The Heart of the Game

"A full-court press the whole game. No offensive strategy, just run like hell." Sounds like Hoop Dreams territory--the same go gettem' spirit resides with the newest entry in the basketball rags to riches genre, Heart of the Game.

In late 1990's Seattle, the Roosevelt High Roughriders get a greenhorn coach in Prof. Bill Resler, a middle aged tax professor, who has a heart and a dream. His recruit, Darnellia Russell, will help him reach that goal of going to the state championship. Along the way they'll have to fight the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, her pregnancy, and talented competition.

The themes for each season best symbolize the scorched-earth attitude of the scrappy coach and his warriors: Pride of Lions and Pack of Wolves are two of the scarier ones, coupled with chants such as "Draw Blood" and "'Put your teeth in their necks." No prisoners in their game, but it all does make for an exciting doc.

Even though I'm not interested in spending much time watching athletic events, I am a sucker for theses athletics stories because they always depict young people finding truth and honor and their futures along the way. That romantic view of sports is tempered by the fact that they don't always win the game but almost always the heart.

"What I know," Coach Resler says, "is that Darnellia is brilliant. The one issue she has to conquer is, believing in how smart she is." The documentary by director Ward Serrill perhaps too much focuses on Darnellia's challenges, but she deserves attention as charismatic and downright cinematic as she is. There are others, including the coach, whose stories could be the centerpiece, but none better than Darnellia's for all the components of compelling film-making.

"Have fun," coach Resler tells the players after every timeout. Have fun you will if you let yourself watch these winners play.

I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. A documentary about high- school basketball that took seven years to make, this film will be compared to Steve James's Hoop Dreams, which is a high compliment indeed. But the films are different.

Serrill began following the girls' basketball team at Seattle's Roosevelt High School when they hired a new coach, tax law professor Bill Resler. Not expected to make much of an impact, Resler proceeded to build a powerhouse in his first year at the job. An eccentric but effective motivator, he chose a different "theme" for his team each year: Pack of Wolves, Pride of Lions, Tropical Storm, and then whipped his players into a frenzy. His motivational skills and his ruthless physical workouts gave the team the confidence and endurance to beat their opponents, even when they were bigger, taller, or more talented.

In his second year at the job, he noticed a young freshman by the name of Darnelia Russell. She stood out for a number of reasons. She had been an outstanding basketball player at her middle school. And she was black. At Roosevelt, in a privileged suburb of Seattle, black students were a minority, unlike at inner-city schools like arch-rival Garfield. In fact, when he tried to recruit her for his team, she rebuffed him at first, admitting to her friends that she wasn't used to being around so many white people. Her presence at Roosevelt was the combined idea of her middle school coach and her mother, who wanted to keep her out of trouble and make sure she got an excellent education.

Her arrival helps Resler build Roosevelt into a city dynasty and a threat at the state championships. But there are ups and downs. And if you wonder why the film took seven years to make, Serrill admitted that he just filmed everything and waited for the story to emerge.

Although the film touches on a few issues of race and class, Serrill says he wanted to make it more about the basketball, and there are generous clips of games, even from major network coverage. Although it give the film much of its energy, I felt myself wishing there were a few more interviews with players, especially Darnelia, who emerges as a central character in the story. We never really get to know her as anything other than a great basketball player.

That being said, it's a documentary about sports, so I'm predisposed to like it. There is real drama and excitement, both on and off the court, and it's also good to see the contribution of people like Bill Resler recognized, a good man who is instilling not just a love of winning, but of playing, and living. As the credits rolled, it was endearing to see that a few of the songs were actually composed and played by Resler, on guitar and vocals, with director Serrill on harmonica.

This documentary had me talking about it days after watching it. It had me truly rooting for everyone in the movie. When the movie went off it left me wanting more. Ward Serrill should be nothing but proud of his work. I'm just upset that I hadn't heard of this documentary before.

It's nice to see someone like Bill Resler who isn't a big name in sports take a team and not be concerned about them winning and yet turn the team into a powerhouse. Yet also you end up also liking their rivals and their coach Joyce Walker. Although the movie is about a team you can't help but get attached to Darnellia Russell.

This is a must see documentary.

The Heart of the Game This is one of the great documentary achievements of the year. There have been so many stunning documentary films lately that they are beginning to provide far more revelation and insight into our times than most fictional works. The Heart of the Game is one of the most stunning examples. To review this as a sports film gives it little of the credit it deserves. What these remarkable filmmakers have done is to fashion a "sports genre" movie into a perfect gem of a film about adolescence, class, race, education, competition, gender, inspiration, and the gallant nature of the everyday the heroes and heroines in our midst. Directed by Ward Serrill, edited by Eric Frith and co-produced by Liz Manne, I think it rivals Grizzly Man in its ability to resonate beyond its own expectations and achieve something akin to poetry.

The filmmakers have put together a rousing portrait of two lives - University of Washington tax professor and women's basketball coach Bill Resler and basketball prodigy Darnellia Russell. Together with an ensemble of colorful and committed women athletes and coaches, they overcome a string of obstacles and turns of good and bad fortune that couldn't be scripted into a work of fiction any more powerfully. That the events you see actually unfolded as the film was being shot is remarkably good luck. They have taken the two hundred hours of footage over six years and beautifully fashioned it into a riveting story that will not only inspire but will blow your mind. The audience is evidence. I cannot remember the last time that heard a sophisticated older audience such as attended this screening, actually yell at the screen, comment out loud, sit on the edge of their seats, and applaud DURING the film. I'm not a sports fan at all. I dislike in many ways the tribal mentality of the commercial sporting event. But this film is way beyond a film for sports fans. It ought to be required viewing for any teacher, and for that matter, any high school class. Rather than another tired anecdote from the rarified world of celebrity let's see Bill Resler and Darnellia Russell on Letterman, Leno, Oprah. These are heroes worth hearing from.

I had the great pleasure to watch this movie with the audience being the director, the coach, and we sat directly behind the current Roosevelt Roughriders girl's basketball team! What an amazing movie and experience!

This is one of those movies that if it were scripted out it would be written off as too corny to be realistic. The obvious comparison would be Hoop Dreams, yet I think this movie is far better. The camera is hand-held mini-DV, the shooting goes in and out of focus, and the overall camera technique is less than polished, but this adds rather than subtracts from the movie much like it did for Blair Witch. The film is shot in an incredibly intimate way, drawing you deep into the team and making the audience an honorary Roughrider. There are no villains, though in the hands of another film-maker there are plenty of opportunities to have created villains. This choice blends well with the appeal for many of women's sports over men's and unites the film, audience, and team together cohesively, allowing the audience to understand and feel everything that the girls on the screen are going through.

I believe this is very likely the Oscar winning documentary for this year and may usher in a new story telling direction in documentary films.