Glory Road (2006)

• Year: 2006
• Released: 13 Jan 2006
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 5 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385726/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glory_road
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/glory-road
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
• Runtime: 118 min
• Writer: Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois
• Director: James Gartner
• Cast: Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols
• Keywords: basketball, racial segregation, teachers and students,

	7.2/10
	58/100

Glory Road Storyline

40 years ago, Don Haskins went on the recruiting trail to find the best talent in the land, black or white. 7 blacks and 5 whites made up the legendary 1965-66 Texas Western Miners. They were mocked and ridiculed for their showboating and flaunting of black players on the court. Yet, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, Haskins and his Miners came together as a team united to reach the National Championship game against powerhouse Kentucky.

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Glory Road Movie Reviews

Slam dunk

I suppose these days no Hollywood Studio will green-light a sports film unless it’s about the struggle of black minorities to overcome prejudice in the past and make a breakthrough in integrated teams.

I suppose in 20 years time we might have similar themed sports films that deal with homosexuality gaining acceptance in sports or female coaches in a male dominated world of team sports. Who knows.

Glory Road is based on a true events leading to the 1966 College Men’s Basketball Championship. Head Coach Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) of Texas Western College recruits the best players irrespective of race due to a lack of financial resources.

By recruiting black players the Coach has to deal with issues of integration, getting the team to bond and racism.

Following initial wins against poor teams, Haskins realizes that the black players perform better with more freer movements at the court. His team play with a flamboyant style but this also leads to racial hatred against the team, threats to his family and ransacking of his team’s hotel rooms during an away game.

The film is made from the producers of Remember the Titans which dealt with similar themes in American Football in College.

Josh Lucas holds the film together of what is now a similar narrative path. Yet the film is interesting, holds your interest and is less cheesy than anticipated although it probably has taken liberties with the real version of the story.

traditional sports movie

In 1965 Fort Worth, Texas, Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) coaches high school girls’ basketball. He gets recruited and moves his wife Mary (Emily Deschanel) and young kids to Texas Western College in El Paso, Texas. It’s a shoestrings program with no ambitions. Nobody wants to sign with the losing team until Don sees a black player named Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke). He ignores the unwritten rule of playing one at home, two on the road and three if you’re losing. Don starts recruiting both blacks and whites. He insists on coaching traditional basketball. There is racial tension within and outside the team. They overcome many hurdles on their way to reach the NCAA championship.

This is the standard sports movie overcoming racial inequality. I guess that can be counted as a negative but it doesn’t have to be. This is well-acted with some good characters. It can come off as cliché but all that means is that people keep telling the same story over and over again. There’s a reason why storytellers keep going back to the same well. It touches something within our humanity.

Not Up to the Standards of Some Other Films

This is a decent basketball movie, although I found out that it is virtually inaccurate. Don’t take any of it as historically accurate. Now that doesn’t diminish what Don Haskins accomplished. He just took longer than the time frame. The other thing that disappointed me was characterization. I never felt close to any of the players. They seemed to be a racial entity. The game scenes were OK but there just seemed to be a missing element. One of the biggest turnoffs for me was the pomposity of the coach. His endless speech making and philosophizing. Maybe he was like this, but I don’t know how much of that stuff really inspires anyone. The film needed some other conflict than the usual racism of the south. I’d like to find out more about Adolph Rupp. How accurately was he portrayed? Anyway, when compared to “Hoosiers,” or “Remember the Titans,” this doesn’t have the substructure of those sports films.