 Last year at this time it was Coach Carter; this year, it's Glory Road -- what A.O. Scott in the New York Times calls, the "season's obligatory inspirational coach-centered sports movie." Like other critics, Scott observes that the film will win no awards for originality. He adds: "Movies like this are rarely great, but when executed properly, they're rarely bad, either. Glory Road is satisfying less for its virtuosity than for its sincerity, and also because it will acquaint audiences with a remarkable episode that had ramifications far beyond the basketball court" -- the appearance in 1966 of an all-black basketball team for the first time in the NCAA basketball championships. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the film succeeds "as the story of a chapter in history, the story of how one coach at one school arrived at an obvious conclusion and acted on it, and helped open college sports in the South to generations of African Americans." But Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun doesn't buy any of such praise. "The end result is more a lecture than a film; audiences may come away understanding what went on, but for most, the emotional connection will be lacking," he writes. Similarly, David Hiltbrand in the Philadelphia Inquirer concludes: "Viewed as a recreation of a watershed moment, Glory Road is sturdy, efficient, perhaps even worthy. Taken as cinema, however, it falls far short of inspiring." |
