Code Breakers

Premiering on ESPN, "Code Breakers" looks back to the shocking academic misconduct scandal at West Point that rocked the complaisant world of intercollegiate athletics in 1951.

G. Ross Parker deserves kudos for a teleplay based on careful research and for refusing to provide a simplistic portrayal of a complex controversy. The Army football team of the late 1940s and early 1950s was a national powerhouse under the leadership of the legendary coach Earl "Red" Blaik. His 1951 team was brought to its knees by the disclosure of varsity football cadets cheating on exams.

The film was successful in portraying the politics at West Point, including the major conflict between Col. Paul D. Harkins and Coach Blaik. Harkins resented the prominence and popular appeal of Blaik's successful football program, and it was Harkins' committee that uncovered the cheating, leading to the resignation of 90 cadets who violated the academy's honor code. It was clear that the players were guilty of academic misconduct. At the same time, the cadets had no legal representation or advocacy. And the academy's system of administering identical exams in multiple classes was part of the problem as well. The film makes it clear that this was a scandal just waiting to happen.

The actors in "Code Breakers" included an outstanding ensemble of young men playing the roles of the cadets. Their real-life counterparts were teenagers recruited from impoverished backgrounds that included minimal educational preparation. The pressures on these young men to succeed academically, militarily, and athletically had to be staggering. All of the young actors were outstanding, especially Corey Sevier in the role of Bob Blaik, the coach's son and one of the cadets ultimately forced to resign from West Point.

The only weak link in this film was in the casting of Scott Glenn as the charismatic Coach Blaik. Glenn's performance was far too subdued and understated. Blaik was the mentor of the influential Vince Lombardi, portrayed by Richard Zeppieri in a minor role in the film. The obsession with winning in collegiate and professional sports was in its embryonic stage in the Blaik era of college football. Unfortunately, Scott Glenn's performance was too understated and laid back; he needed a gung-ho exuberance and a more powerful aura in his characterization, especially in his voice.

Overall, this film still provided a thoughtful portrayal of the political infighting that rent the military academy asunder. As it turned out, most of the young men were able to rebound, a number of them even succeeding in careers in the military. Staunchly supported by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Coach Blaik remained in his position as Army's football coach. The team fell on lean times in 1951-52, losing more games than than Blaik had lost in his previous seven seasons at Army. But Blaik's boys rebounded with enormously successful seasons in 1953-54. Following a number of Blaik's victories in big games, Gen. MacArthur would send him such effusive congratulatory telegrams that it appeared as though Blaik had just won great military victories in the Pacific.

When Blaik retired from coaching after the 1958 season, his football legacy did not end there. His protégé Vince Lombardi left to become an assistant coach with the New York Giants, prior to starting a dynasty and a career of mythical proportions at Green Bay. Sid Gilman, another one of Blaik's assistants, was one of the architects of the exciting, high-powered offenses in the early years of the AFL during his years at San Diego.

I am writing this review from Minnesota, and the last appearance of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Rose Bowl was in 1961, when led by a coach who is still a legend here in Minnesota. His name is Murray Warmath, and he was he yet other protégé of Earl "Red" Blaik.

My summary above refers to the fact that in February 2022 I saw THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE and it was about cadets fighting for honor at West Point ending with a trial and some cadets being expelled. On July 2023 I saw CODE BREAKERS and the concept is still the same. Now this doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad movie, perhaps this is a rare case when a re-hashed plot still works.

This story is set in 1951 during the cheating scandal at West Point and its impact on the football team that was forced to dismiss its entire team. In 1950 the cadets football team was highly favored and yet it went to lose on another team. Then there was the scandal of 90 cadets that broke the Academy's Honor Code. From then on the movie follows cadet Brian Nolan who was brought to a ring of cheaters when he needed academic help to pass and also on coach Earl Blaik (Scott Glenn) and his relationship with his son Bob who was one of the cheaters.

The plot while 95% unoriginal is still good and the characters are written so well that you'll root for them until the very end (just like with LORDS OF DISCIPLINE). The main reason for seeing this is the acting: despite they are mostly unknowns (except for Glenn and Jake Busey) they are still good actors that should have had more chances after this.

If you have never seen THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE you'll find it original but if you saw that one as well it's still like a both modern and different take on the plot.

I love movies like this, well-cast, well-acted, in the tradition of films like "School Ties" and "Dead Poets Society". What a great film, especially for an ESPN original. I had to pause my dvr and look up Zachary Bryan on the internet to make sure that he is, indeed, the same actor from "Home Improvement". He has done a number of other projects since that show as well, none of which I have seen. I am very impressed with the way he and his acting have matured. And Jake Busey...well, he always cracks me up. He seems to be cast according to his personality...loud and proud. I had never seen the other lead character in anything either, but I do like him as well. Hopefully they will run this movie again on ESPN...it is good stuff.

If the director and producer had bothered to have a military adviser or at least someone who was familiar with things military they would have avoided some horrible goofs like having Col Harkins wear his cavalry branch insignia upside down and his military ribbons arranged in a totally incorrect manner. My grand kids could also salute better than any of these actors. Another interesting goof to me were the football helmets. In this flick during the Army-Navy game, Navy wore the old leather-head type without face guards which were typical of the 1920-1940 football players. Army is shown wearing the more modern molded plastic variety. By 1950 all football teams were using the safer high impact plastic helmets. Other than that the movie was entertaining at best.

I enjoyed the movie very much. It was very interesting, and I thought the young cadets were faced with some really tough issues. In their own mind, they knew it was wrong, but they were desperate to play on the team, graduate, etc. What they did was wrong, but I do not believe they deserved to be forced to resign from the academy. A failing grade or a suspension would have been more appropriate that what they had worked so hard to accomplish. However, I still enjoyed the movie and thought it brought out some real important issues. My only complaint is that at the end of the movie when the information of what eventually happened to the key characters was listed, I did not have time to read it, and I would still like to know what happened to the key cadets who had to resign.

Lynn Smoak