Dave Hanratty

Yeah.

So it's 1971 in Alexandria, Virginia, and there is a forced integration of the formerly all-white T.C.

Williams High School and its football team.

And Denzel Washington, Herman Boone, is an African-American coach appointed as head coach of the football team, replacing the white coach Bill Yost, Will Patton.

He's demoted and they have to come together on a training trip to Gettysburg where he takes them and makes a speech.

And then they come together as a team and then they go back out and have to deal with the realities of racist referees and a town not ready for the integration.

And here's just the end, which is not a place to start, I know.

But the captain, Gary...

Gary Berthier he knows the names he's the white captain who leads the team coming together with Julius who's the leader of the black players and so you know tragically midway through he's paralysed from the waist down the film culminates like 15 years 10 years after the high school team win the state championship and Gary has died after winning a Paralympic medal true story and so this is the narrator daughter of the white coach summing up I guess the movie and the message

They're singing Graveside here.

Hey, goodbye.

All right, Will.

What do you want to say?

This is one of the great sports movies, if not the greatest sports movie of all time, in my opinion.

You're getting peak Denzel Washington shortly before he wins the Oscar for Training Day.

As Coach Herman Boone, as you said, he's absolutely cooking from the get-go.

The first time you see him,

he's in his office Will Patton comes in it's almost like a handover of power between the white coach and the black coach and he kind of has a bit of a monologue there then he goes into the gym a clip that you wouldn't let me play earlier you made me forego it for the emotional one look we won't fall out of that when he like dresses down Turk from Scrubs he's like trying to be like football is fun and he just like cuts him down to size and from there he just has like four or five unbelievable speeches throughout the movie and

you mentioned like Gary Berthier and Julius Campbell earlier kind of the leader of the black players and the white players two great performances as well as Avon Barksdale from the Wires Julius Campbell who a lot of people will remember he gives a great performance as does Gary Berthier and yeah it's just a great movie it's just like a feel good movie you know the final you know play a fake 23 blast with a George reverse still unbelievable it still gets me every time it's like an outrageous trick play he like runs the pitch to win the championship game and

10 out of 10 for a sports movie.