The deserving winner of this year's Oscar for Best Documentary is one of the best sports docs I've seen in a very long time, UNDEFEATED, which tells the story of a high school football team in North Memphis that has never won a playoff game since the school was founded in 1899. The film focus on three students in particular whose upbringing would seem likely to have them dropping out of school early and getting involved with criminal types before they hit 20. But thanks to Bill Courtney, a businessman and former coach who steps back into the fray to help out in 2004, the team turns itself around almost without realizing it and begin to win... a lot, as the title might indicate.
The true centerpiece of the film is the 2009 season, which was the senior year for many of the key players who Courtney nurtured and made champions in games that brought out scouts and those looking to give out scholarships. Now I've seen my fair share of sports documentaries over the years, but what makes UNDEFEATED so unique is that is truly lays out the process of this team improving during practice and games. It's slow and painful for the players (and sometimes the audience), but by the time we get to the last few championship games, we are so fully invested after so much time and effort that you can't help but pour everything you have out to these young men.
The real-world pressures of family, school work, grades, and so much else came crashing in at unexpected and inconvenient times, but Courtney gives his players the emotional support they need to make tough decisions and wise choices. UNDEFEATED is not only about football; it's about survival and perseverance and occasionally failure. Directors Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin have gotten so close to their subjects that even the most personal and terrible moments are open to their cameras, and the film is all the better for it. Some of the more difficult moments involve the coach's own children, who alternate between being beyond-proud of their dad and feeling like he cares more about his players than them. And it's tough to argue with them when we see the lengths Courtney goes to to make sure his players stay in school with good grades (he even finds one a place to live).
And while the film is set against the backdrop of football, there isn't nearly as much game footage as you might think (at least not until the end of the movie). At its core, UNDEFEATED is about the people and not the game that binds them. Finding the human element in any story is what every film should aspire to do, yet so few accomplish that. For that reason and many more, this is a truly wonderful movie that you should all seek out and watch.
