The lessons are fired into your brain with the subtlety of a nail gun, and the cliches pile up quicker than you can say After School Special. Denzel’s players can sing and dance, and they soon turn those slow-footed white boys into singers and dancers. The black defensive captain is angry and he lacks the concept of team, so the white defensive captain shows him what teamwork really means. Washington is a “My way or the highway” kind of guy, yet Patton shows him that imrpovising and being receptive to new ideas can make him a better coach. Patton is too gentle on the black players, a repressed form of condescension, so Washington points this out, and dag gummit, Patton learns to be tough.Booooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Hiss!
As for what one would hope could be a saving grace in a sports picture, the football is laughably inauthentic. Altman filmed better sports footage in M*A*S*H.
It's hard to refute his critique other than going in, you know it is what it is: a Disney flick with one too many Motown singing in the locker room scenes. of course I'm a sucker for that stuff and love Denzel, so I can willfully pretend it all isn't ridiculous (particularly the the whole "our quarterback cant make the pitch!" nonsense.) In reality, the only good football-for-football's sake flick is All the Right Moves - the anti-glamour of it (drab practice uniforms, crappy fields, sloppy wet practices late in a season) reflect what I remember about high school football. Though I'd think an all-world white cornerback in western PA who looks like Tom Cruise could do a little better than whatsherface.
Also: is there a Titans curse?
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