Glory Road (2006)

56% of critics liked it
(149 reviews)
82% of users liked it
(321,455 ratings)

A true-life story of a basketball team who broke down barriers while racking up victories is the basis for this sports drama. Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) was a high school and college basketball star who, after six years of working with high school teams, became the head coach at Texas Western… More A true-life story of a basketball team who broke down barriers while racking up victories is the basis for this sports drama. Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) was a high school and college basketball star who, after six years of working with high school teams, became the head coach at Texas Western University in 1962. At that time, Texas Western's basketball program was not well respected, but Haskins was determined to change that, and in 1966 Haskins assembled what he was certain was a winning team. However, Haskins' starting lineup was comprised entirely of African-American athletes at a time when racially integrated teams were still a novelty in the South and West. Despite generating a firestorm of controversy, Haskins and his players showed they could succeed where it counted -- on the court. In post-season play Haskins and the Texas Western team found themselves competing for the NCAA championship against the University of Kentucky's all-white team, lead by legendary coach Adolph Rupp (Jon Voight). Glory Road also stars Derek Luke, Alphonso McAuley, Mehcad Brooks, Al Shearer, Damaine Radcliff, Sam Jones III, and Schin S. Kerr as members of Haskins' winning team. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 57 min.
Directed By: James Gartner
Written By: Christopher Cleveland, Gregory Allen Howard
Genres: Sports & Fitness, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 13, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Jun 6, 2006
Studio: Buena Vista

Critic Reviews

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
First-time director James Gartner observes all the rituals--the coach busting chops, the team sneaking out to party--but the players are indifferently characterized and the civil rights story has a fake Black History Month feel.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
Glory Road is a rousing and worthy tribute to one of the most important college basketball teams and one of the most important championship games of all time.
Matt Singer, Village Voice
The team's accomplishments are here diluted into fodder for another of the producer's feel-good man-weepies.
Mike Clark, USA Today
An appealing Disney sports movie that underplays its potential, Glory Road is at least a more satisfying basketball saga than last year's Coach Carter.
Susan Walker, Toronto Star
Lacking the gritty reality of the 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams, this Jerry Bruckheimer film, directed by newcomer James Gartner, converts a year in the life of a basketball team into a very conventional triumph of the underdogs.
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
Glory Road abandons the clinical and compelling storytelling of the great recent Disney hockey movie Miracle, and aims instead for the contrived sentimentality of the slightly less great Remember the Titans.
Joshua Starnes, ComingSoon.net
Like most sports films Glory Road works best when it is actually showcasing its sport ... off the court, however, it's alternately flat and didactic. Director Gartner goes to great pains to drill the films message in, early and often.
Tony Macklin, Bright Lights Film Journal
Glory Road doesn't have any of the individual moments that humanized Hoosiers, The Rookie, and Miracle. It's a feel-good sports movie by the numbers.
Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media
Inspiring sports flick about an underdog team.
Kam Williams, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
The Harlem Globetrotters meets Stepin' Fetchit.
Kam Williams, DallasBlack.com
Why must Hollywood lace every African-American drama with elements of comedy, as if black people find everything comical?
Jette Kernion, Cinematical
It isn't meant to be a movie that makes us think, or that makes us uneasy in any way. It's meant to make us feel good.
Brian Tallerico, UGO
Trying to make a sports movie for the entire family is understandable, but it makes a complicated story like Glory Road feel more like Disney than reality.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
This is the type of story that's better suited to the documentary format.
Scott Tobias, AV Club
An underdog sports movie by the numbers.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
Like Hoosiers, this Jerry Bruckheimer film is a David and Goliath sports saga that holds just as much suspense and interest no matter how many times you watch it.
Mark Moring, Christianity Today
It's Remember the Titans on the basketball court. Count it right up there with the best of Disney's fine sports flicks.
Michael Clawson, West Valley View
History wins in by-the-numbers sports flick ...
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...it's ultimately rather difficult not to get caught up in this inspirational true-life tale.
Marty Mapes, Movie Habit
Simplistic, but emotionally satisfying

