The Heart of the Game

This is a decent sports documentary which covers six intense seasons on a Washington high school girl's basketball team. At the heart of The Heart of the Game, the focus draws towards the Roosevelt Roughrider's passionate, dedicated coach, and his relationship with a troubled and talented point guard. The portraits afforded here do offer uplifting, adversity-conquering glimpses into the soul of true athletes and the support systems set up to help make them thrive, but still usually ends providing more glimpse then revelation. During the six year season coverage, the random ups and downs that occur for this championship-hungry pack of females do become redundant, often substituting genuine sentiment for cold statistics, summed up by rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges boring narration.

Coach Bill Resier remains an inspiration throughout, showing unfettered dedication to his young team, though the focus on young star Darnellia Russell does become questionable in the articulation of this simple film's thesis. It can feel at times that the filmmakers are trying to paint this talented young women in a light that will best serve their movie, despite the contradictory behavior coming from her on-screen. Nevertheless, the ensuing legal battle that saw her coaches and teammates fighting for her to finish senior year on the team drives a uniting morale that finally brings an emotional sting near the satisfying conclusion. Certainly not necessary, especially given the overshadowing Hoop Dreams that will forever dominate this niche, the realistically moving finale somewhat justifies the majority of doc's uninvolved detailing.

I was a volunteer at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this year, so I got to sneak into a few movies for free. I wasn't too excited about Heart of the Game, but once it started . . . I was hooked.

Everybody in the movie is lovable. Every last one of them, from what I saw.

It's a lot funnier than I was expecting. I was thinking this would be a depressing, boring something-or-other, but it wasn't. It was actually a fairly lighthearted look at the team, up until the ending, which I won't ruin.

It's very funny, too. The interviewees cracked me up; they were just so likable.

Bill Resler (the coach) did a Q&A after the film was over, and I've gotta tell you -- he's a great guy. Hilarious. He's got a great screen presence, too.

I know I'm not qualified to comment on this, as I missed roughly forty minutes because I was assigned to another venue right smack-dab in the middle of this movie, but I loved what I saw, and I'll be the first in line to see this when it comes back around in June.

Highly recommended.

For my money, "Miracle" (2004) is the best sports movie ever. That's mainly because it's subject matter was the greatest moment in sports history — the wildly improbable victory of the United States hockey team over the Soviet Union's in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

My main carp about that film was that it didn't adequately portray to the viewer just how staggeringly great the Soviet team was. Picture a baseball team that featured Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Cy Young, Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan, and a dozen other players of comparable magnitude, all at the peak of their powers, and you'll have some idea of what an overwhelming force the Red Army "amateur" team was. The movie doesn't mention it, but they had made it to the medal round by defeating Japan 16-0, Nederland 17-4, and Poland 8-1, in a sport where typical scores are on the order of 3-2.

The movie may not beat you over the head with the amazingness of the Soviet team, but it did do a terrific job of conveying it subtly. As the game entered the last 2 minutes, with the Americans ahead 4-3, the film shows head coach Herb Brooks discussing with his assistant exactly what to do when the Soviet coach, Viktor Tikhonov, pulls his goalie (a common hockey tactic, a gamble, since it leaves the net open, but it gets an additional attacker on the ice). As the seconds tick away, they keep looking at Tikhonov, who appear frozen, just staring at the game. Finally Brooks remarks, in wonder, "He doesn't know what to do!". And at that point it dawns on you: it's because he's never lost before.

I have many more good things to say about "Miracle" (and I don't even like hockey very much), but here in 2006 I'd like to tout the 2nd best sports movie ever: "The Heart of the Game". And, amazingly enuf, it's a documentary! No famous actors, no huge production budget, no award-winning novel on which to base a screenplay, no opportunity to do retakes if things don't go according to script -- just real life, captured as best as they can by director Ward Serrill and his crew with hand-held cameras over a period of 7 years.

The film follows a girls' basketball team, the Roughriders of Seattle Roosevelt High School, and their quirky coach, Bill Resler, University of Washington tax professor by day and motivator of teenage girls by night. The main subplot for the 2nd half of the film is the struggle of star guard Darnellia Russell (no relation) to gain legal eligibility to play for the team after sitting out a year due to pregnancy. Meanwhile, across town, Garfield High School has a new coach, Joyce Walker, herself a former Seattle high-school star who went on to success and fame at the college, Olympic, and pro levels. The Bulldogs are tall and deep, and their star player, who proudly claims she can take Darnellia to the hoop any time she feels like it, happens to be Darnellia's best friend. And Garfield proposes to take no crap from nobody.

