Josh Lucas leads an integrated Texas basketball team towards sports immortality in the late 60’s in the drama GLORY ROAD. Lucas is Don Haskins, a successful high school girls’ basketball coach, who lands the head coaching job at Division I Texas Western to coach men’s collegiate hoops. With very few scholarships and recruiting dollars, Haskins hits the inner city for overlooked black players. The Texas Western Miners grab national attention, as well as their critics and fans, by not only challenging the color barrier in college basketball, but also its undefeated record.
Dr. Martin Luther King Junior once said, “Judge us not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.” Although GLORY ROAD preaches to be color blind it seems to be a contradicting itself, even if the film is historically accurate. Much of GLORY ROAD is devoted to showing the discrimination the black ball players faced, and Haskins drive towards winning. The team is nearly evenly integrated, with five white and seven black players, and the minutes, points and victories are distributed amongst the team’s best players, be it white or black, during the film’s entire season. It isn’t until late in GLORY ROAD when Haskins decides to make a political point, rather than seeking the best coaching decision for his team, that the film turns a double-standard. The film, and history’s late tournament twist, is a compelling statement, but one which doesn’t seem to fit the GLORY ROAD underlying message. This thematic miscalculation undermines an entertaining picture, with good performances, exciting on-court action and a great R & B soundtrack. For as much grandstanding as it does, GLORY ROAD doesn’t score enough points.
Grade: C+
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