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Former basketball star Ken Carter (Samuel Jackson) plays coach to his alma mater Richmond high
school's basketball team. Upon assumption of coaching duty he asks each player to sign a contract compromising their playing activities with class attendance and academic
grade. This arrangement leaves the irked players with no choice but to sign in order for them to play. To check compliance of the players with the contract, Carter
approaches the teachers and requests a copy of attendance and class standing report of the player students. The faculty finds it inappropriate for a coach to ask for such a
report so they complain against him to the school administration. While the school is still up on this issue, Carter discovers the poor grades of the players which means a
breach in the contract that they have signed. Determined to reconcile the interest of sports and academic requirement, Carter suspends all the games, asks the players to go
to library, and padlocks the gymnasium, a move that triggers protests among members of the school community.
Coach Carter succeeds in translating the story of a well-meaning, real life coach into a film primarily with the right choice of lead actor. True to character and consistent with his track record, Jackson gives justice to the role with his convincing acting. The director, Thomas Carter, (no relation to the coach) makes a good attempt at sticking to facts with a simple storyline enhanced with sub-plots dwelling on stories of some of the basketball players. The film somehow struggles to reconcile all the sub-plots together, helped by the musical score which sets the mood for each scene and sustains the overall theme and mood of the film. As may be expected of a movie involving a school, a ghetto and an idealistic adult, the script of
Coach Carter is laced with classroom drama and locker room pep talks, and is for the most part predictable.
Coach Carter offers an inspiring story of how a person who is committed to bring changes in the interest of common good and better future for young people succeeds despite the odds and indifferences in the society. It depicts the values of education and discipline as requirements to achieve success in life, not only in sports. The film likewise touches on the prevailing issue in the school systems concerning student athletes and how the school administration tends to disregard the academic status of athletes in favor of athletic excellence. Although the overall message of the film is positive, viewers are cautioned against passively accepting a subtly injected anti-life attitude as depicted in the scene where a teenage girl admits to having had an abortion because "I had to make a choice and my choice was for me. Also, repeated lines of Samuel Jackson using women's stuff in his lecture and imposition of disciplines are not good input on gender sensitivity.
(Date Reviewed: 10 June 2005)
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