Glory Road (Widescreen)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: B-     Film: B

 

 

James Gartner’s Glory Road (2006) is based on the true story of how girls basketball coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) took on a new coaching job that included a mostly-African American team at a time such players were considered inferior and were frankly discriminated against explicitly and outright.  The story is about sports history as much as Civil Rights, but instead of being a tired formula flick like Remember The Titans (reviewed elsewhere on this site) does not pull any punches or rely on embarrassing formulaic approaches.

 

What begins at the small Texas Western University lands up turning into a classic game where the team takes on very popular and an all-white #1 Kentucky team run by a very winning but morally questionable coach (Jon Voight) in what becomes a game that is about more than basketball.  The film never denies racism, never pretends it can Forest Gump its way through history and is a much stronger film as a result, despite the pandering to some extent to religion.  That may have turned off people as much as the formula that is Remember The Titans, but is a better film that you would think and is very recommended.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is a little weak, in part because co-cinematographers John Toon and Jeffrey Kimball (both A.S.C.) do a stylized look for the film, though the Video Black limits have more to do with the format than Super 35mm shooting.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix fares better with good surrounds, though DTS would have done a better job.  Extras include two audio commentaries, three featurettes, Alicia Keys Sweet Music Music Video and two audio commentary tracks, one by Gartner and Bruckheimer, the other by the co-writers Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois, who deserve credit for their focused script.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo