When the Game Stands Tall (2014)

This was by far the best football movie I ever saw! As a former coach, I loved the relationship with the players (beyond that of a coach). i also saw myself in the coach's growing as an individual and changing his perspective on what is important. You see the tragedy of the death of a player. The hardships of growing up, temptations outside of football and the struggles of family, growing up poor, and the demands of an unrealistic father. I like after the movie when the real coach was shown giving the eulogy at church. The coach also was offered a high paying college job but tuned it down because he realized the impact he was having on the boys he worked with. He also changed his own relationship with one player who happened to be his son.

I enjoyed the movie and found it to be very inspiring. But this is not just a football movie, it's a movie about coaching young men to be more than living life for themselves. It's about teammates and brotherhood. That's something that we need a lot more of in this society. For those who criticize the religious aspect of the movie, get over it! This is about a Catholic high school where faith is an important part of who Coach Ladouceur is as a person and what the school is. Don't try to clean God out of everything just so you can avoid thinking about spirituality.The acting was good, not great. My only real criticism of the movie is that I wish it stayed closer to the true story of the 2004 season. DLS did not play Long Beach Poly in the 2004 season. Bellevue beat DLS without throwing a pass the whole game. And there was nobody named Chris Ryan on the team. A little bit too dramatized for Hollywood.

My title line above is a quote toward the end of the movie, "When the Game Stands Tall." Bev Ladouceur, wife of Coach Bob Ladouceur, says that to an angry dad in the stands who wants his son to score one more touch down to break the state scoring record. But, the coach has let the quarterback on his team call the final plays as they are winning their last game for a championship. The team is in close scoring range. Chris Ryan is the running back who can break the state record. As the team huddles, Ryan notes that the team hadn't yet shown its gratitude to the coach. He had returned to lead them through the season after having suffered a stroke. The boys take their helmets off and raise them in a salute to their coach, and the whole stadium joins in. Then, for the last three snaps, and within easy scoring range and likelihood, Ryan takes the place of the quarterback. He takes three consecutive snaps of the ball and goes down on one knee to end the game. It was a class act for the team and the boys. And that's what this movie is about, more than anything. It's a true story of a coach, Bob Ladouceur, and a school, De La Salle High School in Concord, California. They hold many football records, including the longest winning streak ever. But, most importantly, it's about teaching and shaping teen males to become men. Of course, this film has a lot of football action. So, it keeps moving at a nice pace. The film is based on a book by the same title, about Coach Bob Ladouceur and the De La Salle high school football team he led to the longest winning streak in the history of high school football. De La Salle High School at Concord, CA, won 151 consecutive games over 12 years. The early part of the movie is a snapshot of the climb of the streak, and then goes to the day the streak was snapped when De La Salle played Bellevue, WA. The bulk of the movie from there is about what happens after that, and the coach and team losing two games and then going undefeated for the rest of the next season. I agree with the other reviewers who think this may be the most inspiring sports movie ever made. And, there have been some very good ones over the years – from all major sports. Apparently, California high schools aren't divided into competition classes by size. The largest high school is Long Beach Polytech that had 4,745 students in 2013. Only five schools in its area were over 3,000 students that year. But, the schools are organized by divisions that have a mix of all size schools. De La Salle is one of 19 high schools in the Concord, CA, area (10 public and nine private). Many of those don't have football teams. Eleven high schools have fewer than 100 students and two others have fewer than 500. Only five schools have more than 1,000 students, and De La Salle is the smallest of those with 1,051 students. De La Salle competes in the state's Division 1, which has 19 schools. It is the smallest of those schools, most of which are two to three times larger than De La Salle. The largest is James Logan H.S. in Union City, with 4,133 students. The next smallest, after De La Salle, is Antioch High with 1,970 students. It's the only other high school in the division with fewer than 2,000 students, and it's still almost twice the size of De La Salle. The movie is based on Coach Ladouceur and the teams before 2004 – up to that year. That's when the school's 151-game winning streak came to an end. But, it's also when the school's comeback began. And, after that, from 2004-2013, De La Salle under Coach Bob Ladouceur went 127-12-2. It never finished outside the Top 10 in California prep football, it finished No. 1 four times and it won four state championships in a row. Bob Ladouceur stepped down in 2012 but stayed on as a volunteer to help the head coach. In his coaching career, Ladouceur had a record of 399-25-3. His record gave him a winning percentage of .937. During his career, he was offered head coach positions at the college level. All would have paid him much more than he made as a high school teacher and coach. But he turned them all down. Newspaper articles about his amazing career, said he was a teacher first. Indeed, the film brings that out. Jim Caviezel is excellent as Bob Ladouceur in this movie. All the cast are very good and the script, direction, filming and all aspects of this film are very good. This is an inspiring movie for all, and sports enthusiasts, players, and parents especially should get a lot out of the film.

It is a fact that the De Lasalle high school football team of Concord, California went undefeated for seasons after season. They set a modern day sports record of 151 victories in a row. It was generally acknowledged that they didn't always have the best raw talent, but through proper coaching and fostering love and teamwork among all the players, they were able to rise to the task, week after week, year after year.This movie is mostly the story of the coach, Jim Caviezel as Bob Ladouceur. Of his approach to prepare the teenagers for life, to become good and dependable adults. He was asked about "the streak" and his answer was "It was never about the streak." This is a well-made movie with a good message. Yes, it is a bit sappy at times, and the overbearing dad who insisted that his son break the touchdown record was a bit over-emphasized. But on balance it is a good role for Caviezel and you can't argue with the message.