We love a good redemption story. Sports movies have a long history of rags to riches, underdog tales of people doing more with less, winning in the end and riding off into the sunset.
That’s how it went for the Hickory Huskers, the United States hockey team, heck, even the Bad News Bears. We’ve grown conditioned to cheering for those teams on the big screen, watching them tear down just to build back up.
Sports movies in 2020 have a bit more edge. It’s a different world, hardened a bit by real issues and topics that affect every day people. The redemption stories we love are still there at the core, it just takes a different route to get to the finish we so badly crave.
Those real issues are at the forefront of the new film ‘The Way Back.’ The Ben Affleck-led film is a sports movie in that it uses basketball as the vehicle to take us across a bumpy path that is the life of main character Jack Cunningham (played by Affleck). While we do get the action scenes on the hardwood and get to talk some X’s and O’s throughout, this film tackles major issues that filmgoers can most certainly relate.
Cunningham is a former basketball star now struggling with substance abuse issues and depression as an adult. We join the story right before he’s offered a coaching job at his old high school, a team that, of course, isn’t all that good. We’re rooting for them immediately, and hoping that Cunningham can lead them to the promise land despite his own personal demons.
I saw the movie over the weekend at the Greenfield Garden Cinemas, expecting to watch as the team quickly improves under their new coach’s watchful eye and ultimately wins the championship. I’ve seen that movie before. We all like that movie. But this was something different. It’s a world where just when you think things are moving forward, life gets in the way.
Affleck is good in this world. He’s certainly had his own issues tackling substance abuse. You’re rooting for him on screen here, you want that feel-good sports ending despite everything at stake that we unwrap.
‘The Way Back’ is rated R, which frees up this world to become honest with its audience. There’s a healthy dose of profanity, juxtaposing the fact that Affleck is coaching at a Catholic school. His brash lifestyle is always teetering on the edge of those Catholic principles.
The film, which was released on March 6, is in theaters during the perfect month for basketball hype. The NCAA Tournament begins next week, and the high school hoop season just recently wrapped up locally. For sports movie fans, it’s worth your time.