Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Schwendi Whether you are a sucker for feel-good documentaries or cannot get enough of football or sports in general, "Undefeated" will soothe your needs and fulfill your viewing pleasure. The documentary takes place at a small high school called Manassas in the inner city of Memphis, Tennessee. The crew follows the Manassas Tigers during their most promising season in which they aspire to win their first playoff game in school history. The film is structured with an indirect interview technique where the head coach of the program, Bill Courtney, is speaking to the camera without the presence of a question – giving the impression that he is speaking directly to the audience. The film focuses mainly on coach Courtney and three of the players on the team: Montrail Brown, O.C. Brown, and Chavis Daniels. Montrail Brown, often nicknamed "Money", is an offensive lineman for the Manassas Tigers. He is one of the smartest and sincere members of the team and looks to have the brightest potential in terms of his future due to his hard work and determination. "Money" is considered to be very undersized for his position, but is one of the best linemen on the team because of this nonstop hustle. O.C. Brown is another offensive lineman for the Tigers. He is one of their best players due to his large stature and athletic ability. However, because of his failing grades, his hopes of playing at an elite college program are not promised. The film follows his performance on the field as well as off. Chavis Brown is the Outside Linebacker. He is portrayed as the black sheep of the documentary because of his radical behavior. In the beginning of the film, he is involved in two fights and is constantly on and off the team due to his hot temper. However, Chavis changes his state of mind and behavior later on. He becomes one of the most impactful players on the field, and one of the most impactful characters in the movie. "Undefeated" uses a variety of film techniques. It contains various usages of long shots, close-ups, and reaction shots. One particular long shot used was on coach Courtney and O.C. Brown after their final game of the season. They were shown hugging on the field, crying and telling each other how grateful they were for one another. The film uses this long shot to show the compassion that the team has for their coaches and teammates, giving the viewer a sense of soft- heartedness.One of the most significant reaction shots was used on Montrail. In the middle of the documentary, he tears his knee during a game. He has to go through countless rehabilitations and continuous visits to the doctor where the doctor would have to tell him that he will not be able to play because of his condition. Because of this, he goes into a state of depression. However, an anonymous character finds out about him and his determination to get back on the field and decides to pay for his college in full at any University of his choice. The camera films him dropping to the floor with his hands over his face when hearing the news. This is one of the most touching moments in the film and is shot with perfection by the camera. I am a great fan of this film. Not only because of its relevance to football, but also because of its overall plot and message. Whether you enjoy a feel-good documentary, or just simply enjoy anything that involves sports, "Undefeated" is a film that should not be swept under the rug.

Veronica Westfall The documentary, Undefeated, is about a film that reveals and builds up a person's character. Daniel Lindsey and T.J. Martin did an outstanding job directing this inspirational movie. This documentary is about three deprived young student-athletes from a town called Memphis. They all have their differences and struggles with football, school, and families. But after a volunteer coach comes in and helps out the team and these three athletes, things start changing for Manassas High School. Manassas High School in North Memphis was a school that wasn't very successful in football. Other teams would take advantage of this program and basically use them for practice. When Bill Courtney arrived as a volunteered coach, he changed the ability and attitudes of the athletes he had to deal with. Not only did he help this team turn into an athletic team but he also helped build this team into an academic team as well. There are a few athletes that are being focused on in this documentary that have struggles of their own. One athlete named O.C. Brown, was a strong left tackle for Manassas. He was one of the main star players on the team. He has many scholarship opportunities for college, but struggles with keeping his grades up, and scoring high on his tests. Another athlete named Montrail, also known as "Money", was an offensive lineman. He is pushing to get an academic scholarship but struggles because he suffers a knee injury and stops going to school. The last main athlete in this film is a returning player that just got out of Juvy, named Chavis. Chavis learns to overcome a lot of things in high school and his anger management is the main one. He is an explosive and talented linebacker but his temper sets him off at times that are unacceptable to the team and to the coaches. Bill Courtney, the volunteer coach for Manassas High School, was a life changer for these young men and for the rest of the football team. He brought passion, and heart into these boys. He taught them life lessons, and preached that it's not only about being an athlete, but being a student before an