Coach Carter
(2004)
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In the tradition of LEAN ON ME and DANGEROUS MINDS comes COACH CARTER, an inspirational drama starring Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson portrays real-life figure Ken Carter, who graduated from California's Richmond High only to return there year later, in 1999, and take over as head coach of the boys' basketball team. Unfortunately, the troubled school he remembered as a teenager is an even more insufferable place in his adulthood. Determined to make a change in his players' lives, Carter makes each young man sign a contract that ensures he will maintain a 2.3 GPA, attend every class, and wear a jacket and tie on game day. Of course, the players reject the contract at first, but when they realize that they don't have any other choice, they give in. And when it appears that their tough-as-nails coach is actually turning them into winners on the court, they embrace their coach's philosophy even further. But when Coach Carter receives the incomprehensibly awful progress reports of his players, he does the unthinkable: he benches the entire team. Directed by Thomas Carter (SAVE THE LAST DANCE), COACH CARTER is a sensitive drama that features an impassioned performance by Jackson, as well as the impressive young cast (most notably Rob Brown, Rick Gonzalez, and Robert Ri'Chard). |
Samuel L Jackson's barnstorming performance is the main reason to catch this solidly entertaining “true story”. He plays a high-school basketball coach who took the unheard of step of benching his players and jeopardising their shot at the state title when he discovered they were failing academically. This, needless to say, didn't sit at all well with the local community who valued sporting achievement above intellectual feats, or the students who would rather be on the court than in the classroom. The screenplay by Mark Schwahn and John Gatins is as much influenced by films about inspirational teachers turning students' lives around (such as Stand and Deliver and Dead Poets Society) as by sports movies, but all the usual ingredients are present, including the rousing locker-room speeches, coach/player face-offs and exhilarating basketball action. Clichéd it may be, but the movie is involving and well acted enough for us to forgive the fact that we've seen all this many times before.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Inspired by the life of Ken Carter, this sports movie, while following much the usual template for such films, does break convention with its insistence that athletic prowess at school will not necessarily bring success in adult life.