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

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.

Codebreakers was a stimulating review of the ethics of my time. I was going through high school in those years and appreciate getting full details of the football scandal and what led up to it. The peer pressure to conform had to be intense and the movie portrayed the situation well.

I liked the follow-up on the athlete's response, outlining how many regained their dignity and were able to re-enter the military and sports arenas in subsequent years.

I often wondered how the legendary Vince Lombardi got his start, and now I know more of his background.

All in all, it was fine entertainment.

I enjoyed the movie very much. It was very interesting, and I thought the young cadets were faced with some really tough issues. In their own mind, they knew it was wrong, but they were desperate to play on the team, graduate, etc. What they did was wrong, but I do not believe they deserved to be forced to resign from the academy. A failing grade or a suspension would have been more appropriate that what they had worked so hard to accomplish. However, I still enjoyed the movie and thought it brought out some real important issues. My only complaint is that at the end of the movie when the information of what eventually happened to the key characters was listed, I did not have time to read it, and I would still like to know what happened to the key cadets who had to resign.

Lynn Smoak