Glory Road (2006)

In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.

Director:

James Gartner

Writers:

Chris Cleveland, Bettina Gilois

Stars:

Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Lucas	...	Don Haskins
Derek Luke	...	Bobby Joe Hill
Austin Nichols	...	Jerry Armstrong
Jon Voight	...	Adolph Rupp
Evan Jones	...	Moe Iba
Schin A.S. Kerr	...	David Lattin
Alphonso McAuley	...	Orsten Artis
Mehcad Brooks	...	Harry Flournoy
Sam Jones III	...	Willie Worsley
Damaine Radcliff	...	Willie 'Scoops' Cager
Emily Deschanel	...	Mary Haskins
Al Shearer	...	Nevil Shed
Red West	...	Ross Moore
Kip Weeks	...	Togo Railey
Mitch Eakins	...	Dick Myers

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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Plot Keywords:

texas | college basketball | coach | college | basketball | 

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Taglines:

Winning changes everything.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for racial issues including violence and epithets, and momentary language

Details

Official Sites:

Disney [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 January 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Caminho Para a Glória

Filming Locations:

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$16,927,589 (USA) (13 January 2006)

Gross:

$42,643,187 (USA) (5 May 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Texas Western Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Don Haskins:  playing a gas station attendant on the recruiting trip.

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Goofs

The sequence of scenes where a player gets beat up in a restaurant bathroom, the team returns to their hotel room only to find it trashed and racial things written on the walls, and the fans at the team's one loss of the year where they berated them with racial slurs never happened. On the contrary, the opponent, Seattle University, had four black starters of their own.

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Quotes

Coach Don Haskins: You'll play basketball my way. My way is hard.

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Connections

Featured in Hollywood's Top Ten: Shootin' Hoops (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Uptight (Everything's Alright)"
Written by Stevie Wonder, Sylvia Moy, Henry Cosby
Performed by Stevie Wonder
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Remember the Miners.

Glory Road is directed by James Gartner and written by Chris Cleveland & Bettina Gilois. It stars Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols, Jon Voight, Evan Jones, Schin A.S. Kerr & Emily Deschanel. Based on a true story, the film follows how basketball coach Dan Haskins broke down racial barriers during the 1966 NCAA national basketball championship season.

You got to hand it to Disney, after the success of Remember the Titans in 2000, they must have trawled long and hard to find another sports based underdog story involving racial concerns. And here it is, only this time the action has moved from the grid and out on to the court. As with Titans, Glory Road takes artistic license to ram home its point, well, to make a better movie actually. What we have is an inspiring story, with a well worthy message at its heart, but it all feels a bit late in the day. Don't get me wrong, we continue today to fight racism in all walks of life, and we all like to be uplifted by triumph over adversity, it's just that it feels like the sports based underdog story is being done to death. Playing the race card, artistically, is meant to be this particular movies saviour. But glossing over the facts does nobody any favours, whilst making things up to gain dramatic thrust is just plain wrong, and this is the House of the Mouse we are talking about.

I enjoyed the film, it's hard not to like, but it's a film that's equally as frustrating as it is watchable. The cast aren't up to much, tho to be fair to Lucas he is here playing a sports coach in a decade that is full of passion fuelled similar performances, but story wise it's a winning formula. Sountracking is great, as is the time spent on the court, tho it helps if you actually know something about basketball in the first place. The clichés are many, both in characterisations and those involving the sport, in fact it's very by the numbers, ultimately meaning it's an important story, but not an important movie.

Best viewed as entertainment only, and not, as Disney would like, as an historic snap-shot of down south 1966. 6/10