Gridiron Gang

There are many movies and books on how great teachers or coaches have affected the lives of students and amazingly most of them are based on true stories. As an educator that gives me hope, but as a movie watcher it makes me say great another one of those films. This movie is not just another one of "those" films. It has a solid and interesting plot and the acting is good. I rather enjoyed this film.

This story is about a man with a vision, Sean Porter (The Rock). Sean works at a juvenile detention center in California. He believes the success rate of rehabilitating the juveniles is too low. Too many of the offenders end up dead or back in prison. This happens because many of the offenders belong to gangs. Sean wants to find a way to rehabilitate more of these kids so that they become contributing members of society. He realizes that gang membership is the problem, but the question is how do you get the offenders to quick their gang? Sean knows if he is going to ask the kids to give up their gangs, he must give them something else to belong to. Sean believes that football is the answer. He, himself played football in high school. He thinks the discipline of football will help straighten the kids out plus it will give them a team/family to belong to in place of a gang. He initial team is composed of kids he thinks can be rehabilitated or kids that have some football experience. They include such characters as Junior who is a disciplinary problem who promises to behave if he can play. Junior has a son and he wants to make his son proud of him. Willie Weathers whose cousin just got out of the detention center and was killed by a rival gang. Willie is in jail for killing his stepfather who was abusing his mother. Kelvin Owens who is from the rival gang that killed Willie's cousin. And Kenny Bates who stole a car. Sean convinces a Christian school league to let them in the league so that the kids will have someone to play against since the offenders would see no point in practising if they don't get to play anyone. They only have 3 weeks to prepare for the first game and it is a disaster for the Mustangs (name of the prison team), but we watch as the team gets better and the boys continue to grow and mature. Will they make it to the playoffs and will Sean's program make a difference in these boys' lives? You will have to watch and find out. One cool thing about this movie is that it is based on a true story and at the end of the film it tells what happened to each of the boys.

The acting was well done. Many people are not a fan of The Rock as far as acting goes. I think he is okay especially in roles like this. I don't expect him to win an Oscar anytime soon, but he does give a sole performance in this role. He portrays the right mixture of caring and toughness to be able to handle these boys. All the boys did a good job as well. Setu Taase plays Junior, the problem child who wants to change and be better. Jade Yorker plays Willie Weathers, the boy would doesn't want to change, but finds himself becoming more mature in spite of himself. David Thomas plays Kelvin Owens who is Willie's nemesis from a rival gang. And my favorite, Trever O'Brien plays Kenny Bates, the poor boy stole a car and not a good one at that. He has problems with his mother. Therefore all he wants is his mother to love him and be proud of him. Perhaps the football team can give him that or give him an alternative family to relate too. All in all I thought the acting well done.

These types of stories always amaze me, as an educator I can't imagine overcoming some of the adversity that is presented in stories such as these. This one is based on a true event; is well done; and is quite an enjoyable movie. If you like hopeful stories, football movies, or just a good film for a Sunday afternoon then you should give this film a try.