athlete. He did not care about the wins or the losses, but he was more concerned about revealing the character out of these young men; one of his main objectives was helping each other grow together as a team and also grow individually. He seen the outcomes he had on the athletes, and it was all love from Courtney and his ability to help these boys grow up and overcome adversity and their struggles. This film gives great detail and goes in depth about the real feelings of the athletes and coach. The camera men get great footage of the external and internal emotions out of the coach and the athletes. With that being said, throughout most of the documentary the camera men are actually holding the camera. It makes the film better, I believe because if it was just a movie being caught on a standing camera, you wouldn't get the same emotional touch from the characters. It's more of a live perspective and makes you feel like it is not even a movie, and it's just something that's happening in the moment. This documentary gives actual features and behind the scenes of an everyday life at Manassas high school and the football program. This gives you a better understanding and helps you grasp the details about the film. The target audience for this documentary would be coaches, players, and anyone involved in an athletic program. This also could be for anyone who wants to watch an inspirational film. Even if you weren't ever involved in football or another athletic program, this movie would show you that kids not only struggle with school, sports, and football but also with outside complications. It shows that one person, which is Bill Courtney in this film, can impact and help build character out of a hopelessness athlete and motivate them to be a better player, teammate, and student. Overall this 10 out of 10-star movie did an astounding job at showing us that this film was an Oscar- winning high school football documentary. From showing the background of where each of the main athletes in the movie came from and what their home-life was like, to parts of the film that keep you emotionally engaged by coach to player. This documentary is one for the books, and I would totally recommend seeing it. You will never get uninterested, and you will always be entertained by something passionate throughout the film. If you're looking for a gratifying sports flick, Undefeated is the way to go.

Matt Bontrager I watch a lot of movies; I mean A LOT of movies. I've been very interested in the art of communicating stories in a meaningful way since the days of "Grave Marauders" back in the 5th grade. I've acted in quite a few plays, attended an acting school in Hollywood, worked at Pixar, etc. So I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on how to discriminate between good and bad films. Also, in addition to growing up without a father, experiencing first-hand the struggles that come as a result, I also had the privilege to serve as a School Resource Officer for a couple of years. That experience gave me the opportunity, in a greater social context, to see the fallout of young men growing up without fathers. Day after day I witnessed young men with incredible potential, sabotage their own lives as they struggled to figure out who they are, what it means to be a man, and do their best to figure out how to become one.In my opinion, young men growing up with absent fathers is one of the most damaging social epidemics of our time, the consequences of which leave devastating and painful scars that negatively impact every single aspect of our culture. To aggravate matters more, the very source of the problem (the absence of strong, positive male leaders) is the very reason why progress toward the solution is so slow. It is very difficult to find men of character who are willing and strong enough to endure the friction and frustration that comes as a result of attempting to mentor these frustrated and lost, yet very bright and talented young men.How inspiring it was to have this film introduce us to a true man and leader like Bill Courtney. I absolutely love that the film did not paint him to be someone he is not; that they showed us his moments of weakness and frustration as well as his moments of victory, strength, and success. Too often, I think that men shrink from opportunities to serve in meaningful ways because we are led to believe that we have to be perfect; that we have to have it all together. The lives of the young men he coached are forever changed in fantastic and positive ways that, had he not stepped up, would otherwise never have happened.The following point is the greatest thing of all to me: Not only have their lives been enriched as a result of Bill Courtney being involved, but the world becomes a better place as well. These young men will go on to have a positive impact on their families and communities and, even if it's only in a small way, the world becomes a better place; all because Bill Courtney cared about those young men. He wasn't perfect; he got mad and frustrated and cursed and fought. But he was present; he was there. He cared for those young men, and they knew it.It just goes to show that, when a strong leader, even an imperfect one, takes the time to help rebuild the broken emotional foundation of a young man, and teaches them how to recognize and appreciate their own value, it empowers that young man to unleash his talents, gifts, skills, abilities, goodness, and potential upon the world… making it a better place.This movie is FANTASTIC and is by far one of my very favorites. It is a MUST SEE.

