the first black players to try and get the perfect team. 4/10

Josh Lucas stars in "Glory Road," a 2006 Disney film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.The film purports to tell the true story of Don Haskins, the basketball coach led the Texas Western Miners to a National Championship victory in 1966.From what I know, there is a lot of dramatic license taken here, though it remains an inspiring story, and the basketball game played at the championships was very exciting. Also, at the end of the film, there are interviews with the real-life players and with Haskins himself as the credits are rolling. Haskins recruited players with no regard to color, forming a team with 7 blacks and 5 white players. He wasn't the first person to have black players on a team. I think what made him stand out were the numbers and the fact that at the championship, the starters were black and everyone on the Kentucky team was white.The film shows Haskins as an extremely tough coach, and his insistence that there be no "showboating" However, during a losing game (and I have no idea if this is true) one of the black players told Haskins that they should be allowed to play "their game" which included some showboating, I guess. Haskins said okay and the team went on to win.In the championship game, they went up against Kentucky, coached by Ed Rupp (Jon Voight) who is portrayed as a racist. However, he went on to draft black players and is considered one of the greatest coaches in college basketball. Josh Lucas plays Haskins, and he does a great job as a tough, determined coach. He was the reason I rented this film as I liked him on his ill-fated TV show, The Firm. He really carries this movie. Jon Voight, Emily Deschanel (Haskins' wife) have small roles as the focus is on the team players. The actors on the team all did a wonderful job. The film shows the hatred and prejudice against them but also the eventual acceptance. In the film, there are problems within the team when the new players first arrived, though I understand that wasn't really the case.Like all of these underdog films, it's inspiring with exciting, moving, and dramatic moments. Recommended.

The movie makers here seem to want to just make up history rather than tap into it. This movie is a whole lot more fictionalized than, say, Moneyball (2011), almost to the point of ridiculousness. Various IMDb reviewers have pointed out inaccuracies about Don Haskins' tenure at Texas Western, the movie's characterization of certain games during the Miners' 1965-66 season, and the use of African-American players at Texas Western and elsewhere before and during Haskin's term as coach. Besides all that, the movie makers in the first few minutes, in the part about Haskins' high school coaching, have made little effort to learn anything from the Texas Film Commission or from the state's long-time association for public school athletic competition, the University Interscholastic League (UIL). Haskins coached at Benjamin, Hedley, and Dumas, all UIL school systems. He departed in 1961 for Texas Western, rather than in 1965 a mere year before the Texas Western national championship. The movie opens with a 1965 girls' state championship game being played in Fort Worth. State championships both boys and girls were, in the 1960s, played in Austin, not Fort Worth, and still are played in Austin. Neither Benjamin, Hedley, nor Dumas placed a girls' team in a state championship game until 1980, Dumas didn't even have a girls' high school basketball team in 1961-1965 because schools in the two largest enrollment-size classes were late coming to the sport. Dumas certainly didn't and doesn't have the type of hill or butte topographical relief the movie depicts on the outskirts of town. This resembles Days of Heaven (1978) which incongruously had mountains on the horizon near Amarillo and The Buddy Holly Story (1978) which incongruously had mountains on the horizon near Lubbock. So the film early on pretty much wipes out any patience on the part of viewers who have the slightest clue about Texas high school basketball or Texas geography. Which is a lot of viewers, because girls' basketball is big in Texas and fans have to drive through Texas geography to go from game to game.