Football drama scores with emotion
By Christy Lemire |
March 2, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IT seems impossibly feel-good, this tale of sacrifice and redemption, tragedy and triumph. It may also sound like the kind of uplifting football drama you've seen countless times before - and comparisons to both "Friday Night Lights" and "The Blind Side" are inevitable.
Still, the Oscar-nominated documentary "Undefeated" knocks you over with a power all its own. Told in intimate, unadorned fashion, it comes from a pure place that's irresistible. It isn't trying too hard to inspire us - and that's precisely why it does. Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, who directed, shot and edited the film, allow the story and the characters to work their magic.
Their focus is the 2009 football team at Manassas High School in North Memphis, a predominately black school in a blighted part of town which hadn't won a playoff game in its 110-year history.
Coach Bill Courtney hopes that by working with these kids and developing their strengths on the field, they'll recognize the importance of being strong men off the field. Or as he puts it: football doesn't build character, football reveals character. A husband and father of four, he has devoted a ridiculous amount of hours over the past six-plus years to turning this team around from perennial cellar-dwellers to serious contenders in the division.
What's mind-boggling is that he's doing it all as a volunteer, which he can afford as the owner of a successful lumber company. He gets through to these kids through the sheer force of his personality; portly and boisterous, he can be charming and demanding in equal measure, and he ends up becoming the film's de facto star.
"Undefeated" also follows three of the Tigers' main players. When we first meet Montrail "Money" Brown, he's showing off his science fair project and humbly mentioning he has a 3.8 grade point average. He has dreams of leaving town and going to college - and as a small offensive lineman, he realizes it won't be football that gets him there.
The heavily recruited left tackle O.C. Brown, the team's star, is the opposite. With speed and size, he's getting letters and visits from universities across the country. The school's coaches hope to give O.C. a boost academically by having him receive tutoring and live part-time at one of their houses.
Then there's the hotheaded Chavis Daniels, a talented but troubled linebacker.
"Undefeated" sneaks up on you emotionally with the power of a quarterback sack. And you don't even have to be a sports fan to be moved.
Still, the Oscar-nominated documentary "Undefeated" knocks you over with a power all its own. Told in intimate, unadorned fashion, it comes from a pure place that's irresistible. It isn't trying too hard to inspire us - and that's precisely why it does. Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, who directed, shot and edited the film, allow the story and the characters to work their magic.
Their focus is the 2009 football team at Manassas High School in North Memphis, a predominately black school in a blighted part of town which hadn't won a playoff game in its 110-year history.
Coach Bill Courtney hopes that by working with these kids and developing their strengths on the field, they'll recognize the importance of being strong men off the field. Or as he puts it: football doesn't build character, football reveals character. A husband and father of four, he has devoted a ridiculous amount of hours over the past six-plus years to turning this team around from perennial cellar-dwellers to serious contenders in the division.
What's mind-boggling is that he's doing it all as a volunteer, which he can afford as the owner of a successful lumber company. He gets through to these kids through the sheer force of his personality; portly and boisterous, he can be charming and demanding in equal measure, and he ends up becoming the film's de facto star.
"Undefeated" also follows three of the Tigers' main players. When we first meet Montrail "Money" Brown, he's showing off his science fair project and humbly mentioning he has a 3.8 grade point average. He has dreams of leaving town and going to college - and as a small offensive lineman, he realizes it won't be football that gets him there.
The heavily recruited left tackle O.C. Brown, the team's star, is the opposite. With speed and size, he's getting letters and visits from universities across the country. The school's coaches hope to give O.C. a boost academically by having him receive tutoring and live part-time at one of their houses.
Then there's the hotheaded Chavis Daniels, a talented but troubled linebacker.
"Undefeated" sneaks up on you emotionally with the power of a quarterback sack. And you don't even have to be a sports fan to be moved.
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