Glory Road

I got exactly what I expected from "Glory Road". This is "Remember the Titans" set on a basketball court. While not quite as good, "Road" still makes for a solid sports-themed movie.

Based on the true story of how Texas Western University defeated Kentucky for the 1966 NCAA basketball championship, "Glory Road" takes a combination of events to shape an eventually exciting film. Rookie coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) sets out to recruit a winning basketball team, something that Texas Western has never seen. To do so, Haskins makes an unprecedented move and recruits seven African American players to the small El Paso school. What continues to amaze me is that just 40 years ago there were very few black athletes in college basketball, and if they were it was very unlikely that they would be starting. This creates an interesting dynamic for the rest of the team as they learn how to work together as a team.

While the team manages to look past color, a number of local citizens, college trustees, and eventually people around the country, cannot get over the fact. That's the other element of the movie: the obstacles that African American athletes (and non-athletes) had to overcome both on and off the court. The film moves from being a story about a misfit group of underdogs to a lesson on race relations and attitudes. All of this is brought together by some basketball games, which lead up to the exciting finale. Here I was reminded of "Miracle" where I knew the ending but still held my breath until the final buzzer.

The biggest weakness I found in "Glory Road" was the constant preachiness of the story and the dialog. Every scene reminds us that these players faced a number of obstacles. Meanwhile, Coach Haskins seems to be able to spout only motivational lines about playing basketball his way. Very few times does he get to have an actual conversation that doesn't feel like a sound bite. Josh Lucas takes on the role with an impressive intensity, and the other actors respond in kind. "Glory Road" was a trip worth taking, but hearing the same message over and over and over again began to get a bit tiring by the end. I give it a B+.

"Glory Road" is rated PG with a running time of 106 minutes.