There are about 5 seconds' worth of "X"s and "O"s and not quite enuf action footage for my taste (tho what there is is top-quality camera-work). But most of the film is about Resler's interactions with the girls. (And let there be no mistake, they ARE girls, not women.)

I would say more, but let me leave it at this: if there weren't plenty of evidence that this all actually happened, you'd swear it was fiction. A terrific story, very well told.

And now let me say a kind word for Title 9. This was part of Educational Amendments of 1972 (signed into law by President Richard Nixon), and it prohibited sex discrimination in any education program or activity within an institution receiving any type of federal financial assistance. That notably included athletics.

Here are some statistics of interest:

 • In 1997, women received 41% of medical degrees, compared with 9% in 1972.  • In 1997, women earned 44% of law degrees, compared with 7% in 1972.  • In 1997, 41% of all doctoral degrees to U.S. citizens went to women, compared with 25% in 1977.  • Prior to Title 9, there were 32,000 women on intercollegiate teams, today there are 150,000.  • Prior to Title 9, there were 300,000 girls on competitive high-school teams (or 1 in every 27 girls), now there are 2.78 million (1 in every 2.5).

I am a huge fan of girls' high-school and women's college basketball (which goes a long way toward explaining why I'm so fond of this movie). And the fact of the matter is that there isn't a woman playing basketball at any level today who remembers a time when it wasn't considered a perfectly normal and natural opportunity available to the female half of the human race.

But I do.

Thank you, Title 9!

I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. A documentary about high- school basketball that took seven years to make, this film will be compared to Steve James's Hoop Dreams, which is a high compliment indeed. But the films are different.

Serrill began following the girls' basketball team at Seattle's Roosevelt High School when they hired a new coach, tax law professor Bill Resler. Not expected to make much of an impact, Resler proceeded to build a powerhouse in his first year at the job. An eccentric but effective motivator, he chose a different "theme" for his team each year: Pack of Wolves, Pride of Lions, Tropical Storm, and then whipped his players into a frenzy. His motivational skills and his ruthless physical workouts gave the team the confidence and endurance to beat their opponents, even when they were bigger, taller, or more talented.

In his second year at the job, he noticed a young freshman by the name of Darnelia Russell. She stood out for a number of reasons. She had been an outstanding basketball player at her middle school. And she was black. At Roosevelt, in a privileged suburb of Seattle, black students were a minority, unlike at inner-city schools like arch-rival Garfield. In fact, when he tried to recruit her for his team, she rebuffed him at first, admitting to her friends that she wasn't used to being around so many white people. Her presence at Roosevelt was the combined idea of her middle school coach and her mother, who wanted to keep her out of trouble and make sure she got an excellent education.

Her arrival helps Resler build Roosevelt into a city dynasty and a threat at the state championships. But there are ups and downs. And if you wonder why the film took seven years to make, Serrill admitted that he just filmed everything and waited for the story to emerge.

Although the film touches on a few issues of race and class, Serrill says he wanted to make it more about the basketball, and there are generous clips of games, even from major network coverage. Although it give the film much of its energy, I felt myself wishing there were a few more interviews with players, especially Darnelia, who emerges as a central character in the story. We never really get to know her as anything other than a great basketball player.

That being said, it's a documentary about sports, so I'm predisposed to like it. There is real drama and excitement, both on and off the court, and it's also good to see the contribution of people like Bill Resler recognized, a good man who is instilling not just a love of winning, but of playing, and living. As the credits rolled, it was endearing to see that a few of the songs were actually composed and played by Resler, on guitar and vocals, with director Serrill on harmonica.

First time filmmaker Ward Serrill has really created a wonderfully emotional film. The Heart of the Game, truly has heart and it beats hard throughout the movie. Serrill filmed a girl's basketball team for 7 years; he recorded a total of around 200hrs. The movie turned out to be 102 mins.

As the team competes in games you really start to get into it and begin to root for them in your head. You don't know if they're going to win or lose; when they lose you feel disappointed, when they win you feel relieved. This film just grabs you mentally and it feels like you're watching it live. I felt for the players, felt for the struggle of Darnellia Russell, central character. The film was even humorous at times. The coach, Bill Resler, was a unique character and enjoyable to watch. You really get interested in the narrative and really want to see what will be the out come of this team and it's players. I remember being amazed that it was a documentary; it could have been a storyline for a movie. It's an intense emotional film and it holds and keeps you until the credits run up the screen.

There wasn't much negatives to the film, except like in many films, the movie wasn't as exciting until the middle and then the end. Of course, the ending of the movie wouldn't have been that great unless you've seen the beginning exposition. It was an enjoyable film, so don't let the impression that it's a usual motivational sports documentary, drive you away. The film will be released in wider theater screenings in the summer and the DVD maybe late 2006. I recommend it.