Drama
1951 / 77 minutes
Rating: 7/10
This won’t appeal to most of Reformed Perspective‘s readers. But for the right audience, this will be an absolute gem.
This stars the actual 1951 Harlem Globetrotters’ team, and they do a very good job of playing themselves. Billy Townsend is a college hotshot who is looking for a payday playing for the best team in basketball. So he quits his college team and drops his classes before convincing the Trotters’ GM to sign him up. He’s good – really good – but is he Globetrotter material? Billy turns out to be too selfish to fit in, and gets himself kicked off the team. But, of course, that’s not how the story is going to end; redemption is right around the corner.
What makes this a gem is the historic interest. This was filmed back before Globetrotter games were staged, and when they were legitimately one of the best teams in all of basketball. And for an all-black team to be this good at this time was important. It was a big and bold statement to the racists and anyone who’d listen that the only way you could say the black man was inferior was by closing your eyes. Of course, basketball dominance isn’t nearly as good as the biblical case for equality – that we are all the same race, Adam’s, and all made in the very Image of God (Gen. 1:27). But three years earlier, when the 1948 Trotters team beat the all-white Lakers’ team (two years before professional basketball was desegregated), it was a statement that even folks who never sat in a pew could readily understand.
So that’s the historical background for this film, and it makes this quite the education.
Cautions
The hero of our story, Billy Townsend, is self-absorbed, and when his Globetrotter teammates have had enough of it, they kick him off the team. That’s fine and good. He’s also self-absorbed in his marriage, making decisions without his wife’s involvement, but that comes around too, when she makes a decision for their family at the film’s end. It’s not revenge – more comeuppance, and lovingly, rather than selfishly, done.
Gambling is a plot element, and portrayed in only a slightly negative fashion. Some high-money rollers are shown as slightly sleazy as they try to get inside information on players’ health, but when a college student speaks of making a bet, that’s portrayed in either a neutral or maybe even approving manner, as it’s no big deal. But it’s not pushed. Overall, I don’t think there’s anything that would keep this from being an all-ages film… as long as your kids are interested.
Conclusion
This will be a delight for any fan of the Globetrotters and their 100-year-old history. The team is amazing today, but was even more so back in this day, still clowning, but doing it then in real games against real competition. It includes some real game footage, and whether you’re into history or basketball, it’s fun to see how the game used to be played.
The Globetrotters have been in a lot of films and TV specials, including The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island, and Scooby-Doo! Meets the Harlem Globetrotters, so to find this film be sure to search for “Harlem Globetrotters 1951.”
