Causing strife, anger, and rebellion amongst parents on both sides of the issue, they are all the more enraged when Yoast is replaced by a black coach by the name of Boone (Denzel Washington). Yoast's nine-year-old daughter, and a staunch fan of her daddy, Sheryl, is furious. Gerry Bertier, the captain of the team, and his followers threaten to quench their careers unless he stay on as Boone's assistant, and so reluctantly, Yoast submits to Boone's authority. However, the team is still divided; whites on one bus, blacks on another. And Coach Boone's "boot camp" outlook on life makes football practice hell.  

Yoast resents the harshness of Boone's approach but also learns to respect him as before his very eyes the players begin to fall into place and form a championship-worthy team. But he and Boone must also overcome their own prejudice, one for the loss of his job, the other for taking another, more gentle command. Even Sheryl grudgingly comes around to respect her father's replacement and finds a friend in the shy face of his daughter. But all is not well in this seeming fairy land... controversy has again reared its ugly head and the school board has decreed that if Boone looses one game all season, he's going down. There's more than race or power at stake here... it's a battle of honor.

Not being a football fan in general, I lagged about seeing this one but was quickly drawn into the plot. Yes, it is a football movie but the underlying themes are so much more compelling that I hardly even acknowledged the brutal game being played out on the field. I was screaming and shouting along with the best of them, laughing one minute, reduced to tears the next. I found a deep respect for both coaches and the cast of unknowns that portrayed so well the typical American teenagers. 

There are many Christian elements in the story... compassion, forgiveness, honor, charity, standing up for what's right. One of the players is nicknamed "The Rev" because he's always reading his Bible. Several of the players crone to the tune of hymns, and Coach Yoast portrays well a fine example of a Christian man, while never directly stating it. Only later, while watching the featurette on the DVD, did I discover that he was indeed a man of faith who had turned down a profession in the ministry because in the church, he could only reach the teens there. "On the football field, you can reach an entirely different crop of kids." 

It should also be noted that when the film was handed in to the producer in its original form, it would have churned out an R-rating simply for language. The producer, a Christian gentleman, put the skids on that and said, "Clean up the language and we'll film it." The result is that less than a handful of mild profanities remain, none of which take God's name in vain and all of which are appropriate considering the surroundings. I envisioned much more language and was pleasantly surprised when what poured forth was decent dialogue. I was expecting a leaning in favor of blacks, which irks me to no end. But both sides were portrayed as dealing with prejudice and anger and eventually came around to the truth. There were respectable, Godly white males, which has to be a first for Disney. However good, it is not without its flaws, one in particular. A teammate that arrives late, nicknamed "Sunshine" as a joke, is debatably gay. While he never denies nor affirms it, several casual remarks and a homosexual kiss bank on the affirmative. It is this element, of placing homosexuality right up there with racial issues, that makes me leery about giving it my stamp of approval. 

I was deeply insulted by one scene in which he grabbed Gary by the shoulders and planted a kiss on his mouth. I was also offended that none of the Christian reviews I read prior to my viewing acknowledged this. Whether it was in jest, as many people claim, or true, it makes no difference -- it had no business being there. Without the homosexual character, football violence and thematic elements aside, the film is a good one. It could have been great; I would have recommended it heartily to everyone as a classic example of breaching racial issues. But with that sadly overbearing flaw, I can only give it a halfhearted thumbs-up.