Susan Granger’s review of “Glory Road” (Disney/Buena Vista)
To conclude Black History month, this is the hallelujah story of the 1966 Texas Western Miners, who won the NCAA Championship with an all-black lineup against the all-white University of Kentucky Wildcats. That pivotal game helped fuel desegregation in America.
In “Glory Road,” Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) is a high school girls basketball coach who accepts a job at Texas Western University (now the University of Texas at El Paso). Ever resourceful despite the lack of a recruiting budget, Haskins offers scholarships to outstanding African/American athletes from Houston, Detroit, New York, and Gary, Indiana.
Written by Christopher Cleveland and his wife Bettina Gilois and directed by James Gartner, it not only manipulates but skirts the truth on several issues. Even before Haskins’ arrival, Texas Western was the first Southern college to integrate its athletic teams; in fact, Haskins inherited three black players from his predecessor. And Haskins’ team won the championship in his sixth season not his first.
Grappling with clichŽ’d dialogue (“It’s not about talent, it’s about heat”), the actors must struggle to differentiate each player’s personality. Derek Luke stars as Bobby Joe Hill, whose resentment of racism propels his athletic performance, while Damaine Radcliffe, as Willie “Scoops” Cager, fights to overcome a heart ailment and Mehcad Brooks, as Harry Flournoy, struggles to keep up his scholastics. Jon Voight scores as legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, and the cinematography by John Toon and Jeffrey Kimball is compelling. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Glory Road” is a sappy, slam-dunk 6, formulating yet another slick underdog sports story.