Read all 21 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Eric A

Cliche, yes but a good cliche type of movie. Descent to good acting and a great story make for a good sports film here.
Cassie H

Beyond the excellence of sports movies and Josh Lucas never ceases to amazes me in movies and the lives of the other basketball stories are inspiring as well :)
Brad W

Is it the greatest sports movie ever, no, but was it a good one, yes. A very interesting story and a few plot mistakes from real life from what ive read. The acting and backrounds of the characters were pretty good. I really enjoyed this movie, a true movie for sport movie lovers.
Leigh R

Didn't think I would like it but I really did enjoy it. Doesn't hurt that it had Emily Deschanel in it too. She's awesome.
Eliza N

Just because it is a movie based on real facts ,is worth watching !!!!!!
Lorenzo v

"Winning changes everything." In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship. <center>"Winning changes everything." In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship. <center>REVIEW</center> "Glory Road" tells the true (though as with any such movie, apparently partially fictionalized) story of the Texas Western basketball team's 1966 season as it startled the nation with its march to the national championship. Though it takes place after passage of the Civil Rights Act and during the brotherhood speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., the blatant racism of earlier times lingered more than a little. The film does a good job of providing viewers with a taste of that fact. It is certainly an inspirational story and the cast does as well as can be expected in a movie that necessarily must attempt to explore a number of characters. On the negative side, the game scenes sometimes seemed poorly filmed and some of the dialog - especially the radio and television announcers - was stilted and felt awkward. Still, for those who appreciate a good sports movie, this is worth a look.
Dean M

These black players of Texas Western basketball team are so funny and make amazing skills in the games from beginning to end. I love this true story that gives courage and friendship between black and white players in a team since producer Jerry Bruckheimer's Remember… More
These black players of Texas Western basketball team are so funny and make amazing skills in the games from beginning to end. I love this true story that gives courage and friendship between black and white players in a team since producer Jerry Bruckheimer's Remember the Titans.
Sanjaya &

I've been showed by a pretty good movie. I said this movie was good, the movie not great but interesting to watch. It's a very inspirational story of sports movie that ever made... The cast aren't incredible, but they gave us what they got to do... For me, Josh Lucas… More
I've been showed by a pretty good movie. I said this movie was good, the movie not great but interesting to watch. It's a very inspirational story of sports movie that ever made... The cast aren't incredible, but they gave us what they got to do... For me, Josh Lucas has give one of his best performance. This movie can tell us too how hard Don must build his squad. An interesting movie to watch, better not miss it...
Bradley W

Glory Road is not an incredible or memorable sports film, but its still a pretty good movie. A very interesting story and a few plot mistakes from real life from what ive read. The acting and backrounds of the characters were pretty good. I enjoyed this movie, a true movie for… More
Glory Road is not an incredible or memorable sports film, but its still a pretty good movie. A very interesting story and a few plot mistakes from real life from what ive read. The acting and backrounds of the characters were pretty good. I enjoyed this movie, a true movie for sport movie lovers.
Dillon L

Utterly predicatable, sub par acting, and almost laughable dialogue, 'Glory Road' is basically Remember the Titans with basketball.
Mike N

