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Glory Road
Buena Vista Pictures


7.8

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 26 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG for racial issues including violence and epithets, and momentary language

Starring Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols, Mehcad Brooks, Alphonso McAuley, Damaine Radcliff, Emily Deschanel, Tatyana Ali, and Jon Voight

Glory Road tells the inspiring story of the underdog Texas Western basketball team, with history's first all African American starting lineup of players, who took the country by storm, surprisingly winning the 1966 NCAA tournament title. Josh Lucas stars as Hall of Famer Don Haskins, the passionately dedicated college basketball coach that changed the history of basketball with his team's victory in this time of innocence. (Disney)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Chris Cleveland Gregory Allen Howard
DIRECTED BY:	James Gartner
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 6, 2006 Theatrical: January 13, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	106 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Variety Brian Lowry

Slick enterprise buoyed by a Motown-flavored '60s soundtrack and an appealing ensemble cast.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

From its sepia-toned palette to the Motown hits that drive its terrific soundtrack, Glory Road is utterly authentic. But most astonishing is an unrecognizable Jon Voight as Adolph Rupp.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Glory Road's strength is the way in which it blends social awareness into the sports genre.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Where it succeeds is as the story of a chapter in history, the story of how one coach at one school arrived at an obvious conclusion and acted on it, and helped open college sports in the South to generations of African Americans.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The movie's great end-title sequence redeems everything. Under the credits, we see and hear the real-life game veterans as they are now--including, movingly, ex-Lakers coach Riley.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Lucas rarely breaks his glower to express anything other than tough determination. It's an attitude that's clearly modeled on that of storied Nicks' coach Pat Riley, who, it so happens, played for Kentucky that now legendary final game.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

In the end, a sports movie is only as good as the adrenalin rush it provides in the climactic match, and there, finally, Glory Road hits on all cylinders with nonstop action and a powerful emotional impact.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

When a movie plays every card, it's bound to win a hand or two. You can't exactly call that approach craftsmanship. But in the case of the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced inspirational sports drama Glory Road, it at least amounts to a kind of blunt effectiveness.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This isn't a great film, but it's a surprisingly good and confident one, with a minimum of the showboating that often substitutes, in the feelgood genre, for simple feelings.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Stirring tale of a team whose big win speeds the integration of intercollegiate sports.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

As American history, Glory Road is by turns inspirational and thrilling. But, in keeping with Hollywood's gift for exaggeration, a couple of things about it are completely bogus.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Heart and verve in surfeit makes the film rise above its flaws often enough to win you over.

USA Today Mike Clark

At least a more satisfying basketball saga than last year's "Coach Carter."

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

As movie fiction, I guess it is entertaining enough.

New York Post Kyle Smith

As Coach Haskins would say, it wins because it sticks to the fundamentals.

Premiere Ethan Alter

While basketball fans might have trouble recognizing the sport as it's played here, the games certainly aren't dull. Unfortunately, most of the off-court sequences are.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Glory Road is satisfying less for its virtuosity than for its sincerity, and also because it will acquaint audiences with a remarkable episode that had ramifications far beyond the basketball court.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Ripped directly from Disney's playbook of inspirational sports movies, it's devoid of any original elements that might deter it from that successful formula, hewing closer to the sentimental cliches of "Remember the Titans" than the much better "Miracle" or "The Rookie."

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Still, it's only just a jump shot or two before Glory Road settles into its rudimentary, music-cued rhythms of classroom civics lessons punctuated by on-court action.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Haskins comes across as too pure. When he plays only his black athletes in the championship finals, his monomania is presented as a good thing. After all, he won, didn't he?

