When
The Game Stands Tall (2014/TriStar/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: A Film: A-
Inspired
by a true story, Thomas Carter's When The Game Stands Tall
(2014) offers the De La Salle High School football team that went
from a zero to a 151 game winning streak, but when head coach Bob
Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel) gets benched for a season because of a heart
attack, the streak gets broken and a tragedy occurs that shocks the
team who believed themselves to be invincible and once undefeatable.
Can coach Ladouceur teach his boys what it means to be winners again?
That life isn't about scoring and winning, but how you pick yourself
back up when you fall.
When
you are a football star, it is hard with all the peer pressure, the
football fathers, and the jock mentality to not let all that glory
get into your head, but is what De La Salle High School is, it is
known for its winning football program to produce college/national
level of football players, everything?
Players
want to join them, other schools fear them and when other coaches ask
what ask Coach Ladouceur what makes a winning football program he
says it is not just the skill, but each team member putting the
'perfect effort' and the brotherhood shared between the players.
After the 151 winning game, De La Salle legacy is pasted on to a new
season of players but they have yet to learn there is no "I"
in the word team.
Ladouceur
was not just any football coach, but a life coach. His goal, his
passion is to help young men bring out the best of themselves even
during the worst of times, and to place the team before even
themselves, that is the difference between just another great
football player and a football player that you want to follow onto
the field. Laura Dern, Michael Chiklis and Clancy Brown also star.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital high definition image and lossless DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 mix may not be groundbreaking, but are
professional and consistent enough to deliver the film in a viable
way and are just fine. Extras include commentary with Bob Ladouceur,
deleted and extended scenes, filming the football scenes, and the
Heart and Soul of a Program: Bob Ladouceur.
-
Ricky Chiang