Rated PG for racial issues including violence and epithets, and momentary language.
Directed by James Gartner
Starring Josh Lucas…
Glory Road was fantastic! It was powerful and thought provoking. It has already achieved the Heartland Film Festival “Truly Moving Picture Award.”
I went to the screening with my buddy who is 6’8” and played college ball back in the day. He thought the film was realistic and moving. He also filled me in on a little of the history.
The film is based on the true story of the 1966 Texas Western basketball team and their road to the NCAA National Championships. In 1965 Don Haskins was offered the coaching job at Texas Western, getting his first chance to coach a division 1 men’s team. The odds were against him. Good white players didn’t want to play for the tiny school with its poor record, and the school didn’t see black players as an option.
Did I mention that this was 1965?
Don left his job coaching women’s basketball and began recruiting black players for Texas Western. The journey toward the championships was long, difficult, and filled with plenty of racial tension. But the story ends with a starting line up that changed basketball history.
This film does a fantastic job telling this story and portraying the huge racial struggles during this time. I saw the screening in a theatre with a good racial mix in the audience. It was quite an experience hearing the responses of the different audience members. Our country’s history is embarrassing at times… as a Caucasian, I felt ashamed of the sins of my grandparents’ and even my parents’ generation. But the movie handled the issue well. It showed the truth in all its ugliness, and provided redeeming characters that you wanted to identify with.
The film paralleled Remember the Titans in many ways. And the basketball scenes where very realistic, almost as good as Coach Carter.
A TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION:
This film brings up numerous topics of discussion. Basketball-great, A.C. Green, has teamed up with Dr. Marc Newman to create an incredible Bible study guide for Glory Road. CLICK HERE for this guide as a PDF file. (If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat Reader to read PDF’s, CLICK HERE for a free download.)
SHOULD KIDS WATCH IT?
The film actually maintained a PG rating, and rightfully so. The film wasn’t dirty or foul in any way. There is some language and a couple intense scenes with some racial violence. But the film was responsible. You may want to use discretion with really young kids, but I would show it to my 8, 10 and 12 year old without hesitation.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
