Undefeated

I don't write too many reviews on here, but I felt I had to after seeing the "5.5" rating (03-13- 2012) on IMDb. What the hell is up with this? In my view, "Undefeated" deserves an easy 10 out of 10. I believe 'Undefeated' could easily have been the best picture of 2011. Period.

I just saw the film a few days ago. Disclaimer: I HATE football movies. I couldn't care less. Until I saw 'Undefeated.' Yes, it got my attention after winning Best Documentary after the Oscars. I was almost reluctant to go see it (I work in documentary filmmaking), but when I did, I was absolutely floored. Like, tears in my eyes as I exited the theater floored.

'Undefeated' isn't really a football movie. It's a documentary about an impoverished community that rallies around their highschool football team to try and turn things around, to try and lift their hopes, spirits and dreams. It's a film that shows the real struggles of real people that you care about. It's about young men redefining their lives after spending years in prison. It's about young men fighting to escape the abject poverty they were born into. It's about young men trying to prove that they can find success if they try hard enough. And of course, you have the Coach who pursues his impossibly vision of turning this failed football team around, by becoming a father figure and using inspiration as his primary tool.

The thing that makes all of this truly special, is that these are REAL PEOPLE. This is not some scripted Hollywood blockbuster starting the latest pop-culture stars. 'Undefeated' cuts deep into real emotions and isn't afraid to expose us for who we are, for better or worse. This is stuff of high-drama that tops even the best of scripted films.

'Undefeated' makes 'The Artist,' look like a Coke commercial. It makes 'Midnight in Paris' look like a Saturday morning cartoon. 'Undefeated' is true drama. True emotion. Real life. It pulls you in with charming fascinating 'characters', and it pulls you along, feeling every rise, every fall, every victory, every setback. If you have a heart, you will cry. For sadness, and for joy. This film has it all. Of all the movies released in 2011, this is the one that counts.

I saw this the first time it was available in LA during the Oscar qualifying period. This film is a true accomplishment and one of the strongest contenders in the field. I was moved to tears on a number of occasions. The struggles of the players and coach Bill resonated with alarming clarity.

Some people could compare it to THE BLIND SIDE, which I also enjoyed. I feel as though this film tells an even larger story in the same amount of time -- something you can get away with more often in documentary, I suppose. However, I often forgot that I was watching a documentary, because the things these filmmakers were able to capture created a remarkable sense of flow.

This is one of those films I recommend to everyone.

Sometimes you start a project with a different goal than it eventually ends up to. The filmmakers hit the Jackpot in more than one sense here. On the other hand winning the Oscar might have raised the bar/expectations from people who might have watched this as a normal documentary and therefor might have liked it more.

This documentary sometimes might feel like it lacks the drive Hollywood movies have. But that is because it is real and because everything you see in here is what happened. It still is dramatized, but not to the extent you see in the movies. You also shouldn't forget, that those are not actors, but real people (and please don't confuse real people with "reality TV") doing their thing. The camera is not distracting and the tension is felt throughout.

One really good sport documentary

I should probably begin by apologizing-- calling this a "football movie" is a bit demeaning. Superficially, it's accurate, but the true subject of "Undefeated" is the education of inner-city kids through the competition of sports. If you value the lessons team sports can teach, or if you care about kids trying to pull themselves up from desperate circumstances, then I have to believe this is a film you want to see.

I had the privilege of seeing it a couple of months ago at the Chicago International Film Festival, with an audience that I'd wager was comprised mostly of people who didn't grow up in violent inner-city neighborhoods, and there were scenes in this film that reduced many of us in that audience to tears. These weren't tears of self-serving pity, either, but of admiration at what the Manassas Tigers accomplished in this wonder of a season. The film follows the storytelling tradition of the championship season, for the most part, but it's tough to criticize a documentary film for adherence to cliché. In fact, there are scenes in this that you'd dismiss as improbable in a fiction film, and scenes of such close personal observation that you wonder how the filmmakers got them on camera. These filmmakers had astonishing access to coach Bill Courtney and his players O.C. Brown, Montrail "Money" Brown, and the remarkable Chavis Daniels. You will get to know them so well over the course of the film that you might hope for a sequel. I know I do.

My only criticism of the film may not strike you as criticism at all-- in the Q&A session I attended with the filmmakers, they said they cut over an hour of footage to get the film's running time down for the theatrical market. As enthralled as I was with this film, I gladly would have watched another hour-- I wanted to meet more of these players and learn more about their lives. As such, at this length, the film doesn't quite rise to the level of "Hoop Dreams," as that film masterfully integrated its focus on sports into a larger narrative of inner-city life. But "Undefeated" comes awfully close, especially in one of the most moving scenes I've ever seen in a documentary, when a kid gets a piece of news that will change his life forever. You want to see this scene. You want to see this film.

Undefeated which premiered at Austin's SXSW Film Festival this week fits into a long line of inspiring sports films. It is very much in the tradition of Steve James's Hoop Dreams in its exploration of the struggles of inner city African-American youths to overcome great odds using athletics as a means to escape poverty and deprivation. The filmmaker tells the story of Memphis's Manassas Tigers focusing in on the coach and three of his players as they attempt to produce a special season at a school that has had a long history of football futility. Coach Bill Courtney is an inspiring coach who devotes himself to this football team, even at a cost to the time he can spend with his own family. He makes the team into a family and focuses on character. He and his coaches go above-and-beyond the call of duty raising money for the team and making sure the students also focus on their academics. Despite the reality that the coaches are white and their students are black, issues of race seem to play very little role in their story.

The filmmakers tell the story in mostly chronological with no narration and only very limited input from outside observers. Perhaps the most remarkable element of the film is that the filmmakers were with the team for the entire season and were able to disappear into the background and become part of the team. In so doing, they were often able to capture real emotion and conflict that participants are often afraid to put on film. The honesty of the film is powerful. The music is excellent and complements the storytelling nicely. While Undefeated is powerful and inspiring, it is probably a little too long and could use some more editing.