"The cloud of mind is discharging is collected lightning." [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/neumdaddy/Lightning1.jpg[/img]
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"Glory Road" is based on a true story. In 1965, Don Haskins(Josh Lucas), a successful high school girls' basketball coach, is hired by Texas Western University(now Texas El-Paso) to be their men's head coach. He is hired just to install… More
[font=Century Gothic]"Glory Road" is based on a true story. In 1965, Don Haskins(Josh Lucas), a successful high school girls' basketball coach, is hired by Texas Western University(now Texas El-Paso) to be their men's head coach. He is hired just to install discipline, but Haskins wants to win. Only given a small budget(his ever growing family has to live in the men's dorm), he is severely hampered in his recruiting and cannot recruit any of the most coveted players who are all white. So, going against the racist conventions of the time and place, Haskins starts to recruit black players from some very unlikely places. [/font] [font=Century Gothic]I remember reading an article about the 1965-1966 Texas Western men's basketball team about ten years ago.(The original article, "Glory Denied" by Bryan Woolley originally appeared in the Dallas Morning News. It was reprinted in the Best American Sports Writing 1992 where I came across it.) I was struck by what such a great story it is. Alas, "Glory Road" does not live up to that promise. There are too many sudden mood shifts to mention and it is hardly subtle but it is also a very enjoyable movie about a historic sporting event. The film effectively shows how segregated the South used to be. And it is anchored by a magnetic performance from Josh Lucas.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]By the way, I love that stuffed alligator! [/font]
Joseph E

A Little Overwrought, but otherwise, it has every movie sports-cliche you can think off, and In this film, that is a bad thing.
Yinalí R

Cool movie, very well done.
Andrew F

Been there, done that. It's like every inspirational sports story ever made, and then combined into one movie. There are no surprises, and it is completely predictable. I was disappointed. Josh Lucas is terrific, with what he is given. With a better script, he would have… More
Been there, done that. It's like every inspirational sports story ever made, and then combined into one movie. There are no surprises, and it is completely predictable. I was disappointed. Josh Lucas is terrific, with what he is given. With a better script, he would have been spectacular. BUT... they give him every pep talk cliche ever written. Despite everything, it still is a good movie, but don't get your hopes up.
Erin C

Pretty good. Hard-hitting and motivational story. Lucas is not the greatest actor, but it was good otherwise.
C.R. L

Not being a major sports fan but an avid lover of sports movies, I had never heard of Don Haskins and his underdog team the Texas Western Miners.. Until now. "Glory Road" is the inspiring true story of Don Haskins, a small town coach who accepts an offer from an El… More
Not being a major sports fan but an avid lover of sports movies, I had never heard of Don Haskins and his underdog team the Texas Western Miners.. Until now. "Glory Road" is the inspiring true story of Don Haskins, a small town coach who accepts an offer from an El Paso College to coach a team who hasn't won a championship in 15 years, The Texas Western Miners. But Haskins see the only way his new team has a shot at winning the championship is for him to something, for that time, nobody has done before. Start seven black players on his team a first in NCAA history. With that Haskins searches the country over to fins the right boys for his team and he does find and recruit them, train them. And with that Haskins set's off to make history by changing the face of basketball forever and taking his team all the way to," Glory Road" This film is much like other sports movies and then at some points it is not. The way it is like other films of it's genre is that you know what is going to happen in the end, but you don't know what lead to those events or what started the story. That is the reason sports films still hold strong today and why this one triumphs over it's formula and soars above the rest. "Glory Road" is among the best sports films I've seen in a long time it's story powerful and heart-wrenching and it's out coming uplifting and inspiring. "Glory Road" is a truly magnificent film about one man and his team and how he took them all the way to the top. Josh Lucas gives one of his best performances of his career as the tough coach Don Haskins, Lucas doesn't hold anything back and gives his all to make his performance believable and his role power house. It is him and the fantastic cast of young actors that keeps this film afloat and keep the story going. The cast does fantastic in there assigned parts and they keep this film going when it should fall apart and they take it in their hands and make it something more, much more. This is the type of film that demands your surrender to it's broad story and it's passion for the game. It calls for you to watch how a mismatched team does the impossible. How they redefined a game forever and how they changed the outlook of African-Americans in sports. All in all it's an amazing film about a story that was not truly,completely know until now, "Glory Road" shines.
Brett W

Remember the titans 3
cody f

Glory Hole is a true story that just flat out lies so they can follow that stupid sports movie formula. Its a bunch of guys in the 60's who have modern personalities and modern B-Ball skills. Its Stupid and it's still better than Coach Carter.
Keith M

Nobody dunked like that in 66