Undefeated

As I catch up with the documentaries nominated for the latest Academy Awards, the winner from the previous year is finally available on DVD. Undefeated, directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, is a fairly standard sports documentary, a sort of real-life version of Friday Night Lights. What probably pushed in into the winner's column was the almost unbelievably good-hearted center of the film, a coach named Bill Courtney.

The film covers the Manassas Tigers during one season. A high school in North Memphis, which seems to be entirely African American, the school has never won a playoff game, and until Courtney came aboard, had trouble even winning a game. The students live in abject poverty (Martin, in an interview on the DVD's features, says he had never seen such horrible poverty in the U.S.).

Courtney, a white businessman who coached the team on a volunteer basis, comes across as the coach of every student's dream. He starts by saying "Football does not build character, it reveals it," and over the course of the film guides his charges with a firm but loving hand. He will be tested over and over, and more than once he will question his involvement, as he realizes he is spending more time with his players than with his own children (which he is sensitive to, since he grew up without a dad).

The film also focuses on three of the players: O.C. Brown, a gentle giant and all-world tackle; "Money," an undersize tackle who knows he won't play college football and maintains a 3.8 GPA, and Chavis, a linebacker back from a youth home. He has an anger management problem, and frequently tests Courtney's patience, such as when he gets in a physical altercation with Money over an armrest during a team meeting.

It was Brown who first caught the directors' attention, as he was something of another Blind Side situation--taken in by a rich white family half of the week, because tutors would not go to his neighborhood at night. He struggles with his academics, and needs a minimum of 16 on his ACT to go to college, where he is recruited hungrily. Money, who hurts his knee toward the end of the season, undergoes something of an existential crisis, and quits going to school, though he is academically gifted, and Courtney struggles to put his head right.

The Tigers go through their season 9-1, and end up in the playoffs. I won't spoil any further, but the scenes with Courtney saying goodbye to his seniors are real tearjerkers. There's another scene in which Money receives some kindness that will also put a lump in your throat.

This is a very good film, and I don't begrudge its wins. The other nominees were Hell and Back Again, Pina, If a Tree Falls,  and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. I would have probably voted for If a Tree Falls, but Undefeated is a touching and well-made film. The world could use more people like Bill Courtney.