Glory Road (Widescreen Edition)
by James Gartner
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DVD details
Actor: Austin Nichols, Derek Luke, Evan Jones, Jon Voight, Josh LucasDirector: James Gartner
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
Producer: Andy Given
Producer: Chad Oman
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Producer: Mike Stenson
Producer: Pat Sandston
Writer: Bettina Gilois
Writer: Chris Cleveland
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Unknown; Spanish (Dubbed), Unknown
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 118 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-06
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 04096800
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Product features:
- Very Black
DVD Reviews of Glory Road (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Texas Western Pulls off the Major Upset
Summary: 4 Stars
Glory Road is a movie based on the true story of coach Don Haskins and his miracle victory in the 1966 NCAA men's college basketball championship against the almighty Wildcats of the University of Kentucky. Many consider this one of the greatest upsets in sports history as a team of virtual unknowns climbed the ranks, made it all the way to the national championship game, and achieved a stunning upset against one of the greatest Kentucky teams ever, coached at the time by the legendary Adolph Rupp.
Glory Road is a very good film about this important game and the people who helped make it a reality. Josh Lucas is the main star of this movie and he portrays Don Haskins quite well, demonstrating the tenacity, the guts, and the determination one would expect in a great basketball coach. Haskins knows he is in a difficult situation when he takes over the coaching reigns and he knows well the insurmountable odds he faces as he takes a team that has never in its history won more than fifteen games in one season and turns it into a national champion. Josh Lucas' characterization as the tough inspirational head coach is dead- on with the true life information I have read about Don Haskins and his approach to the game and to life.
Besides the actual games, one of the memorable parts of this film is its dealings with racism. This was the mid 1960's and it was a time of great social unrest and rampant racial prejudice. Don Haskins shocked everyone by recruiting a large number of black players and stirring up controversy- even among the Texas Western faithful. His players would be forced to endure racism on several levels and many of these are captured in this movie. In one scene, the team is heading to a hotel after a game and a couple of the guys open the door of their room where they are shocked and scared to see blood on the walls, spelling out racial remarks and threats. In another scene, one of the players is attacked by two racist white men in a restroom. These and other scenes like them keep the movie tense and suspenseful. However, don't watch this movie expecting to see an analysis of the race issues of the day. Instead of dwelling on the issue, the movie depicts the coach talking to his guys and quickly shifting their attention back to the game of basketball.
Glory Road features some great basketball action and fans of the sport will enjoy the nail- biting finishes and the fast- paced footage. However, those who are experts on the history of the sport might be a little disappointed with the historical inaccuracies in this movie. The basics of the story are true, but director James Gartner took liberty to change some of the facts in order to make the movie more exciting and more dramatic. First, coach Haskins is shown arriving in El Paso and quickly taking the team to the championship game in his first season. In reality, Haskins came to Texas Western in 1961 so he had already been coaching a few years when his team made it to the pinnacle of college basketball. Second, many of the games themselves are presented in the movie as being much closer than they really were. The fact is that Texas Western dominated many of the teams it faced in 1966. Even when it played Kentucky for the national title (which Texas Western won by seven points), Texas Western led most of the game. I suppose that Gartner felt the need to play the role of revisionist in order to make the games more exciting and the movie more entertaining. I guess I can forgive him this time since the most important event (the win over Kentucky) has an accurate outcome and since his decision to show the games closer than they actually were does add to the movies entertainment value. But basketball purists may not like Gartner's decision to alter history.
Josh Lucas is one of the main reasons this movie works so well and his performance ranks as the best I have seen him do thus far. I also liked the performances of the players. Actors Schin Kerr, Al Shearer, Damaine Ratcliff, Alphonso McAuley, Mehcad Brooks, and Derek Luke portray some of the men who made this team such a success and I enjoyed their street- tough demeanors and tendency to break the coach's rules from time to time- the exact type of attitude one would expect from guys taken from the streets of the inner cities and brought to western Texas to play college hoops. Other performers, however, are only so- so, mainly because they have so little time in front of the camera. For example, the viewer is left not really knowing much about Haskins' wife Mary because actress Emily Deschanel has very few lines in the movie. And the performance of Jon Voight as Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp is also a little disappointing, mainly because Voight has such limited time on the screen.
Another enjoyable part of this movie is the extras on the DVD. There is some actual conversations with the players from this 1966 squad and some words from Don Haskins himself. A few more recent players from the Don Haskins era (he coached from 1961 to 1999) also contribute some commentary on what it was like to play under Haskins. A short segment about the ordeal of practices under Coach Haskins, a few deleted scenes, and a music video by Alicia Keys round out the DVD extras.
Overall, Glory Road ranks as an entertaining sports film that takes the viewer back in time to an era when racism was alive and well in college sports and all over America. The movie doesn't delve very much into the racism issue. It sticks mainly with the game of college hoops and how a coach with guts and determination helped to forge a championship team. This movie doesn't offer much originality but what it lacks in this area it makes up for in spirit. It's a fun, enjoyable film from beginning to end.
Description of Glory Road (Widescreen Edition)
GLORY ROAD - DVD MovieOne of the greatest basketball games in NCAA history is immortalized in Glory Road, an engaging sports movie that dramatizes a pivotal milestone in the racial integration of college athletics. While it may not be as rousing as similar movies like Hoosiers or Friday Night Lights, this fact-based drama gains depth and substance from the groundbreaking achievement of Don Haskins (well-played by Josh Lucas), who coached the 1965-66 team from Texas Western University to the NCAA championship, using the first-ever all-black lineup in the championship game and forever changing the rules of college basketball. Texas Western's underdog season is followed from anxious start to glorious finish, as Haskins recruits many of his black star players from the North, including Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke) and Willie Cager (Damaine Radcliff), and this typically wholesome Disney film doesn't flinch from the harsh realities of racial tension (including player beatings and vandalized motel rooms) that Texas Western's black players had to struggle against as their victories began to draw national attention. Jon Voight (under heavy makeup) makes a memorable cameo appearance as legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, whose favored all-white team was no match for Texas Western, and Haskins' unforgettable achievement is celebrated in an end-credits sequence that demonstrates the positive ripple-effect of his color-blind coaching. Glory Road relies a bit too heavily on sports-movie clichés, but its shortcomings are easily overlooked in favor of its greater historical significance. --Jeff Shannon
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