Coach Carter
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| Coach Carter | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for Coach Carter |
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| Directed by | Thomas Carter |
| Produced by | David Gale Brian Robbins Michael Tollin |
| Written by | Mark Schwahn John Gatins |
| Starring | Samuel L. Jackson Robert Ri'chard Rob Brown Debbi Morgan Ashanti Rick Gonzalez Antwon Tanner Nana Gbewonyo Channing Tatum |
| Music by | Kenneth Burgomaster DMX Paul Linford Trevor Rabin |
| Cinematography | Sharone Meir |
| Editing by | Peter Berger |
| Distributed by | Paramount |
| Release date(s) | January 14, 2005 |
| Running time | 136 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $ 30 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Coach Carter is a 2005 film from Paramount Pictures, directed by Thomas Carter. It is based on a true story, in which Richmond High School (Richmond, California, USA) head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results.
The screenplay was co-written by Mark Schwahn, who created the hit TV series One Tree Hill. The movie also recycles a handful of plotlines from another hit TV series, The White Shadow, which director Thomas Carter co-starred in.
Tagline: It begins on the streets. It ends here.
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[edit] Plot
At the start of the movie, a basketball team plays against St. Francis only to end up with the teams fighting with each other. After the game, Kenneth Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) is officially offered a part-time, low-paying ($1,500 for the whole basketball season) job coaching the basketball team at his old high school, an inner-city public school in Richmond, California for which he had previously played and set as of yet unbroken records. Although he finds out the players are unruly and disrespectful, he accepts and starts to gain their respect.
Coach Carter sets strict new rules for the team in the form of contracts — they must maintain a 2.3 grade point average (not just the 2.0 GPA set by the CHSAA), they must attend classes and sit in the front row, and they must wear jackets and ties on game days. One of the boys, Timo Cruz (Rick Gonzalez), walks out of practice on the first day after an altercation with Carter. We later see Cruz hanging with his older, drug-dealing cousin. Two other team members walk out on the team, who were coincidently last season's scoring leaders but Carter's son, Damien, a good student who attends the private school St. Francis and plays basketball there, quits the private school (against his dad's wishes) and transfers to Richmond High School to play basketball on his dad's team. His father only agreed after Damien signed a contract stating that he will maintain a GPA of 3.7.
During those winnings, the movie shows the personal side of some players like Kenyon (Rob Brown), who has a pregnant girlfriend, Kyra (Ashanti) who has given up on her plans for college in favor of having the baby, even though she sees first-hand how that has gone for her cousin. Kenyon gets confused and can't decide whether to continue with his academic life and play basketball in college or take care of the baby. Meanwhile, Cruz goes back and forth between dealing drugs and playing on the team, even though he has to fight his way back on the team. Carter challenges him with an impossible task of 1000 suicides and 2500 pushups in one week, and when he comes very close but not quite up to that number, the other boys impress Carter by offering to do the rest of the suicides and pushups for Cruz so Carter lets Cruz back on the team. Together, Carter and the team, after a heavy course of working out win their first match only to be followed by multiple consecutive wins while in the previous season the team had lost 22 games and only had 4 wins. Carter is also found on several occasions through out the movie asking Cruz what is his deepest fear.
Even though the boys are winning games, Carter eventually realizes that they are developing a bad attitude about it by being arrogant and taunting the other teams, and that many of them are not living up to his academic requirements. Carter solved the former problem by making fun of them in practice and eventually putting a rule that they shouldn't do that again. Later, the team is invited to play against another team in a friendly match gaining them yet another win and an invite to a rich girl's house for a party with her friends. They sneaked out only to be discovered missing when Carter went looking for his son. A taxi driver offers to tell Carter about the team's place and soon Carter was ringing the bell only to come face to face with the owners when they came parking. Carter goes into the house to find his son in the pool with two girls and kissing one of them. Other members are also soon found including one player who was upstairs with the daughter of the owners. As a result, Carter is of course furious at the team.
After receiving the poor grades reports of the team, Carter cracks down on them and locks them out of the gym in the midst of the still undefeated season so far. He cancels basketball practice, forfeits some games including the most important one in the season, and makes the team spend practice time in the library, being tutored by some of their teachers. Although a few of the players are fulfilling the contract (including one who protests that he has a 3.3 GPA), Carter insists that all the players must accept the consequences for their collective actions as a team. All this going on leads to Cruz quitting the team a second time, and goes back to working for his drug-dealing cousin.
One night, his cousin is shot on the sidewalk while Cruz is walking back to him after greeting his friends from the team, but it was too late. Fortunately, Cruz ends up at Carter's house that night; Carter brings Cruz into his house, lets him back on the team, and saves him from a future like his cousin's.
Eventually, the school board and the parents fight back. The board eventually votes 4–2 to end the lockout, the dissenting votes being the school's principal and the chairwoman of the board. Carter is on the verge of quitting over this, but when he arrives at the gym to pack up his things, he finds the boys sitting at school desks in the gym, with their teachers tutoring them there. The players point out that even though the gym is reopened, the school board can't force them to play. Cruz is finally able to answer Carter's question, "What is your deepest fear?", by quoting Marianne Williamson:
"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Carter is heartened and stays.
After fighting with his girlfriend, Kenyon then gets a full scholarship to Sacramento State University and goes to his girlfriend, telling her that the college wants to help them, as married students with a baby only to discover that she chose to abort the pregnancy. Regardless of that, they do get back together.
