Movie review - Coach Carter

Coach Carter is an educational movie. It is a story of a basketball coach’s mission to remake high school athletes from inner city losers into student athletes. The coach, Carter is a self-made businessman who lives by moral absolutes. He accepts the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area of Richmond. This team is the loser in both the tournament and academic, and the players are totally rude and indiscipline. Carter doesn’t give up of them, but tries to change them in both play performance and academic result. He immediately imposes a strict regime typified in written contracts that include stipulations for respectful behavior, wear jackets and ties on game days, sit at the front of their classes, and good grades (minimum 2.3 point average) as requisites to being allowed to participate in the basketball team in an attempt to make the boys win both on and off the court. Besides, late comers and rude players have to get the push-ups and suicides as rewards. Soon, the initial resistance of the boys is successfully dispelled, and the team becomes unbeatable. Continuous winning makes the boys over-confident. They start to show off and scorn their opponents whenever they score. In the other hand, Carter finds out that too many players are doing poorly in class. They do not get to the mark for their academic results or even skip lessons. Carter takes an immediate action. He cancels all team activities and locks the court, despite their undefeated record. He asks the team to study in library until the team shows acceptable academic improvement. This has triggered controversies between the town’s community and Carter. The boys’ parents cause a stir concerning how grades aren’t as important as their sons’ destiny. They even force Carter to quit the team. Carter insists and fights to keep his methods. And the team has finally got through their academic problems. A basketball match between Richmond and St. Francis ends the movie. Although they lose the match, some of them win the scholarship of the college, they all win the future. 

The main issue in the movie is the bad attitudes of teenagers. The players are rude and impolite. They mock Carter's suits, his shiny pate and his articulation. Timo Cruz even quarrels with Carter because of the dissatisfaction. They also vicious enough to insult people with awful words like nigger. They will easily come up to a fight just because of the offensive words. So, they need guidance and discipline, or else they are likely ended up in prison. 

Education system in the movie has revealed that the parents and school officials concern more about winning basketball games than making sure the players graduate. Carter's principles get him in trouble with the principal who doesn’t know why he keeps bothering about the player’s academic results and performance. The community also thinks that canceling the games is an insult. It is why there is more black men wind up in jail or get killed compare to the graduation rate. 

Teenage pregnancy is another issue in the movie. The character, Kyra is a pregnant underage girl. She has to give up her studies and spend all effort to take care of the baby. Kenyon, the father of the baby instantly loses his boundless future, and he has to start working to feed the baby. Moreover, conflicts are easily sparked between underage parents. And this will always lead to abortion. 

In addition, this movie shows the struggle and ambivalent thinking of teenagers in order to get what they really want. We learn that Timo Cruz hates his extracurricular life as a drug dealer and sees basketball as a way to stay out of trouble. There are struggles in his deep heart, hesitating to choose which way he should take until the incident happens, Renny gets killed. He knows that drug dealer is no longer a proper future for him. He finally gets back to his expected route.

Kyra is h0t & sexy.