Coach Carter
Zach Heckt
Period 2
11 February 2012
Coach Carter Review
A good inspirational sports movie has life lessons it teaches, it has heart breaking moments followed by uplifting victories, and it is usually based on a true story. As for a good movie, it needs to have a great plot to engage the audience, it needs to receive awards, and it needs to have a cast that can portray the plot masterfully. Coach Carter directed by Thomas Carter meets this criteria. This movie takes the audience into the ghetto and shows the kind of lifestyles that the young men who live there have. It is inspiring because it shows how these young men fight through adversity to become one of the best high school basketball teams in the state of California. One would think that basketball teams from the ghetto would be talented because all they do is play basketball. However, in this film it is not the case. The basketball team that the story is about is the worst team in their league and had only 2 wins the previous year. This is not a cliche inspirational sports movie where the team or goes on to win the championship or big contest, it is far from that. This film shows the hardships that these men face but shows the success that hard work gets you. By exceeding the criteria for a good inspirational sports movie, Coach Carter is the best inspirational sports movie ever made.
Coach Carter is based on a true story where a basketball coach goes to his Alma mater and coaches one of the worst basketball teams in the state. Coach Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) decides to take the job at Richmond High School not to make the basketball team good but to change the lives of the young men he would coach. Richmond High School had a very low graduation rate and of those who graduated the majority of them were females. Coach Carter knew this and wanted to change that. Once he arrived at the school on the teams first practice Ken Carter handed out his contract that stated the team rules both on and off the court. The two best players from the previous year quit the team. Now faced with more adversity Coach Carter's son Damien Carter (Robert Ri'chard) wanted to transfer to Richmond High School. He was currently a freshmen at on of the top private schools in California. With all of the difficulties that the team faced throughout the film they became one of the best basketball teams in the state. However, controversy struck once more when the team failed to have the GPA required on Coach Carter's contract. The team was locked out of their gym and unable to play basketball for weeks. They were forced to forfeit games until their grades improved. The town was in anarchy over this lockout and wanted to fire Coach Carter. Coach Carter was greeted by his team and told that the town could not force them to play that they wanted to finish what their coach started. The message of school comes first finally got to these young men changing their lives forever.
Coach Carter was recognized for many awards after its release. at the Black Movie Awards it won the Outstanding Achievement in Directing, at the Black Reel Awards in won Best Director, and at the Image Awards in won Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture (imdb). Also, Coach Carter was nominated at the ESPY's for Best Sports Movie. Also, Samuel L. Jackson was nominated for much more individual awards along with Ashanti who was nominated for multiple breakthrough actress awards (imdb). With all of this recognition it proves how worthy Coach Carter is to have the title of best inspirational sports movie ever made.
Now, some may argue Coach Carter is not a better inspirational sports movie than Rocky but Coach Carter has elements Rocky did not. Coach Carter does not have some story book ending where the team goes on to win the championship. It focuses on more important things than just the game. It ends with showing how these young men who grew up in a terrible neighborhood went off to college and made lives for themselves. Not many sports movies can say that about their films. Almost all inspirational sports movies have cliched endings, not Coach Carter and that is what makes it great. Yes it is a heartwarming and inspirational story but it does it creates this emotion in a way most movies do not. That is why Coach Carter is special and is deserving of being recognized as the best inspirational sports movie of all time.
Works Cited:
(accessed February 12, 2012).
Database, Internet Movie. Awards for Coach Carter(2005). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393162/awards (accessed February 12, 2012).
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