A sense of comfort settles in at the opening of “Glory Road” at the first strains of gospel and first whispers of black-and-white news footage.
In part because “Glory Road” is a true-life sports film, in part because it springs from the populist production mind of Jerry Bruckheimer, we know the adversity we are about to witness surely will result in triumph. Maniacal coach assembles unlikely team of knuckleheads, bickering players forge bonds in the heat of competition, underdogs win out, rest of world eats deep-dish humble pie.
“Glory Road” is a little better than the cliché, a little fresher than the stale genre, because we don’t know this story. The more you learn, the harder it is to believe it, and yet: Truth is the movie’s best defense.
Cue more gospel music. What happened was this: A white coach named Don Haskins took over the perennially overmatched basketball team at Texas Western, (now the University of Texas-El Paso). In a South where starting even three black players was a firing offense, Haskins recruited from the Delta to Harlem and eventually started blacks at all five positions.
In 1966, his boldly integrated squad made a magical run in the NCAA Tournament, to the championship against a legendary Kentucky team and coach – Adolph Rupp – that had never recruited a black player. Texas Western won, and sportswriters consider it among the greatest team upsets of the 20th century, ranked with the 1980 U.S. ice hockey team, and, yes, those Hoosiers from Indiana.
It’s clearly a story worth telling. And while Bruckheimer and Co. stretch the gospel theme too far and leave no emotional waypoint unmarked, “Glory Road” largely works. Josh Lucas channels the barely likable intensity of Haskins, and the cast of eccentric players from Derek Luke onward sell their game enough to please most spectators.
Lucas as Haskins arrives in a west Texas where “cosmopolitan” means the cowboys are once in a while serenaded by mariachi bands. Texas Western administrators and boosters are aghast at the black recruits, using a derogatory term and saying “they can jump, but they can’t lead.” In a typical stab at lightening awful racism with mild humor, another booster scoffs, “You’re carrying on like Negroes are gonna be the future of basketball!”
Haskins’ general response is to snap off, “I don’t see color.” This may or may not be true but certainly sounds like a line uttered only in movies.
Director James Gartner keeps things moving, though you can bet every time a black player faces a crisis, a song like “Jordan River” will swell to the foreground. The white players struggle to mix with their grittier and more talented black colleagues, while the black players, brought in from farmhouses and factories, struggle to understand each other.
There are cringe-inducing scenes with the players’ mothers, though Bruckheimer swears they are true. A power forward struggling academically has his mama come visit, and she sits in class and demands he answer – paging Mrs. McNabb.
But as the players pick up steam, the movie picks up speed and destiny. Racist incidents band the players together, and the white starters even agree to sit on the bench in the championship round to prove the team’s point. Jon Voight makes an effective appearance as a courtly yet obnoxious Rupp, giving Voight some kind of two-fer for portraying the pope and the pope of basketball just a few months apart.
Despite the overbearing nature of the production, Bruck-
heimer and his team made a wise decision at the last moment to include “where are they now” footage during the closing credits. Stick around for them; it’s interesting and enlightening to see what happened to this groundbreaking team.
“Glory Road” is a perfect example of overdoing things in the name of a good cause. It will win more civil rights accolades than Academy Awards, but there are far worse movie fates than that.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-820-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com.
*** | “Glory Road”
PG for adult language, some violence | 1 hour, 45 minutes | INSPIRATIONAL SPORTS DRAMA |Directed by James Gartner; written by Bettina Gilois, Chris Cleveland and Gregory Allen Howard; starring Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Jon Voight, Emily Deschanel and Al Shearer | Opens today at area theaters.
