Glory Road

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Glory Road's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Glory Roadcompleted by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 23 May 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Glory Road contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Dan Haskins, former girls’ basketball coach, is appointed to Texas Western College to coach basketball there. He sets about to recruit new players for the team and travels the countryside looking for talent. He finds it in the back streets of New York and Chicago where young black men play basketball for recreation. In 1966 there are not many black boys attending college and none playing in basketball leagues in the Southern states, so Dan Haskins ruffles more than a few feathers when he produces a team with a majority of black players.

The young men, most of whom have had little education, find it difficult to adjust to college life and the discipline it demands. Dan is also a strict disciplinarian and, while he encourages his players with their school work, he has to push his team to go on to win, which they do, match after match. Their real dominance comes however, when the players persuade Dan to let go of his strict disciplinarian style and allow them to play their “own game”. Their rise to national level faces much opposition and the team is constantly provoked by racial taunts which turn nasty on several occasions. They eventually make their way to the national finals and have to play against the University of Kentucky, a formidable team who has won the title for the previous five years in succession.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Racial hatred and violence.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• one of the black players is attacked by three white men in the toilets. He is repeatedly punched and his head is pushed into a toilet bowl. He is shown covered in blood.
  
• the team’s motel room is trashed and racist slogans are painted on the walls in blood such as ‘niggers die’ and ‘goons go home’
  
• some on court aggression
  
• one of the players grabs another by the throat and pushes him up against a wall.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children under the age of eight could be scared or disturbed by the above-mentioned violent scenes.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children aged eight to thirteen could also be disturbed by the above-mentioned violent scenes.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Some children over the age of thirteen could be concerned by the theme of racial violence.

Sexual references

None.

Nudity and sexual activity

None.

Use of substances

Some drinking of alcohol at pubs, in a pool hall and at a party.

Coarse language

One use of the word shit.

The movie's message

Set in 1966, Glory Road portrays the racist attitudes prevalent at the time. It is a film that could appeal to all ages, particularly basketball fans.

The take home message of this movie is the senselessness of racial prejudice and the hatred it produces.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include tolerance and social inclusion.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the issues of racial prejudice and hatred.