I am not going to lie to you, most of the time when I hear the word 'documentary' associated with a movie, I lose quite a bit of interest. From what I have heard that is not an unpopular opinion about documentaries. The knock on these type of films is usually that they are too boring, too education based, and most of all they lack the Hollywood acting, suspense, and plot line of your typical interesting movie. Does that sound about like your thoughts when thinking about the word 'documentary'? Well let me tell you that this movie, Undefeated, will blow you away if you are expecting a prototypical documentary film that lacks all of the aforementioned qualities. The filmmakers of this documentary absolutely hit it out of the park with this one! Undefeated is a triumphant tale about a mediocre (at best) high school football team that is simply unbelievable that it was all caught on camera to say the least. This high school football team, the Manassas Tigers out of Memphis Tennessee, is an inner city school in which the funding, especially for the football team, is very poor. The conditions in which these kids were going to school and playing football in were so poor, it was difficult to get good football players to come there for years, hence making the Manassas Tigers the butt of all football jokes in not only Memphis, but all of West Tennessee and the surrounding areas. In all honesty, it is pretty easy to make jokes about a football team that hadn't won a football game in 10+ years before the arrival of volunteer coach and star of the film, Bill Courtney. In coach Courtney's first season at Manassas he recorded four victories and began to turn some heads. A good thing for Coach Courtney about that minimal success in his first season, was some of those heads that were turning were some very talented eighth graders that took notice of the programs progress and were lured by Coach Courtney to come to Manassas to build a winning team there. One of those eighth graders was an eventual All American offensive lineman by the name of O.C. Brown. This film takes place during Brown's senior year at Manassas, and Bill Courtney's sixth season leading the Tigers as a volunteer head football coach. The filmmakers do a terrific job of capturing as much of this highly anticipated season as possible, and take you on a roller coaster ride of different emotions, from extreme disappointment to moments of great triumph. The best part of a documentary doing this, is the fact that you are able to not only experience this watching it, but your emotions live vicariously through the different football players and other people featured in the film. This is a key aspect that absolutely blew me away, and after you watch this movie you will understand more of what I am talking about when I tell you that the filmmakers hit absolute gold in luckily capturing a magical season for the Tigers. You will notice as you watch the film that you will hear from many people and accounts throughout the movie, but the film captures this season focusing on four main people. Two of the people it follows have already been mentioned, head coach Bill Courtney, and All American lineman O.C. Brown. Brown is a very talented football player that over the course of the season will struggle with the balance between football, and being able to keep his grades up in the classroom to possibly be able to go to college and further his football career. The third person featured in this film is Montrail Brown, or better known as "Money". (No relation to O.C.) Money is an extremely smart kid and although he may be undersized, works harder than anyone on the football field to be good. Money will not only be physically challenged, but also goes through a tough spiritual and mental challenge during this film. The fourth and final person with a key role in the film is a junior standout linebacker, Chavis Daniels. Chavis has storied and well documented anger issues, headlined in the beginning of the film in telling the viewers that he just got finished serving fifteen months in a youth penitentiary. The film will highlight and follow his anger issues throughout. Overall, this film teaches some of the same lessons and values that Coach Courtney instills in the young men on his team. I pulled two quotes from Coach Courtney in the film that I think portray his mission very well. At the beginning of the film he lays it all out there saying "The foundation has got to be a solid platform that you can stand on and speak to these kids and say, this is the way you build yourself, if you build yourself this way and handle yourself this way and have character, you get to play football. And winning will take care of itself because, young men of character and discipline and commitment end up winning in life and they end up winning in football. Well when you flip it, and the foundation of what you're doing is football, and then you hope all that other stuff follows. Well then you think football builds character. Which it does not. Football reveals character". The second quote is one he gives early on to his players, and is repeated in the film. "The character of a man is not measured in how he handles his wins, but what he does with his failures". This is the best documentary I have ever watched, I recommend you do yourself a favor and give it a try. You'll love every second of it!
Review of Undefeated
