Coach Bill Courtney and O.C. Brown in Dan Lindsay’s and TJ Martin’s film UNDEFEATED. Photo by Dan Lindsay/TJ Martin/ The Weinstein Company

The title of Undefeated is not a spoiler, at least in terms of football. Film makers Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin documented a single season of the Manassas Tigers high school football team, and the team loses their very first game. But the title is finally appropriate, for reasons that have something to do with football and everything to do with growing up. It may be impossible to discuss the movie, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary last weekend, without resorting to the kind of clichés that the Academy loves, and that the film revels in. But there can be power and comfort in cliché, and let’s get this one out of the way: it’s not about winning or losing, but how you play the game.

Coach Bill Courtney took over the sports program at a North Memphis high school that had never known success on the gridiron. Manassas High suffered through winless season after winless season. The underfunded program was largely supported by bigger and better equipped teams who would pay Manassas a few thousand bucks to be bussed to another part of the state just to lose badly. These games made up most of a season, and to be regularly clobbered on the road was demoralizing. Courtney stepped in to devote himself to the program and to the kids. He instilled discipline in his players and showed them enough respect to not place them in the role of Tennessee patsies week after week. It took several years for this approach to result in a winning season, but (cliché alert #2) there are more important things than winning.

Team Photo of The Manassas Tigers on the verge of victory in Dan Lindsay’s and TJ Martin’s film UNDEFEATED. Photo by: Dan Lindsay/TJ Martin/ The Weinstein Company

The film opens as the coach talks to his players and runs down the list of setbacks that had recently befallen the team: two players shot, another arrested. And that was just in the past two weeks. a former player comes to speak to the varsity squad. He asks how many of them has a relative who has done time. Every hand goes up.

Courtney’s own back-story of childhood neglect helps make him the leader he is. When Courtney was four years old, his father left him and his mother to fend for themselves. In one interview the coach remembers coming off the field at football games when he was a kid and watching his teammates walk off the field with their fathers in tow, carrying their son’s gear. Courtney has four kids of his own but his players are also like his sons. He may be the first male figure in their lives who believes in their worth, and who doesn’t give up on them even when they’re difficult — and they can be difficult.

The film focuses on three players. Montrail, (aka Money) is too small to play college football but does well in class and on the field. O.C. is big and fast and will be courted by a college program — if he can keep his grades up. Charvis has anger issues and has just returned to school after a 15-month stint in juvenile detention. Undefeated follows their ups and downs on the field and as young men.

Undefeated breaks no new ground, and will be familiar territory to fans of Friday Night Lights and The Blind Side. Courtney cautions that football doesn’t build character: it reveals it. If Undefeated inspires you, it will not be because of what happens on the field, but because of the character of these young men and their coach.

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Undefeated

Directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin.
Running Time: 113 minutes.
Rated PG-13 for some language.
Opens today at Bethesda Row