From the outset “WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL” looked like this year’s “FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS”
A closer look however reveals that the Sony release is pointed more in a faith-based sports direction.
With its emphasis on character, hard work and love, the film’s storyline was inspired by the true story of legendary high school football coach Bob LaDeouceur‘s remarkable journey of taking the De La Salle High School Spartans from obscurity to their incredible 151 game winning streak.
It was an unheard of accomplishment that shattered all records for ANY American sport.
LaDeouceur built the winning Concord, California football program not only on the core principles of teamwork, brotherhood and shared responsibility, but on the power of character that led them to come back from adversity.
Roadblocks along the way included keeping the coach’s own family’s home life in check—especially the relationship with his son who also played on the team.
Then there was a huge medical scare that nearly did him in. And the ongoing offers from major colleges for him to dump high school football in favor of deep pocketed college program coaching.
151 wins? You bet, but then the bottom fell out.
Did the Spartans get it back? And what can viewers of the movie learn from the experience?
Here’s how the REAL Bob LaDouceur put it in a recent interview with The Catholic Voice:
“I’d like (people) to see football and sporting participation in a different light. It’s not just about performance and winning. It’s about development of a community coming together, which is what we call a team, and all the dynamics that come into play in making one to be proud of.
“It takes a lot of discipline, sacrifice and work, respect and courtesy – all those things – for a team to thrive. That’s what we work for.”
Did you get all that?
Sure it’s preachy throughout the movie’s almost two hours running time. But the messages are continually intercut with hard-hitting football action on the field.
So there.
Jim Caviezel in the lead role offers a credible enough performance as soft spoken LaDouceur. Michael Chiklis on the other hand is more the typical jock as assistant Spartans coach Terry Eidson. And Laura Dern? She underplays it as supportive wife Bev LaDeouceur.
My problem with the film is that it plays a little too much like a paint-by-numbers production and doesn’t stack up with Denzel Washington‘s “REMEMBER THE TITANS” back in 2000.
Then again this is not a critics’ movie, it’s about The Streak.
Not about the record, but about the team.
I think I’m confusing myself…….
“WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL” opens in preview-premieres tonight and goes citywide this weekend.
My grade: C+.
(Reviewed at Cinetopia, Overland Park)
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I look forward to seeing the movie for a couple of personal reasons. First, the team that broke De La Salle’s winning streak, Bellevue High in suburban Seattle, has been the top team in my adopted state of Washington for quite a while now. Curious to see how they’re portrayed in the movie.
Secondly, a pretty good movie could be made about Kansas City’s own De La Salle High (now closed), where I went in the late Sixties. My senior year the football team was one of the top teams in the state. Then halfway thru the season three of its Christian Brothers teachers, all pretty popular guys, were killed in a car wreck. On top of that, the school was on the verge of shutting down. But the team managed to rise above all that and went on to win the state title.
Ironically, De La Salle of KC shared its team nickname with one from another inspirational football movie…”The Titans.”