A true-life story of a basketball team who broke down barriers while racking up victories is the basis for this sports drama. Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) was a high school and college basketball star who, after six years of working with high school teams, became the head coach at Texas Western University in 1962. At that time, Texas Western's basketball program was not well respected, but Haskins was determined to change that, and in 1966 Haskins assembled what he was certain was a winning team.
However, Haskins' starting lineup was comprised entirely of African-American athletes at a time when racially integrated teams were still a novelty in the South and West. Despite generating a firestorm of controversy, Haskins and his players showed they could succeed where it counted -- on the court. In post-season play Haskins and the Texas Western team found themselves competing for the NCAA championship against the University of Kentucky's all-white team, lead by legendary coach Adolph Rupp (Jon Voight). Glory Road also stars Derek Luke, Alphonso McAuley, Mehcad Brooks, Al Shearer, Damaine Radcliff, Sam Jones III, and Schin S. Kerr as members of Haskins' winning team. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
First-time director James Gartner observes all the rituals--the coach busting chops, the team sneaking out to party--but the players are indifferently characterized and the civil rights story has a fake Black History Month feel.
Glory Road is a rousing and worthy tribute to one of the most important college basketball teams and one of the most important championship games of all time.
An appealing Disney sports movie that underplays its potential, Glory Road is at least a more satisfying basketball saga than last year's Coach Carter.
Lacking the gritty reality of the 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams, this Jerry Bruckheimer film, directed by newcomer James Gartner, converts a year in the life of a basketball team into a very conventional triumph of the underdogs.
Glory Road abandons the clinical and compelling storytelling of the great recent Disney hockey movie Miracle, and aims instead for the contrived sentimentality of the slightly less great Remember the Titans.
Like most sports films Glory Road works best when it is actually showcasing its sport ... off the court, however, it's alternately flat and didactic. Director Gartner goes to great pains to drill the films message in, early and often.
Trying to make a sports movie for the entire family is understandable, but it makes a complicated story like Glory Road feel more like Disney than reality.
Like Hoosiers, this Jerry Bruckheimer film is a David and Goliath sports saga that holds just as much suspense and interest no matter how many times you watch it.
Credit the writers and first-time director James Gartner for staying clear of melodrama and focusing, as the coach and his players did at the time, on the team's season.
Beyond the excellence of sports movies and Josh Lucas never ceases to amazes me in movies and the lives of the other basketball stories are inspiring as well :)
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