Basing a film on
true events can often be a double-edged sword in the hands of an incapable
filmmaker. There are two opposing impulses in these narratives, and they can
often be in direct conflict with each other. The urge to mold the inspirational
and motivational events to adhere to genre structures can often directly
contradict the goal of a faithful and realistic portrayal of the actual people
behind the story. When the Game Stands
Tall attempts to do both, at the detriment to the final product.
When the Game Stands Tall is based on
the true story of legendary high school football coach, Bob Ladouceur (Jim
Caviezel), whose 151-game winning streak with the De La Salle High School
Spartans broke records for all American sports. The film itself is not about
this streak, however, but instead is about the events that followed once the
team had finally lost. Making a film about a team coming to terms with the
impact of loss and the unimportance of winning streaks and records is somewhat
contradictory to the structure of most sports movies, but instead adheres to a
moralistic agenda cultivated in the film as faith-based entertainment.
The Christian
themes are not as prevalent as they have been for more direct faith-based
entertainment, even including a few horribly misguided sports movies, showing a
step in the right direction for movies with a spiritual message. This is not
enough to make it a good film, however. Between the effort to include real
events and characters in the narrative, a Christian message, and plenty of
inspirational football sequences, When the Game Stands Tall comes off like a
convoluted attempt to imitate “Friday Night Lights.” Were this film the first
two episodes of a TV series, I might have continued watching to see if it got
any better. As it stands, the only memorable elements of the film are the ones
that are a complete failure.
Aside from the
overall narrative structure being a mess, the film doesn’t really have a
protagonist to carry the film through contrived sequences of emotional
manipulation. Caviezel should have carried the film as Coach Ladouceur, but a
misguided attempt to faithfully imitate the real man results in a soft-spoken
and wholly uncharismatic leading character. Caviezel nearly blends into the
background, whereas the over-acting by many of the football players suggests
that they appear to have believed themselves to be the film’s main character.
There is nothing within the film strong enough to bind together all of these
various strands, many of which feel as though they belong to completely
different movies.
The Blu-ray
combo pack comes with a DVD copy, as well as a digital HD copy. The special
features on both discs include a commentary track from director Thomas Carter,
as well as a making-of featurette. Exclusive to the Blu-ray are a handful of
additional extras, including select scene commentary and a featurette with the
real Coach Ladouceur, a handful of deleted/extended scenes, and an additional
featurette on the filming of the football sequences.
Entertainment Value:
4.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 4/10
Historical
Significance: 3/10
Special Features: 7.5/10
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