A Remarkable Story
Coach Carter is very closely based off of a true story that happened several years ago in California. A town known as Richmond was host to a lot of troubled youth and crime. The story focuses on the Richmond Oilers high school basketball team and how these young, troubled boys became men when a new coach arrives.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Ken Carter, the All-American athlete who attended Richmond High in the early 70s and set several school records. Carter ran a sporting goods store in Richmond and was offered the coaching job to replace Coach White who was growing tired of the job and sought retirement. Realizing the task ahead, Carter took the job and set the rules from day one.
He offered his players a contract in which they had to attend all classes, sit in the front row, wear a suit and tie on game day, show up early for practice, and maintain a 2.3 GPA during a time when the school system only required a 2.0. He demanded and gave respect to his players, insisting they refer to him as sir as he did to them. Naturally not everyone on the team was interested in this type of structure and responsibility, and a good bit of the film is about the struggles with authority both with Coach Carter and the law that some of these players had.
Coach Carter, as a film, is as much about telling the tale of the basketball team as it is about telling the tales of the individuals of that team, and I think that makes it stand out from a typical sports film, if you can even call it that. You might call Coach Carter a drama about people in a tough neighborhood, discovering themselves and growing up, taking responsibility and making life changing decisions with a basketball story to tie it altogether. No matter how you look at it, it’s a hell of a story and very well presented here thanks to a great script, direction, and acting. Frankly, my only real complaints would be is that if feels like it runs a bit long at two and a quarter hours and that too many scenes of Richmond scoring involve alley oops, which may or may not be true (but I suspect not).
Coaching In Hi-Def
Simply put, the quality of the video and audio on this Blu-ray are great as you’d expect from such a recent film and coming from Paramount. There are a handful of scenes where some of the colors seem a little compressed and have a slightly blocky look to them, but these are far and few between. The dialogue comes through crisp and clear thanks to the Dolby TrueHD track, including all of Samuel L. Jackson’s yelling.
As far as extra features go, Coach Carter is an average release. The extras are:
-Coach Carter: The Man Behind the Movie: This is a twenty minute SD feature that includes the real Coach Carter being interviewed and talking about his times at Richmond and the film. Samuel L and some of the students during that remarkable year are also interviewed. Scenes from the film relating to these folks’ memories are shown while they talk.
-Fast Break At Richmond High – A twelve minute SD feature that is basically a behind the scenes piece. The basketball coordinator is interviewed (who worked to make sure the actors looked and moved authentically, and provided them with training), along with Producers and several members of the cast.
-Six Deleted Scenes – A twelve minute collection of six additional scenes that didn’t make the final cut, all in SD.
-Hope– A music video running four and a half minutes of artist Twisted featuring Faith Evans.
-Writing Coach Carter: The Two Man Game – An eight and a half minute SD feature with interviews of Mark Schwann (Screenwriter) and Mike Tollin talking about how they worked hard to make the film accurate and how they first met the real Ken Carter.
-Coach Carter: Making the Cut: This is an eighteen minute SD feature with Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin (Producers) talking about Thomas Carter, the director of the film and his dedication to it. Lots of production and behind the scenes footage is shown to illustrate this point.
And with that, let’s wrap up…