Written by Linda
January 02, 2009
The least inspirational thing about Coach Carter is its title. C'mon! Couldn't you people come up with anything better? I mean, really. As it is, Coach Carter is a suprisingly fine sports movie hidden in a generic, clichéd plot and a vapid title. I had dragged myself to the screening, muttering and looking at my watch before the movie began, thinking of all sorts of things I could be doing instead (ah, the life of a movie reviewer). But, much to my great surprise, I found myself almost immediately sucked in, in no small part to Samuel L. Jackson's undeniable screen charisma.
Sam Jackson plays Coach Ken Carter, a well-off African American store owner, who decides to go back to his old slummy urban high school and take over as basketball coach. The kids are surly and out of control, a bunch of troublemakers if you ever saw any, and have absolutely no discipline or respect for their departing worn-out coach. Carter shows up in a sharp suit and an even sharper mouth, and declares that he can make them into a winning team.
They just have to sign a contract.
And there's the catch. Among other things, by signing the contract, the players agree to maintain a "C" grade average, wear a jacket and tie on game days, call their coach (and each other) "Sir" with respect, and lo and behold—probably the worst of all—sit in the front row of all of their classes.
Needless to say, the kids get whipped into shape and start winning. The students love them. The faculty loves them. The parents are thrilled. The players love themselves. Then the mid-term report cards come. Oooops.
Coach Carter is based on a true story that made a lot of press in 1999. An unotherwise undefeated team got benched by their hard-ass coach for their poor academic performance. Carter didn't let them play until they studied and raised their grades to his standards. The boys with better grades tutored the ones with poor grades—and so, by working as a team off the court, they kicked ass on the court.
Sam Jackson burns with intensity on screen. He is one of those actors who I think is completely incapable of turning in a half-assed performance. The actors playing the players are all quite good, especially pleasing since I really didn't recognize any of them. Somehow, despite juggling a whole team of characters, Coach Carter manages to make most of the kids three-dimensional, beyond their respective stereotypes. The kids are scrappy, and (thank goodness), they don't necessarily have hearts of gold beneath their tough exteriors.
But what was pretty great about Coach Carter is the message that academics come first, sports second. Do I sound like a schoolmarm? These days, this is a message that gets completely brushed aside in the hoopla and media-attention of multi-million-dollar NBA contracts and athletic shoe endorsements. The vast majority of kids will never be millionaires for playing basketball, so it is refreshing to see a sports movie emphasize something beyond Winning the Game.
