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the character man is not measured how it handles as wins what he does with the
spaniards and and i went back home
and everybody says
when you get these inner city kids down
relying on your behalf forty not pass
everybody's side they're all on one
then off all of them
they'll be doing a bad evidence that
not us
part of me always feel satellite here's one probably declared they don't like or
never played sports of any type
because some people think the sports as the realm of *** jobs in ny and
finance but you never played sports
you know they are all about winning and that they can teach valuable life
lessons and emotional refreshingly on intellectual way like teamwork
perseverance selflessness and humility heater been caught up watching her
playing it close game you know that sports providing unparalleled stage for
human drama
all these are present in undefeated the oscar-nominated documentary that follows
the two thousand nine season of the manassas high school football team of
north memphis as they attempt to win their first playoff game in more than a
century but more importantly to learn the life skills that will give them the
future
manassas highs in the black neighborhood that's been devastated by the closure of
a nearby firestone tire factor
because they thought this is going to go courtney
the successful owner of the lumber business volunteers virtually all those
free time to the team often at the expense of his own family with its
devising game plans are making sure the players don't become victims of the
circumstances undefeated focuses on three players who exemplifies starting
with lucy a friendly surprisingly quick three hundred pound senior left
acquisition for a football scholarship if you can get his grades up montreal a
cave money isn't undersized offensive lineman who over cheese on the field and
in the classroom until injury threatens the season's academic future and even
his identity chavis is imposing junior with an explosive temper who must learn
to channels angered attacking opponents or end up in jail but since courtney is
white and all these players are black describing undefeated sounds like the
most condescending and arguably races that movie cliches the benevolent white
person who comes in to see the poor proud people which is practically its
own genre of film including two thousand nine supply-side nineteen ninety-five
steve hurst mines as was twenty twelve best picture nominee to help
even if these films are based on true events it's hard not to be them simply
as hollywood's attempts to absolve themselves of generational white dudes
for the horrible treatment minorities have suffered from institutionalized
racism that's o benefited the white majority but courtney's no saint often
swearing at his players and struggling to control his anger and frustration
with
within the courtney's desire to be a father figure to his players' most of
whom don't have male role models in their lives is not an act of social
justice but largely in over compensation for the fact that some father left his
family when he was young the issue of why people will be caring about black
kids if they play sports comes up but you can just as easily see that as
coaches recognizing a nurturing athletic talent just as a science teacher might
give extra helped with starsight student if undefeated can be accused of ignoring
race it's only because the coaches and players seemed to ignore to and i didn't
see any proof that courtney and his staff would behave any differently if
the players were in similar circumstances but what what we see in
the defeated as a coach who loves football
cares about the welfare and future of his players on and off the field and has
a steadfast believe that the qualities that will help us bears becoming over
achieving team also make them over cheating adults even if they don't win
the big game
early on courtney says quote hitting the ball builds character it does not in
reveals character
it's a powerful idea that transcends race extends beyond sports and it's
beautifully illustrated in undefeated which is why did it but what the for
creating of not
and often came for what the ***