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Glory RoadGlory Road (2005)
Rated: PG for racial issues including violence and epithets, and momentary language.
Runtime: 106 mins.
Director: James Gartner
Writer: Chris Cleveland
Cast: Josh Lucas; Emily Deschanel; Derek Luke
Memorable Quote: "They're a bunch of guys none of the big schools wanted"
Tagline: Winning changes everything.
Genre: Sports
Opens: January 13, 2006
 Studio: Buena Vista Pictures
Official Site: disney.go.com/disneypictures/gloryroad/


Movie Review

By TJ Gavlik

Glory Road is a film about the 1966 Division I Basketball Champions Texas Western Miners. Coach Don Haskins leads his team with an all-black starting lineup, a first in NCAA history. This film deals with the events during the season, on and off the court, for the Miners.

Glory Road is similar to a lot of sport movies because it starts with a rookie coach with an underdog team. Movies such as Remember the Titans and Coach Carter follow this format, with Coach Herman Boone and Coach Ken Carter respectively.  Coach Haskins struggles with his players at first, then enforces his own rules and is a demanding coach, and of course, in the end, they play in the big game. Numerous sport films use this same method that is visible in Glory Road.

But why follow this method if it bends the truth? This movie shows that Coach Haskins, in his first year as a collegiate coach, comes to Texas Western and recruits many black players to form a championship team. This isn’t anything near to what actually happened. In fact, Haskins was already at Texas Western and this was his sixth year there. In addition, many of the black players were already at Texas Western and Haskins didn’t need to go out and recruit a crop of black players, as shown in the movie.     
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
(L-R) Jon Voight as Adoph Rupp and Josh Lucas as Don Haskins.
Many of the basketball games that Glory Road shows are also far from the truth. Take the first game on December 4 against Eastern New Mexico for example. The actual score of that game was 89-38, a 49 point blow-out. But in Glory Road the game is pretty close the whole way and Texas Western ends up winning 62-58. On December 30, Texas Western played Iowa, ranked #4 in the nation. Glory Road shows that game going down to the wire, with Texas Western trailing most of the game then making a late comeback to win via Texas Western star Bobby Joe Hill’s game winning buzzer beater to make it 74-73. The actual score: 86-68. The Miners actually blew out most of their opponents with only a small number of close games, opposed to what is shown in the film.   

The worst flaw of the movie is in the championship game against Kentucky. Obviously, the producers make it a close game throughout with Texas Western winning a nail biting game in the end. But Kentucky only led briefly during the game, and Texas Western had as much as an 11 point lead in the second half. The final score was 72-65. Frank Deford from Sports Illustrated said, “(For Kentucky) it was a lost cause almost from the start.”

Glory Road has many flaws because Hollywood is known for its entertainment, not fact-based movies. The facts were distorted in order to make the movie more dramatic and entertaining. But do these inaccuracies matter? Not really, because the main purpose of the movie remained intact. The main point of the movie was that Coach Don Haskins gave his African American players a chance at playing a sport not that many African Americans could play at the time. So whether the facts are true or not doesn’t really make much of a difference.

Although Glory Road is an inspiring and enjoyable film, it is still very inaccurate regarding the history of Texas Western. It’s a good movie for sport fans out there, but if you want the real facts about the team, this movie isn’t for you.
TJ Gavlik

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DVD Information

Screen formats: Widescreen Anamorphic 2.35:1

Subtitles: French; Spanish; Closed Captioned.

Language and Sound: English: DTS 5.1 Surround; Spanish: DTS 5.1 Surround; French: DTS 5.1 Surround

Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; director's commentary; making-of featurettes; cast and crew interview.

  • Audio Commentary
    • With director James Gartner and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
    • With Christ Cleveland and Bettina Gilois.
  • Featurettes
    • Legacy of the Bear: Highlights of Coach Haskins' illustrious career.
    • Surviving Practice: An inside look into Coach Haskins' training regimen.
    • In Their Own Words - Remembering 1966: Extended interviews with players and colleagues of Coach Haskins.
  • Music Video - Sweet Music.
  • Deleted Scenes

Number of discs: - 1 - Keepcase Packaging

Individual Grades
Movie
DVD
3/5
4/5
DVD Experience
3.5/5

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Complete Cast
Joshua Lucas .... Don Haskins
Mehcad Brooks ....
Emily Deschanel....
Derek Luke .... Bobby Joe Hill
Jon Voight.... Adolph Rupp
Wilbur Fitzgerald... Wade Richardson




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