When the Game Stands Tall is your stereotypical sports movie that involves a bunch of tragedies, but ends with the De La Salle football team coming out on top. It is a little reminiscent of Friday Night Lights in more ways than one. The cool thing about When the Game Stands Tall is that it is based on a true story, but if you do a little research, it follows the actual story very loosely. If you like sentimental sports movies that are romanticized for the audience's pleasure, this is the movie for you.
When the Game Stands Tall follows nearly the exact same plot as Friday Night Lights. Both movies have a main character that has an abusive, has-been, father that wants to live through his son. In When the Game Stands Tall, one character you follow is Chris Ryan and his over- controlling father who keeps bugging him to get the state record for touchdowns, which is the exact same character line as a player from the movie Friday Night Lights. Another striking similarity in both movies is that both movies have a key player that gets hurt, but sadly in When the Game Stands Tall, the player will never be able to return. In both movies, you follow a team that is supposed to be nearly untouchable, but somehow lose their first two games of the season and will have to rally in order to make the post-season. The movie isn't very original in the fact that it follows about the same storyline as almost every other sports movie out there. You're going to follow a team that will be struck by tragedy after tragedy until finally the team will get on a miraculous win streak and accomplish the goal that seemed nearly impossible through brotherhood and believing in each other. It also has your classic "hero" who is hurt when the team needs him most, but they won't leave the game and the character is going to push through the pain for his team. It's got your fairytale ending to a typical sports movie.
When the Game Stands Tall also doesn't follow the true story all that well. The movie uses bits and pieces of its schools history. For example, in the movie De La Salle plays Cal Poly and wins, but that game had occurred years prior to the setting of the movie. The football team also didn't lose two games in real life; they only lost one and still have a 250 game win streak still going on in California. Also, Chris Ryan, the star running back for De La Salle is a completely fictional character loosely based on Maurice Jones-Drew. The beauty of the director's fictional additions is that they are nearly impossible to detect without doing your own outside research on the topic of the movie. So this movie follows the real-life story slightly, but there are many fictional parts to it to keep the audience engaged yet they will never be able to notice them without prior knowledge of the story.
All in all, this movie won't have you on your toes or guessing what will happen next; its highly predictable and nothing new. I honestly thought it was a good movie, but once I did my own outside research, I was a little disappointed. There are tons of aspects of this movie that I love, but the fact that the director had to change nearly everything about the story really ruins it for me. But, in the movies defense it is a neat story and a great accomplishment for the De La Salle football team, and that might just keep you intrigue.
When the Game Stands Tall follows nearly the exact same plot as Friday Night Lights. Both movies have a main character that has an abusive, has-been, father that wants to live through his son. In When the Game Stands Tall, one character you follow is Chris Ryan and his over- controlling father who keeps bugging him to get the state record for touchdowns, which is the exact same character line as a player from the movie Friday Night Lights. Another striking similarity in both movies is that both movies have a key player that gets hurt, but sadly in When the Game Stands Tall, the player will never be able to return. In both movies, you follow a team that is supposed to be nearly untouchable, but somehow lose their first two games of the season and will have to rally in order to make the post-season. The movie isn't very original in the fact that it follows about the same storyline as almost every other sports movie out there. You're going to follow a team that will be struck by tragedy after tragedy until finally the team will get on a miraculous win streak and accomplish the goal that seemed nearly impossible through brotherhood and believing in each other. It also has your classic "hero" who is hurt when the team needs him most, but they won't leave the game and the character is going to push through the pain for his team. It's got your fairytale ending to a typical sports movie.
When the Game Stands Tall also doesn't follow the true story all that well. The movie uses bits and pieces of its schools history. For example, in the movie De La Salle plays Cal Poly and wins, but that game had occurred years prior to the setting of the movie. The football team also didn't lose two games in real life; they only lost one and still have a 250 game win streak still going on in California. Also, Chris Ryan, the star running back for De La Salle is a completely fictional character loosely based on Maurice Jones-Drew. The beauty of the director's fictional additions is that they are nearly impossible to detect without doing your own outside research on the topic of the movie. So this movie follows the real-life story slightly, but there are many fictional parts to it to keep the audience engaged yet they will never be able to notice them without prior knowledge of the story.
All in all, this movie won't have you on your toes or guessing what will happen next; its highly predictable and nothing new. I honestly thought it was a good movie, but once I did my own outside research, I was a little disappointed. There are tons of aspects of this movie that I love, but the fact that the director had to change nearly everything about the story really ruins it for me. But, in the movies defense it is a neat story and a great accomplishment for the De La Salle football team, and that might just keep you intrigue.