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

A formulaic and fuzzy feel-good movie.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Glory Road treats history as if it were a 7th-grade social-studies text laid out in a 16-point font, getting the basics right without trying to evoke any of the details that would make it memorable. In other words, it gets the Bruckheimer treatment.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Glory Road really isn't a bad show – it's just an obvious one – and one wishes material of this historical import had received a more refined rendering.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Josh Lucas plays Haskins with a no-bull vigor that comes in handy when the script saddles him with all-bull platitudes.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Glory Road keeps its focus frustratingly narrow. There's a nugget of an interesting idea here...But first-time director James Gartner's movie is less a study of race than it is a fast break of underdog clichés and "inspirational" speeches.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The end result is more a lecture than a film; audiences may come away understanding what went on, but for most, the emotional connection will be lacking.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This is a movie you could watch in your sleep.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

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.

Village Voice Matt Singer

As Coach Haskins would have put it, "It's activity without accomplishment."

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

If you can get past a few swear words, the film's simplicity makes Glory Road a good starting point to get young kids to talk about racism.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

If the facts of the story are essentially true, their presentation is as formulaic as ever.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The air of deja vu is thick as molasses in Glory Road, a lively but overly slick and grindingly predictable sports drama.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

First-time director James Gartner has managed to whittle away whatever was compelling about the 1966 Miners championship run.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jonathan M. gave it a1:
not only was it badly acted and badly directed, the ending lesson of demanding that white players sit only because of they are white screams the racism that the movie poorly and generically tried to overcome.

Scott B. gave it a6:
Sports films usually fall into a web of cliches, and this one at least minimizes some of the bigger traps... [***SPOILERS***] the shot literally as the buzzer is sounding, the "for effect" slo-mo replay, the troubled athlete who comes to terms with his inner demons (oh, it has this one). As a whole it stays pretty close to history and doesn't jump at the chance to build on Adolph Rupp's reputation as a closet racist by portraying him as a man bent on simply, winning. Don Haskins come off as a saint for sitting all his white players (according to the film it wasn't because they weren't as good, "yeah, riiiiight...") in the finals and being the savior for a group of "undisciplined" athletic players. The Dixie flags at the final game was overboard and didn't blog as it has no basis in history. Otherwise a watchable film.

Chad S. gave it a5:
"Glory Road" could've appeased college basketball purists with a simple long-take to acknowledge that the game was shot-clockless until the '86 season. More than the monster dunks, the fact that Texas [El-Paso] would put up a quick shot rather than go into a stall-mode after a late Kentucky basket is what truly ruins this period piece. Even more egregious is the Miners' game against Kansas, in which a crucial call from the referee is made much later than it would in a real game. You're supposed to make allowances in reality for dramatic purposes but "Glory Road" doesn't seem to get anything right about how college basketball looked in the sixties. As for the action off the court, "Glory Road" doesn't really fare much better. When somebody sings in front of a mirror, you should already be clued as to what level the screenplay will be operating at. Nobody breaks into song during "Friday Night Lights", but somebody does in "Remember the Titans".

illini nation gave it a10:
People complaining of over the top basketball skills need to stop complaining. Going into this movie you have to realize that it's going to be a little souped up because it needs to be. No one wants to sit and watch 2 hours of 1960's basketball, that would be boring. That being said it was an excellent movie that was intended to make you feel good. It wasn't meant to be Citizen Kane. If you come out feeling better about college basketball, it did its job.

Ellen Z. gave it an8:
What an amazing accomplishment. I went to school with Bobby Joe Hill (the leading scorer on that championship team). And by the way, he was not from Detroit, he was from Highland Park, and went to Highland Park High School. I know, I was there. He was an amazing basketball player, and was the whole reason we went to our high school basketball games. He was a quiet young man, not impressed with himself or his talent as a player. But to us he was the greatest, like watching poetry in motion. I'm only sorry he didn't live to see this film made. Kudos to all those young black men, who made sports history. By the way, I'm white. God bless you Bobby Joe. You were the best, and I for one will never forget you.

Beau L. gave it a10:
I liked the way this movie portrayed college basketball in a good way and how it touched the heartsof many.

Sky Child gave it a10:
Amazingly good movie. Fabulous history lesson about how whites treated blacks. Unbelieveable movie with great actors. Some weird parts, but otherwise an absolute terrific movie.

Glory Road Buena Vista Pictures

Glory Road
Buena Vista Pictures