Code Breakers

i liked this movie.it's a movie about football,but it's much more than that.it's really about honor,truth,and loyalty .it is set in 1950,and chronicles the "Army"-the West Point football team.West point is the very esteemed military academy.as the movie begins,"army is coming off of 27 consecutive wins and hope to win the championship once again.along the way,many on the team will go through some trials that will test their morality and pledge to uphold the principle of honor at any cost.the backdrop to the story is the Korean War.i like the fact the the story has some depth to it.the very fine performances go along way in anchoring the story.Scott Glenn gives a nice understated,quietly intense performance as one of of the coaches.even though this is a morality tale,it doesn't hit you over the head,or preach to you.all in all a pretty good movie.for me "Code Breakers" is an 8/10

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 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.

Code Breakers is a film about football, honor, and the military. A large group of West Point cadets devise a way to cheat on their academic tests to help keep the football team together, breaking the academy honor code. One cadet has the guts to come forward and that starts the chain of events that disgraced Army football and West Point in 1951. It's a lesson in how anything can be rationalized as for the greater good. Something we should always strive to prevent if we are to stay true to the codes we accept and expect to live by. The whole point of the academy is to weed out those that can't make the grade. We tend to falsely think that effort is worth as much as achievement. While great effort that falls short should not be considered bad, it is grounds for being let go. While sports does teach team work and leadership, it should never be an end unto itself. It is, after all, only a game. Living in Wisconsin, I was surprised that coach Vince Lombardi was part of the film. A very well made film that draws you into the characters and the promise of a military training program that teaches the right stuff.

"Duty, Honor, Country" is inscribed in granite over an archway at West Point. A personal moral code, duty, and honor is the foundation of the military and my learned profession. (I am proud to be a criminal defense lawyer, and I take "duty and honor" very seriously.) This story takes place in 1950-51 and wends its way through the infamous West Point football player cheating scandal that ultimately wiped out the West Point football team with 90 athletes dismissed.

The cadet that finally blows the whistle on it is played by Zack Bryan, who was the oldest son in "Home Improvement" (billed there as Zachery Ty Bryan), and he does an excellent job in his role, as do all the other young actors enlisted for this movie. Bryan's character, on the swim team, wrestles with ratting out his roommate who lets him in on the secret that the football team is passing around questions from the examinations. Those who take it first write down the questions for others. Bryan's character is wrestles with his conscience and comes forward. His own father, however, chastises him, but not for following the code. Instead, it is for not following the "chain of command" and going to the Commandant, knowing that going to the Honor Committee likely would be futile because the football team had ringers on the Committee. His own father tells him that his military career will be ruined for following the honor code. He stands up to his father.

Also excellent, and typically understated is Scott Glenn as the team coach, a West Point graduate himself, whose son is slated to be the next season's starting quarterback. He finds his own son involved, and he has to wrestle with that conundrum as well, knowing that his own son would be kicked out, too. He's the coach. His team is destroyed. This is only partly developed because this movie is not supposed to be about football.

The cadets involved connive and plot to "stonewall" (was that word even used in 1950?) the investigation (One says that a leader "never, ever admits that he was wrong. Any man who does is not fit to lead." Sound familiar?), but the first one in to be interviewed didn't know the plan, so he named names. He is Bryan's roommate. He's obviously mad at Bryan when he figures out the source, but he realizes, as others come to do, that he should be more mad at himself for screwing up. Bryan ends up with a guard at his door for protection. Other than the Commandant, the guard, under orders not to talk to him knocks on the door and tells him "You saved West Point." This is an important point almost lost in the movie.

I give this a 7 because of the young actors and the honest attempt at the important message. Glenn has been better, but they all do a reasonably good job. The problem with the script, maybe though, is that it was written for ESPN, and not for wider release to general audiences. So, it spends more time on football issue and teams, and I think not enough on dealing with the important moral issues until all hell breaks loose, and the plot moves more to the characters and their problems. More should have been spent on what it took to come forward and what Bryan's character endured.

But, moral values are so lacking in this society today, at every level and in every corner, I applaud ESPN for taking this on and the message it ultimately conveys. Lives were not all totally ruined, but they paid a dear price for compromising "honor."

Moral values can be taught anywhere. This is a start.

Finally, for HDTV, the picture was not always of the highest quality for HD.