By David Manning

 Stepping into the theater for Jerry Bruckheimer’s latest foray into the genre of inspirational sports films, I anticipated a rather predictable next two hours. As a basketball fan, I knew the basic story behind the movie: in 1966, the trailblazing head coach of Texas Western University, Don Haskins, led a predominantly black basketball team to the NCAA Championship. As a movie lover, the producer, genre, and associated storyline were each quite familiar to me. In other words, I expected no surprises; I hoped for the best, but expected the worst. Only minutes after the opening credits, however, the surprises began.

First on this list is humor. Loud and consistent laughs dominate the first half-hour, which features the freshly-hired Haskins recruiting players from heavily-black neighborhoods in 1960s urban America. In these early scenes I was treated to amusing exchanges between the coach and players, the coach and the players’ parents, and in one case, the assistant coach and a few playground ballers in South Bronx who take him for his clothes before agreeing to join the Miners basketball team in El Paso. Once the players reach El Paso, the comic relief only improves. As one player struggles to adapt to academic coursework his mother is brought in to set him straight - which she does right there in the classroom, by attending the class with her son and volunteering him to answer the prof’s questions.

In addition to the laugh-inducing humor, Glory Road features some damn fine action scenes. During game sequences, particularly those depicting the NCAA tournament, the audience was clapping and cheering enough to make me think I was seeing the game live. Texas Western’s (which is now the University of Texas at El Paso) wins in the NCAA Final Four and Championship games had me on the edge of my seat, applauding with the rest of those fortunate enough to see Glory Road in advance of the film’s January 13th domestic release.
Any review of Glory Road would be incomplete without mentioning the performance of Josh Lucas. While overall Lucas delivered a believable performance, he was inconsistent and at times too reminiscent of Matthew McConaughey forcing himself into a coach’s suit in an attempt to imitate Gene Hackman’s Norman Dale. Hoosiers, Glory Road is not.

…And this is primarily due to the number of themes Glory Road touches on, but does not fully develop. Those plotlines include Texas Western’s star guard Bobby Joe Hill (played by Derek Luke) falling for a beautiful co-ed (Tatyana Ali), another Texas Western player’s interest in the Black Panther movement, and the implied bigoted attitudes of opposing University of Kentucky coach Adolph Rudd. As Glory Road overstuffed its historically significant (and genuinely miraculous) storyline with themes designed to broaden audience interest, I was immediately reminded of the stereotypes and clichés that lowered expectations in the first place.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter all that much. The story of this team’s struggles and the historical importance of a predominantly black team winning the NCAA’s National Championship during one of the most divisive times in America’s history are strengths too dominant for the overuse of poetic license and cliché to conquer. As the Texas Western Miners return home to El Paso after their victory in the championship game against an all-white Kentucky team, I felt the emotion through the screen. And that warrants a visit to the theater every time.