The team makes it into the state high-school championship playoffs. The big climactic game takes place at the state tournament's first round against the #1 ranked team in the state, St. Francis (starring a superstar NBA prospect). The score, with four seconds to go, is 68–67 Richmond. In the last possible second, St. Francis scores one last basket, taking the score to 70–68 St. Francis . The team is understandably disappointed by the loss, but Carter gives them an inspirational talk about all they've accomplished, and tells them that this loss doesn't take that away.
Over the closing song, it is told that six of the players went on to college (this was a school at which only about 50% of students graduated, and only 6% of those who graduate usually went to college). Junior Battle went to San Jose State University on a full scholarship. Jason Lyle went to San Diego State University and got a degree in Business Administration. Timo Cruz attended Humboldt State University where he became a starting guard. Worm (whose real name is Jaron Willis) received a scholarship to San Francisco State University where he played point guard for 4 years. Kenyon Stone attended Sacramento State University and received a degree in Communications. Damien Carter went on to break the Richmond High School scoring and assist records previously held by his father. Upon graduation, he attends the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
[edit] Critical Reception
The reviews for the film were mixed, and as of 1 June 2008 it has a 63% fresh meter at rottentomatoes.com. Critics gave Jackson considerable praise for what they believed to be his strongest performance.
[edit] Box Office
The movie debuted at #1 on the U.S. Box Office and has grossed over $67 million to date. However, the movie was not as big of a hit worldwide, managing to bring in only $9 million overseas, for a total of $76 million.
[edit] Soundtrack
The film features the song "Hope" by Twista and Faith Evans as the main song off the film's soundtrack. An extensive list of songs is featured on the soundtrack which differs from the soundtrack recording. The recording has five songs which were not featured in the film : About da game by Trey Songz; Balla by Mack 10 featuring Da Hood; Beauty queen by CzarNok; What Love Can Do by Letoya; and Wouldn't You Like to Ride, Kanye West; Malik Usef, Common.
[edit] Awards/Nominations
- Black Movie Awards
- Outstanding Achievement in Directing: Thomas Carter (Winner)
- Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture: Samuel L. Jackson (Nominated)
- Outstanding Motion Picture: David Gale, Brian Robbins & Michael Tollin (Nominated)
- Black Reel Awards
- Best Director: Thomas Carter (Winner)
- Best Actor: Samuel L. Jackson (Nominated)
- Best Breakthrough Performance: Ashanti (Nominated)
- Image Awards
- Outstanding Motion Picture: (Nominated)
- Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture: Samuel L. Jackson (Winner)
- Outstanding Director for a Motion Picture: Thomas Carter (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Ashanti (Nominated)
- MTV Movie Awards
- Best Female Breakthrough Performance: Ashanti (Nominated)
[edit] Trivia & Historical Inaccuracies
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- "Our greatest fear" by Marianne Williamson is referenced throughout the film by Coach Carter, and a wayward youth (Timo Cruz) recites an edited version of the poem to prove his reformation. Leaving out the sentences "Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God." "We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."
- There is an anachronism in the movie: fictional St. Francis star player Ty Crane is referred to as “the next LeBron James” by a media reporter, although James was a barely known freshman at St. Vincent - St. Mary High School in 1999.
- The school that actually beat the Oilers was not St. Francis, but Monte Vista High School.
- The movie states that Coach Carter attended George Mason University. In actuality, Carter attended George Fox University.
- The scene when Coach Carter enters the gym with a box full of his belongings, one of the students is wearing a Sacramento Kings jersey. However, that particular design was issued during the 2001-2002 NBA season, not in 1999.
- Throughout the movie, the team wears basketball shoes that were not around until 2001.
- One of the Oilers' opponents, Hercules High School, did not exist in 1999.
- After winning the Bayhill Tournament, the trophy given to the team has a '04 plate. However, the actual team in the film was around in 1999.
- During the dance scene, Get Low by Lil Jon and The Eastside Boyz is playing. The song wasn't released until 2003.
- During the high school dance one person was wearing a Ron Artest jersey for the Indiana Pacers. In 1999, Ron Artest was not playing for the Pacers. Artest was playing for the Chicago Bulls.
[edit] TV Series
A TV pilot is being developed for the 2009-10 season. Robert Ri'chard is set to return as Damien Carter. Ving Rhames has been cast as Coach Carter. Chris Brown and Tahj Mowry have been cast in unknown roles. Ashanti has expressed interest in returning for a guest spot.
The show may be moved forward to mid-season as CBS is interested in picking it up as competition with Friday Night Lights from NBC.
[edit] Cast
- Samuel L. Jackson — Coach Ken Ray Carter
- Rob Brown — Kenyon Stone
- Robert Ri'chard — Damien Carter
- Rick Gonzalez — Timo Cruz
- Nana Gbewonyo — Junior Battle
- Antwon Tanner — Jaron 'Worm' Willis
- Channing Tatum — Jason Lyle
- Ashanti — Kyra
- Texas Battle — Maddux
- Denise Dowse — Principal Garrison
- Debbi Morgan — Tonya Carter
- Mel Winkler — Coach White
- Vincent Laresca — Renny
- Sidney Faison — Ty Crane
- Octavia Spencer — Willa Battle
- Adrienne Bailon — Dominique
- Dana Davis — Peyton
- Bob Costas - Himself
[edit] External links
- Official movie site
- Official Coach Carter Soundtrack
- Coach Carter on Rotten Tomatoes
- Coach Carter at the Internet Movie Database
- Coach Carter (non-film)
| Preceded by Meet the Fockers |
Box office number-one films of 2005 (USA) January 16, 2005 |
Succeeded by Are We There Yet? |
