Coach Carter (2005)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Thomas Carter

Writers (WGA):

Mark Schwahn (written by) and
John Gatins (written by)

Release Date:

14 January 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Tagline:

It begins on the street. It ends here.

Plot:

Controversy surrounds high school basketball coach Ken Carter after he benches his entire team for their breaking their academic contract with him.

Plot Keywords:

Coach | Basketball | High School | Contract | High School Basketball

Awards:

3 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Samuel L. Jackson	...	Coach Ken Carter
Rob Brown	...	Kenyon Stone
Robert Ri'chard	...	Damien Carter
Rick Gonzalez	...	Timo Cruz
Nana Gbewonyo	...	Junior Battle
Antwon Tanner	...	Worm
Channing Tatum	...	Jason Lyle
Ashanti	...	Kyra
Texas Battle	...	Maddux
Denise Dowse	...	Principal Garrison
Debbi Morgan	...	Tonya
Mel Winkler	...	Coach White
Vincent Laresca	...	Renny
Sidney Faison	...	Ty Crane
Octavia Spencer	...	Mrs. Battle

Also Known As:

All Day Long (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language, teen partying and some drug material.

Runtime:

136 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #40973) | Iceland:12 | Norway:11 | Brazil:14 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | Germany:6 | Ireland:12A | Netherlands:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | New Zealand:M | UK:12 (video rating) (2005) | UK:12A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Coach Carter

Trivia:

The speech given by Timo Cruz in response to the question "What is your deepest fear?" is an excerpt from "A Return to Love" (1992) by Marianne Williamson. (Commonly misattributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 Inaugural Address.)

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the state game, Carter tells Cruz to go in for Kenyon. But, when the game starts, both Kenyon and Cruz are playing in the game.

Quotes:

Coach Ken Carter: You shooting the ball, what's your name?
Jason Lyle: Jason Lyle, but I ain't no sir.
Coach Ken Carter: Oh, well are you a madam?
[team laughs]

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Comebacks (2007)

Soundtrack:

Why I Love You

Not your average basketball movie

While basketball is used as the backdrop for the movie, Coach Carter really isn't about basketball. The real heart of the movie is in the way Coach Carter begins to turn the lives around of the players on his basketball team by showing them that someone actually cares about what happens to them after high school.

At one point in the movie Carter (played perfectly by Samuel L. Jackson) asks a player why he plays basketball and he responds with "to win the state title" - which of course gets him high fives from the rest of the team. Carter then asks the team who won the state title last year and nobody knows the answer. Carter tries to show his players that high school basketball is not about winning but about discipline, respect and the confidence to accomplish any goal.

If you are thinking about going to see Coach Carter as a basketball movie, I suggest seeing another movie, but if you want to see a truly inspiring story go see Coach Carter.