Steve Pulaski It has become a new thing of amusement for sports fans to research old rants of coaches, particularly football coaches, that they gave in a live press conference while currently in the heat of the moment. Quite possibly the most iconic was the professional and motivating Herm Edwards sending a message to his players saying, "you play to win the game" after Herm's New York Jets lost to the Cleveland Browns in 2002. The rant I thought of during Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin's documentary Undefeated was Jim Mora's "Playoffs?!" remake when asked about the Colts' future after a devastating loss. "I just hope we can win a game!" he stated shortly after.It's that kind of mentality I feel that the Manassas High School football team and their long-suffering coach, Bill Courtney occupied for a long, long time, as the school's team, which existed for 110 years, never won a playoff game and have become the devastating team that you look on the schedule and cite as an easy win if you play them. The school is located in Manassas, Virginia, and is grossly underfunded, along with possessing an athletic program unfit for even a third-rate school. The kids need to get by with what they have, and that's not much. Coming from a prestigious and often highly-regarded public high school, I look on with great sympathy and possess deep gratefulness in what I was born into.Undefeated primarily focuses on Manassas High School football team's 2009 year, where they plan to turn things around for the better (not like they could get any worse). They figure that since they're at rock bottom, they can only go up from there, and Bill Courtney plans to turn the team around, putting heavy emphasis on character and frequently telling them, "character is not how you handle successes, because anyone can bask in the glory of a win, but how you handle failures," and that is a bold and admirable message for an unpaid coach to tell his players. He believes in them, even when their previous record was 0-10. You won't find too many high school coaches who take the game as seriously as Courtney, or are prepared to give them advice they can use off the field or when they hang up their jerseys and helmets to pursue other things.Courtney explains that the school is so underfunded athletically that they considered taking part in "pay games," which involves the team traveling miles across the state to face a team they have no chance in beating and accepting a $3,000 - $4,000 in exchange for brutal humiliation. When your only option to get money is to belittle your self-esteem, you really need help in some way, shape, or form. He even goes on to say that the reputation the football team gets is so putrid, ugly, and dehumanizing that athletes that come to Manassas High from eight grade don't even consider playing for the team. Can you blame them? Yet not only are they out of an extra-curricular activity in their high school career, they're almost completely out of a future career with football.Thankfully, Courtney has a reliable lineup, involving O.C. Brown, a senior whose passion is more suited for the field than the classroom, the quick and dependable Montrail "Money" Brown, and a man by the name of Chavis Daniels, who is the team goon, often causing trouble and possessing a very suspicious anger problem. Courtney accepts the challenge with no regret at all, and often connects personally with many of his players. There's a touching scene in the latter half when O.C. and Courtney are traveling somewhere in a car together when O.C. tells the coach that he is attracted to another girl. As a result, Courtney hands over a small bottle of cologne telling him to use it conservatively and he will get all the ladies he wants. The warm, innocuous, yet comforting feeling of bonding goes right to the viewer's heart in just a wonderful scene.The film chronicles the 2009 season, showing modest beginnings, but a wonderfully unbelievable conclusion with opportunities soaring for the team, players, and school. We also see how the players not only adapt to the new opportunities, but also the inevitable ones, like college approaching their line of vision and high school entering their rear-view mirror. Courtney devastatingly explains that once the football season ends, some kids recognize that they have a 2.0 grade point average, a 14 on their ACT, and no scholarship, resulting in almost nowhere to go. It's a depressing state of affairs, especially for kids who have no other experience other than the kind they obtained on the field.Undefeated is a nicely made documentary that had the honor of beating Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory at the 2012 Oscars for Best Documentary Feature. The film will without a doubt will strike an emotional chord for some audiences, yet despite being a true story, there's something about hearing the perfunctory tale of a coach turning a ragtag bunch of half-wits into a winning team, real or not, that feels sort of artificial. Yet there is a divine humanity in this story that isn't ignored, and the result, in the long run, was a long-overdue one Manassas will cherish for another 110 years. It's light years more efficient than a cliché-ridden tale like Rudy, I suppose.NOTE: Undefeated will see a DVD/Blu-Ray release on February 19, 2013, but is currently on several video on demand outlets and on DirecTV's Pay-Per View feature.Starring: Bill Courtney, O.C. Brown, Montrail "Money" Brown, and Chavis Daniels. Directed by: Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin.