Glory Road Review

Director : James GartnerStarring : Josh Lucas, Derek LukeTrailer for Glory RoadJustMovieTrailers - Trailer (WMP)
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Road Click here The plot of Glory RoadTexas Western coach Don Haskins (Lucas) and his all-black starting five head to
the NCAA tournament.Review by BRIAN LOWRY :Disney's profitable roster of uplifting, fact-based sports movies
("Remember the Titans," "Miracle," "The Rookie""The Rookie") has a new hardcourt addition drawn from a terrific story --
the saga of the all-black Texas team whose success spurred the integrating of college basketball throughout the South --
that is, for the most part, deftly executed. Although doubtless destined to evoke comparisons with "Hoosiers" and even
TV's "The White Shadow," "Glory Road" is a slick enterprise buoyed by a Motown-flavored '60s soundtrack and an
appealing ensemble cast. Box office should be in line with its predecessors and might go higher, provided today's urban
teens can accept basketball players wearing short shorts.For years, Texas Western (now the U. of Texas at El Paso) has
been the answer to a college basketball trivia question -- it's the little school that won the national championship in 1966,
sandwiched by UCLA's nine titles over a decadelong span beginning in 1964.
Review By Pam Grady:
When Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) took over as head basketball coach at El Paso's Texas Western University in 1965, the
sport was still mainly a white affair. Most teams only had a few black players at most, and many of those athletes were
simply tokens who rode the bench all season. But Haskins was a coach hungry to win and he could not care less about
skin color. His actions as he took the reins of the Texas Western program were simple and direct and they helped usher
in a new era of integration in basketball. That achievement is what Glory Road celebrates in this well-meaning, stylish,
inspirational sports drama. Haskins is coaching high school ball when he gets the call to take over the Texas Western
Miners. This is the chance he has been waiting for, the chance to prove that he can coach with the big boys, but there's a
hitch. The Miners are on the fast track to Palookaville; they're a basketball team at a football school with little money and
even fewer perks. Haskins has no chance of recruiting any top talent to play on his team—any top white talent,
that is. Those players are heavily in demand at powerhouses like the University of Kentucky and Duke. But schools tend
to ignore gifted black athletes, a big mistake, to Haskins' way of thinking. His credo is, "I don't see color. I see quick. I
see skill." And he sets about building a fully integrated unit.