12 fantastici orfani

Those looking for an entertaining movie will find that in "12 Mighty Orphans", but only if you accept the liberties taken with the timeline. The movie portrays Rusty Russell arriving at the Masonic Home in 1938, putting together a football team and leading to an apperance in the state championship that season. In reality Coach Russell arrived at the Masonic Home in 1926. He built the program into a quality outfit that reached the state championship game against Corsicana in 1932. That game ended in a scoreless draw with the state title awarded to Corsicana in the tie breaking system of penetrations inside the opponents 20 yard line. My guess is producers opted to take liberties with the timeline in order to insert President Franklin Delano Roosevelt into the story. In reality Coach Russell and his Mighty Mites made their only state championship apperance before FDR took over the White House. The movie is well worth watching. Stay seated to read the closing credits that complete the story. Then go back and research the rest of the story about the Masonic Home and the extraordinary circumstances of those young men and women who called the place their home.

This is a mostly true, historically based story. Ft Worth Texas, late 1930s, families still suffering from the Great Depression, some were orphaned because of that. A new teacher and coach shows up, former athlete and WW1 hero, decides that playing high school football will help the boys cope with their somewhat hopeless situations. It seems that none of them knew how to play.

Some details were changed for dramatic effect but the movie is mostly accurate. Several of the boys went on to college and even pro football careers. Luke Wilson, himself a Texan, is good as the coach.

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library. We found it worthwhile.

This is one of those movies that you can tell what you are getting by the poster and the tittle.

Some orphaned young men in the 1930's are waiting to come of age.

They have little prospects, no family and are too old to realistically be adopted.

In a time of high morals and little else the boys have a bleak future.

Until Rusty Russell and his wife turn up and see if they can give them a future through American football.

This has great performances, is well produced and has all the heart warming elements you would expect from a story of this type.

An excellent Sunday afternoon watch - hang around for the real life bio's at the credits.

"12 Mighty Orphans" is one heartfelt feel good stand up and cheer like film as it looks at the life and times of a dozen Orphans in Texas during the 1930's and the great depression era. Set near Forth Wort, Texas an academy and school for the poor and forgotten has opened up and coming in is the start of a football team. Rusty Russell(Luke Wilson) and his teacher wife have came with open arms as he's a coach with a winning resume, and he gets the praise from the school's doctor Doc Hall(the good veteran Martin Sheen). Along the way as the boys enter no matter how troubled or different they bond and learn plenty about life, love, sharing, teamwork, and commitment. Though tough and rocky at first these boys learn the basic fundamentals of blocking and tackling and after some and a few loses the speed and hard work starts to pay off and wins start to follow one by one all the way up to the Texas state championship game! Well done film of how faith and hard work and determination can change life, really a fine film to few with friends or family as when watching all will feel the values of bonding and working together.

The story in "12 Mighty Orphans" is true....or at least mostly true. But like so many other films based on true stories, huge liberties were taken here and there to make the story more cinematic. So, while it is true that the orphans' home did field a team with only 12 players and they EVENTUALLY were champion calliber, much of the timeline has been condensed and things 'adjusted' (Franklin Roosevelt never had any involvement in the story and there was no evil rival coach).

If you look past the changes as well as a couple cliches typical of sports films, the story still is inspirational and fascinating. I just wish films presented exactly what happened...warts and all. But despite this, the film still makes a nice family inspirational picture.