12 Mighty Orphans

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.

Triumphant sports stories about underdogs banding together to achieve victory are about as long in the tooth as Jerry Jones. As a trope, they can be an eye-rolling cliché. Done right, with honesty and sincerity, any of that artificial sweetener can be blinked away.

The inspired-by-true-events football movie 12 Mighty Orphans hits every one of those tropes with spectacular two-point conversions but the nobility of the story and the impressive lensing has this one avoiding any fumbles.

Luke Wilson plays coach Russell as the quintessential coach/surrogate father: quiet and thoughtful and totally Ted Lasso positive. The remainder of the cast is ably filled out by Martin Sheen reprising his role of President Bartlet, Wayne Knight as the deliberately-bad baddie, and a host of character actor and familiar faces like Treat Williams, Ron White, and a-blink-and-you'll-miss-him Robert Duvall.

Based on a book by Jim Dent, the story is stirring and serious enough to rise above the usual sports rhetoric.

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.

This is a feel good movie, a movie that ups your spirit and inspires you never to give up in tough and dejected times. This is probably a story that most people haven't heard of and the fact that it brought hope to a nation during the great depression.... I'm very glad it's now on big screen. Great direction of wonderful characters most of which I've never seen and I really admired their performances in this movie. This is a must watch movie to appreciate where most of the things we know or teach originated from.... not forgetting this movie has one of the best inspirational quotes told in a story.

"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.