Drumline (2002)

A band director recruits a Harlem street drummer to play at a Southern university.

Director:

Charles Stone III

Writers:

Shawn Schepps (story), Tina Gordon (screenplay) (as Tina Gordon Chism)

Stars:

Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana, Orlando Jones

13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nick Cannon	...	Devon Miles
Zoe Saldana	...	Laila (as Zoë Saldana)
Orlando Jones	...	Dr. Lee
Leonard Roberts	...	Sean Taylor
GQ	...	Jayson
Jason Weaver	...	Ernest
Earl Poitier	...	Charles (as Earl C. Poitier)
Candace Carey	...	Diedre
Shay Roundtree	...	Big Rob
Miguel A. Gaetan	...	Trey
J. Anthony Brown	...	Mr. Wade
Afemo Omilami	...	President Wagner
Angela Elayne Gibbs	...	Dorothy Miles (as Angela E. Gibbs)
Tyreese Burnett	...	Henry
Brandon Hirsch	...	Buck Wild

Storyline

A fish-out-of-water comedy about a talented street drummer from Harlem who enrolls in a Southern university, expecting to lead its marching band's drumline to victory. He initially flounders in his new world, before realizing that it takes more than talent to reach the top.

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Plot Keywords:

drummer | university | drumline | fish out of water | marching band | 

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Taglines:

Half time is game time

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for innuendo and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 December 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dobszóló

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,604,705, 15 December 2002

Gross USA:

$56,399,184

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$57,588,485

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox 2000 Pictures, Wendy Finerman Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movies band is based on North Carolina A&T State University. An HBCU most commonly known as "A&T" for short. A&T is known throughout the HBCU community for GHOE-The Greatest Homecoming On Earth.

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Goofs

The vegetables on Ernest's plate when he is eating his burger move around and some also disappear and reappear. After he has eaten the pickle, it appears to be whole.

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Quotes

Charles: [a car horn makes three long blasts to indicate that Ernest is a P3] Who's that?
Jason: That's the upper-class men. They flash their lights to say what rank they think we should get. Hey Charles, what's up with your socks?
Charles: Don't worry about my socks man, it's a tuba thang shorty.
Jason: Better be.

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Crazy Credits

During the beginning of the ending credits, there are performances from Atlanta A&T as well as Morris Brown College that weren't shown in the original movie.

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Connections

References Coming to America (1988)

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Soundtracks

Shout It Out
Written by Dallas Austin, Jasper Cameron, Too $hort (as Todd Shaw), Bun B (as Bernard Freeman),
Hal Davis, Donald E. Fletcher and Dean Parks (as Weldon Dean Parks)
Performed by Too $hort (as Too Short) and Bun B (of UGK)
Produced by Dallas Austin and Jazze Pha for Futuristic
Entertainment/Noontime Inc.
(Contains portions of the composition "Dancing Machine")
Too Short and Bun B (of UGK) appear courtesy of Jive Records

User Reviews

Great movie

Former drumline member here. Well damn, I guess I'll be the first drummer to say I liked the movie a lot. I swear, half of these reviews I'm reading are annoying - people bashing it because it's an all black movie, people bashing it because the band has dancers instead of a color guard, people calling the drumming rudimentary because they played in a drumline that did better blah blah blah.

What do you guys want, a documentary on marching band? If I was to make a Hollywood movie about the drumline I would have done the same exact things with the drum sequences - put in a gang of stick tricks and showmanship that would translate well to the screen. Nobody wants to watch flam taps for 90 minutes.

That being said, the last drum battle is one of my favorite things to watch. I love when the bass drum cadence comes in, the basses march in a circle, the quads toss each other their sticks between bars, and the snares have an orgy of backsticking and other stick tricks on a level you rarely see performed in real life. And the movie is only cliche as far as its kid w/ bad attitude needs to put his pride away plot goes. I don't watch Nickelodeon so I haven't seen one of those types of movies since I was... hmmm since I was 5. Far as what isn't cliche about it, there's a lot to like. One of the best things is that it immerses itself in Afro-American culture w/out any cliches at all - just life as it is down south at an all-black university. No guns, drugs, none of that stuff that you'd expect from a character who walks and talks like Nick Cannon's character does. I also liked the way they handled the white character in the band. The dialogue where they ask him why he went to the all-black college. His first reply is a wink at the audience, which would expect Hollywood to trivialize race relations like that. Then he goes, nah for real though, and gives a sincere answer that makes sense.