It’s time for a film based on a true story. Those are always pretty interesting since they tend to feel a lot different from the average movie. Also since the film is based on true events you’re always wondering just how close the movie will play things and what it will choose to exaggerate. After all it is basically inevitable that it will be dramatizing some things. In the end this one seems to do a pretty good job. I don’t know a ton about the real events to be honest but this all played out in ways you would expect it to. The main weakness to the film I’d say is that it tries to do too much at times and stretches itself very thin as a result.

The movie starts with showing a quick montage of the Spartans winning over 100 games. They finally get to the end of the season and win the final game when it counts. Bob is a bit concerned though because the younger players don’t seem as invested in the team and only care about the record. Without all of his best players, it may be time for the dynasty to end. The stress also kicks in and his heart weakens to he is forbidden from coaching for a while. He will ultimately have to choose between his team and his family.

It definitely has to take a great toll on you to have a winning streak that is so huge. You know that such a streak is very unlikely to ever be broken or topped so when it finally ends everyone will be crushed for a while. Logically you know that they have to lose at some point but that isn’t a great consolation for anyone who would happen to be on the team.

Bob is a good main character who only really makes one big mistake during the film. I appreciated how he was always ready to help the team both when they were on the field and when they were off it. He seems like a good guy in general who was trying to do the right thing. The only time I thought he wasn’t great was when his son wanted some advice and Bob refused to give him any at all. Yes, Bob can’t go onto the field because of his heart condition but not being able to help your son with a simple question when he’s finally about to start on the team for the first time? Now that’s really just being unreasonable and the film never really ended up portraying this as a mistake.

Bob doesn’t get a chance to apologize for this and it felt like an oversight. Then his wife wasn’t thrilled with his coaching the team which seems rather sudden. Perhaps if they started dating before he was a coach then that could make sense but if he was already coaching then that’s just annoying. It’s always a plot that I’ve never liked because you knew what this was going to be like before getting together or at least you should have had a really good idea.

Naturally the film did need some drama here to keep things from being too easy but I felt like we already had a good amount of that from the one player getting murdered out of the blue, Bob having heart issues, and the family going on a losing streak. That should have been enough if you ask me but as always the disclaimer is that if this is how it happened in real life then there’s not much you can do. I suspect the film had a good amount of liberty with this though. It’s just a hunch but that would be my assumption.

Overall, This was a pretty good film. It’s very by the numbers so what you see is what you get and for that reason I don’t imagine anyone having too much of a problem with it. The biggest issue in a way is just that it plays things so safe that it’s not terribly exciting at times and you feel like it probably would get overshadowed if someone else ever wanted to adapt this story themselves. The movie has some solid themes in it like learning to stop playing for yourself and being a team player which are always great but you’ve probably heard that before. At times some of the characters could be a bit unreasonable and some plots don’t get great resolutions but hey as a whole I still enjoyed this film. It does a lot of things well and goes by fast. Additionally the Football scenes are a lot of fun as you would expect. Next time I dare say they should focus even more on that since there isn’t as much Football screentime as you might expect.