Most people who change the world don’t set out to do so. That was certainly the case for Don Haskins, the cocky self-assured basketball coach of the 1966 Texas Western University (now known as the University of Texas El Paso) Miners. When he was hired, his only goal was to turn the program around, to generate excitement, to win, everything else after that just a side effect springing forth from those desires. No, Haskins didn’t want to be a pioneer, but when he started five black athletes against the Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA title game that’s exactly what he and his players became, together all of them transforming the face of collegiate sports forever.
This story is right up Disney’s feel-good sports-themed alley (“The Rookie,” “Miracle”), producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“Remember the Titans”) bringing Haskins’ tale to theaters in the new movie “Glory Road.” The resulting picture starts the new year off much in the same way 2005’s “Coach Cater” (which just happened to be another based-on-fact basketball drama revolving around race) with Samuel L. Jackson did. It is a perfectly nice, often times thrilling, overall remarkably superficial and glossy foray into the sporting world, just barely stepping above the clichés of the genre it so often embraces upon it’s way to a feel-good climax.
Veteran pretty-boy character actor Josh Lucas (“Sweet Home Alabama,” “Stealth”) takes on the role of dogmatic Miner coach Haskins, obviously relishing the opportunity to portray such a rich character. He digs into the role, devouring it whole with his pearly whites brilliantly shimmering across the celluloid. While he’s never going to make a person forget Gene Hackman in “Hoosiers” (still the greatest movie about basketball – and maybe the greatest sports movie – ever made), he’s still very good, showing both depth and maturity I didn’t know he had in him.
The problem is, the deeper I got into the story the more I came to realize that “Glory Road” shouldn’t be Haskins’ story but that of his players instead. From star point guard Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke, “Antwone Fisher”) to overpowering center David Lattin (newcomer Schin A.S. Kerr), the most interesting thing going on isn’t the coach’s growing awareness of racial injustice but instead the plight being faced by the seven African American young men at his team’s core. They came from all over the country to play for the coach, recruited to do what they love most and to live out a dream no other school anywhere was offering them. What they found was far more then they bargained for, and what it took the seven of them to adjust to life in West Texas remains an unfortunate mystery.
Somehow, freshman director James Gartner (known for his innovative commercials for AT&T and Coca Cola) manages to keep things on-track enough this major flaw doesn’t become too much of a distraction. Working form a rather thin story and screenplay, Gartner puts his foot on the accelerator and refuses to let up. “Glory Road” moves so quickly and effortlessly from scene to scene, and even though the whole thing reeks of superficial schmaltz, by the time the team reached the climactic game I really could have cared less.
And that final against Kentucky is thrilling. Quite frankly, if it weren’t Gartner’s movie wouldn’t even be worth the time of day. Sure it is a forgone conclusion how it is all going to turn out (this game is considered one of the greatest upsets in NCAA history), but thankfully the filmmaker’s don’t take liberties with the game, the real thrills of the coming not from the action on the floor but on the faces of the coaches and players as they realize their world is about to change forever. Legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp (Jon Voigt, Ali, turning in a splendid portrait of misguided racism) knows exactly what a loss by his all-white team (which included NBA icon Pat Riley) means, not just to his team but to college athletics as a whole. No maneuvers, no speeches, nothing in his bag of motivational tricks can change this, and watching the realization hit him as the seconds tick away is one of the film’s most deafening delights.
As nice as this message is, and as strong as the majority of the performances are, I can’t help but wish Gartner’s bipoic could have been more than it actually is. As hard as Luke and the others try, the team gets to relate to themselves and the world around them in a purely daytime television platitude-like sort of way, while the female characters in the picture might as well not even exist. Poor Emily Deschanel, so good in FOX’s “Bones,” she gets to spend the entire flick staring at Lucas earnestly while holding a baby. That’s it for her, pretty much her whole part, and I can’t help but hope she was at least paid well because it’s not like the actress is going to be listing this on her resume anytime soon.
Yet, as much as I want to be mad about this, and as much as I detest the fact this is – yet again – another civil rights epic seen through the eyes of a white man, Glory Road” somehow still manages to connect as glossy entertainment. It’s thin and borderline superficial, but Gartner directs with a steady hand and the final Kentucky-Texas Western showdown is an exhilarating showstopper. It may take three overtimes to finally get there, but for all its many faults the movie manages a clutch free-throw to ultimately emerge an early January winner.
