Les Chemins du triomphe

"Glory Road" tells the true story of Don Haskins, the basketball coach for Western Texas College, who in the mid 1960's, broke the color barrier in the NCAA by being the first to feature a majority of black players on his team. The movie chronicles the obstacles he and his players faced, as well as their ultimate triumph when the team won the national championship in 1966.

"Glory Road" worships at the altar of just about every underdog-sports-movie cliché one can imagine, yet the viewer can't help getting caught up in its story anyway. The scenes in the first half of the movie definitely have a familiar ring to them, as we see the coach first alienating his players with his hardnosed tactics, then winning them over by building comradeship and showing them how much they can accomplish when they work together as a team rather than as individuals. However, as with "Remember the Titans," "Glory Road" is more interested in examining the social background of its time period than in merely telling yet another sports-oriented David and Goliath tale. The second half of the film concentrates more on the overt racism the team members face and the surprising courage they and their coach demonstrate in confronting it (could this really be set a mere 40 years ago?). The young actors are uniformly excellent, but it is Josh Lucas as Coach Haskins who delivers the powerhouse performance here. And director James Gartner manages to keep the film moving at a fast clip, never allowing it to get bogged down in message-mongering or overt preachiness.

Almost in spite of itself, "Glory Road" turns into a genuinely inspiring story about courage and determination in the face of societal pressure and incalculable odds. And that's pretty much what sports stories, familiar though they might be, are really all about.

Glory Road is a very entertaining movie if you are will to overlook its many inaccuracies. The movie would make the viewer think that Coach Haskins came to TWC and recruited a national championship caliber team in his first year as a collegiate coach. The truth is that Coach Haskins had been at TWC for 3 or 4 years before the national championship year and that there were several black players already at TWC including Nolan Richardson. Haskins also recruited Jim Barnes before the championship year and teams that Barnes played on may have been better than the championship team.

The film also take too many liberties with the games that were played during the championship year. The first game of the year was not a nail biter as the film shows but almost a 50 point blowout. The film shows that Iowa led TWC most of the game. The Iowa game was never close and certainly was no buzzer beater. The fact is that TWC only played a handful of games that were close that year, most notably against New Mexico and then in the NCAA Tournament against Cincy and Kansas.

The most disappointing inaccuracy shown in the film was the final game against Kentucky. Kentucky only led briefly in the game and TWC had as much as an 11 point lead in the 2nd half. TWC was not behind when Bobby Joe Hill stole the ball twice in the first half. The two steals allowed TWC to expand its lead to 5 points and set the tone for the rest of the game. I know the producers of the movie had to have a more exciting finish to keep the audience excited but the truth is that the game was never much in doubt. If anyone has seen the actual game film that exists, you will see a poorly played offensive game by both teams and an outstanding defensive effort by TWC. The movie should have paid more time on Coach Haskins' three guard strategy to counter Kentucky's fast break offense.

Glory Road is an inspirational movie but not a very accurate movie if you know the history of TWC. See the movie if you want to watch a feel good movie but not if you are looking for sports fact.

In 1966, a coach of a girl's basketball team comes to Texas Western College and recruits seven black players to lead them to the top.

Right from the trailers and the posters, you probably know how "Glory Road" is gonna go: an underdog NCAA basketball team must face great odds to win the championship. It's a sports movie based from true events (read: based) with a Hollywood tag plastered over its forehead that features reluctant heroes overcoming their problems and giving it all for the game. Nonetheless, the movie achieves more than that.

While this Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Disney movie plot is typical (remember the Titans?), the underlying socio-political theme effectively presents the ills of racism - a problem with no easy way out of (ask Paul Haggis). The key characters of the game are dealing with discrimination and the only way they can get back is to win. Of course, a little research told me that some of the details about the real events were changed for cinematic purposes. It's completely fine by me as long as the end product justifies the means. And boy it does. The performances are also good. Josh Lucas gives a terrific performance as Don Haskins, the head coach of the team that featured the first all-black starting lineup in US NCAA history.

"Glory Road" is a formulaic yet an enjoyable film. It's a movie that gives itself away as soon as one character says "I want to play, Coach!" Still it has charm and excitement that comes from seeing it for what it is. It's predictable, yeah, but it's not much different from seeing a replay of a game where your favorite team won.

The true story of the Texas Western University Miners (now called the University of Texas at El Paso) who defied all odds in 1966 by being the first NCAA basketball team to start five African-American players (led by Derek Luke of "Antwone Fisher" and Mehchad Brooks of "Desperate Housewives" fame) and ultimately winning the national championship. New coach Don Haskins (played superbly by Josh Lucas, one of the most under-rated actors in film right now) has trouble recruiting when he first arrives, but finds players in places like Detroit and Brooklyn. In the civil rights torn south though, getting African-American ball players was highly controversial and even potentially dangerous. It ends up being fitting that the team would meet up with Adolph Rupp (impressive transformation as usual for Jon Voight) and his University of Kentucky Wildcats for the championship that year as UK was one of the last major colleges to integrate its basketball team. Socially important story and highly educational for youngsters who may not be familiar with the importance of this stage in contemporary U.S. and sports history. Great sequences and styles in the tradition of sports classics like "Hoosiers", "Remember the Titans" and "Friday Night Lights". 5 stars out of 5.

In 1965, the coach of the high school girl basketball team Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) is invited by the Texas Western Miners to be their coach. Despite the lack of budget, Haskins sees the chance to dispute the NCAA and moves with his wife and children to the college dormitory. He recruits seven talented and rejected black players to play with five Caucasian players and formed a legendary team that wined the 1966 national championship against the powerful Kentucky.

"Glory Road" is an engaging film with a great message based on a true story. In a period when the racism was explicit in the USA, Don Haskins challenged many people with his team of black players implementing discipline and training and winning the NCAA against all the odds. The film shows the difficulties and prejudice the players were submitted and how they superseded all the relationship problems proving that they were equal to (or even better than) the white players. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Estrada para a Glória" ("Road to the Glory")