Woodlawn

Drama 123 minutes / 2015 Rating: 10/10 Sports movies have their own formula. The orchestral music swells, mud spatters, bodies get thrown to the turf, and our hero – despite his enormous talent – is the clear underdog because his opponents are grasping, vicious, downright evil sorts, so desperate to win they'll break any and every rule.. Sprinkle in a few losses and some team disunity that'll need to be overcome and you've got the makings of a pretty good but pretty typical Hollywood sports film. So what makes Woodlawn so much better? It does contain more than a few of these same sports clichés, though this time they are fact, not fiction. This story is real and historic and unbelievable all the same. And what makes it better still is what it says about our God, Who made it all happen. As high schools become racially integrated in Birmingham, Alabama in the early 1970s, tensions run high at predominantly white Woodlawn High School. Parents aren't happy with the coaching staff when black students earn starting positions on the football team. When Christian sports chaplain Hank Erwin asks permission to speak to the football team after a riot at the school, Coach Tandy Gerelds reluctantly agrees. He's stunned when each and every player on the team, black and white, respond to Erwin's altar call and dedicate or re-dedicate their lives to Christ. In time, the team decides that devoting their season to the Lord is more important than winning or losing, and – what do you know! – they find athletic success along the way. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (also known for the 2018 film I Can Only Imagine) wrote the movie about the work of their dad Hank, who later became a state senator, and who had a profound influence on the young men of Woodlawn High School and their cross town rivals. Most details in the movie, even the ones that seem too convenient or unlikely to have happened, are based on real events: Woodlawn is a sports story that's remarkable not just because it's true, but for the truth it shares about our great God. ...