When I tell you I recommend this movie you have to keep in mind that it’s partially because I’m in it. Yeah, so it’s only for about 3 seconds and my face is hidden behind a camcorder and Michael Papajohn’s arm, but it’s still my only movie experience to date so I can’t help but be a little excited about it. Whether the movie is any good or not is another story altogether. It’s not really cut and dry on who likes and dislikes this one. I’ve shown it to numerous family and friends some of whom didn’t care for it at all once my part was done and others who have made me promise to track down copies of it for them to add to their own collections. So don’t discount it outright, you may be among the ones to love it. Being an independent film it has been difficult to track down and may be even more difficult to find as a rental. I’m going to try to talk our movie rental places around town into carrying it, but you may very well be stuck trying to make a purchase decision based on what you read here along with the scant other reviews around the net. Chances are you’ve come across this review either because you already have some interest in the movie (it’s not exactly one you hear about all over the place) or have come across it while looking at my list of reviews. Since the latter is more likely true and you probably don’t know squat about this film I’ll give a little more detail than usual.

The writer, director, and star is former football star Rick Johnson as Billy Stagen. He’s not very well known save for his football status, but he has been in Any Given Sunday and Jerry Maguire. Ashley Johnson (no relation) co-stars as Lee, his daughter. You may remember her from What Women Want and Growing Pains. Singer/actor Meatloaf has the supporting role of Coach T. Zachery Ty Bryan of Home Improvement and Carrie 2 fame also supports as Keith Gatlin. Dean Biasucci has the small but vital role of Todd. He doesn’t have many movie credits, but Colts fans may recognize him as their highest scoring placekicker which earned him the role of himself in Jerry Maguire. Michael Papajohn who plays the carjacker in Spider-Man as well as a handful of other roles in various movies plays Trent and helped make the movie possible. And finally, fans of the Rick and Bubba radio program based in Alabama will enjoy seeing them as bartenders. So, not an astounding cast by any means, but a few names to pique interest and enough solid talent to keep from ruining the movie. The acting ranges from tolerable to very good. Rick is no Mel Gibson, and he falters in his performance at times. But overall he sells the character and plays off the emotional scenes admirably for a low-budget film during which he also had to focus on directing. I think he really owns the character and makes him into someone you feel like you know by the end of the movie. His main downfall is that he’s not the best writer (maybe that's too quick to judge, the weaknesses here could easily be due to time or other constraints), but we’ll cover that when we talk about the story. Ashley probably does the best job of anyone and really made me feel like Lee was a real person. Meatloaf is not necessarily at his best, but still manages to own the character of Coach T. Zack I thought lacked the most out of the names I recognized. I didn’t think the scenes with him (except for the last one) were as good as the ones with Ashley and others. I thought Dean did an outstanding job considering he has so little acting background. I found myself dwelling more on his character than I did any of the other supporters including the coach. There were a few other memorable performances from unknown actors whose names I can’t recall off hand. The first is the character or Mel, the father of the abused black girl. His scene is one of the most touching in the whole movie, and the hurt he portrays may well put a lump in your throat. Only slightly less memorable is Cassandra, the abused black girl, herself. As far as I know this was her first performance outside her college drama team, but she seems to have enough talent to go far. You might feel like Cassandra is someone you’ve met before after this.

As I said earlier, Rick is not the best writer ever. The scope of the story here is great, and the end result is moving; it’s an excellent concept. But you have to look past the predictability and weak exposition. Most people that have watched the movie with me figured out what was going to happen about halfway through. I suppose it loses some of its effect at that point, but a unique and twisting story was never the focus; it’s the characters, their lives, and the theme of letting yourself live life even when faced with difficult changes. As I’ve already hinted the story centers around Billy and his daughter Lee. What I didn’t mention is that he’s never met his daughter until now. She left home to track him down and find out who he is. The problem is, he’s a basket case. Once a football star, a major injury ended his career. Still craving the admiration of a crowd he returns to his home town of Rustin, Alabama to become sheriff. The problem is he doesn’t do a very good job at all because he would rather please everyone all the time than risk making enemies by doing the right thing. His hypocrisy is evident early on as we witness him listening to Christian radio then playing tonsil hockey with another man’s wife. His desire to sleep with lots of women stems less from sexual pleasure than his feeling of masculine validation. This is what cost him his marriage. Even the town prostitute sees Billy as someone to use rather than the other way around. His fame as a football star, status as sheriff, and physical stature as an athlete assures that he will never be without a woman. Now, all of a sudden he has a daughter. At first he wants to run, avoid the problem like he always does, but he also wants his daughter to like him because he needs that validation… like he always does. He’s torn, but the more time he spends with Lee the more she pricks his heart and his morality. When he sees evidence that she might be sexually active he goes nuts only to have his own night’s thrill show up in the middle of the argument. And here’s something I like about this movie, he begins to realize what many adults don’t want to have to face, “do as I say not as I do,” is the perfect road to help your child make every stupid, destructive mistake you ever have yourself and more. He doesn’t immediately become a saint or anything, but this is when he first begins changing his perceptions. And that’s another thing I like about the movie; outside of coming to Jesus people don’t just make 180 degree turns from their bad lifestyes, it’s more often a gradual thing. That’s because there are deeper issues here than sexual pleasure that must be dealt with before he can ever truly let go of his desire to sleep around. To me if he had never had sex with another woman at this point it would have been unrealistic, but to see his attitude begin to change, the pleasure begin to fade during these involvements, the struggle becoming more difficult as his focus shifts from himself to his progeny his character takes on a realism not often seen in the cinema. Maybe the various scenes are not written well enough to bring out the full power of the stages of his change, but the attempt is insightful enough to be one of the primary reasons I think as highly of this movie as I do.
As the movie progresses Billy begins reaping the diseased crop he has allowed to grow. His attempts to please everyone begin causing more pain than a real man in his position could ever imagine with himself ending up the brunt of the worst of it. His actions result in his daughter’s permanent emotional scarring, and the guilt is rightfully his own. Of all the pain he has ever had to deal with he has brought the worst of it down on himself. Heavy stuff, huh? Most of the movie is more light-hearted than all this. It’s not 2 hours or pure dreariness, and at the end of the day it’s a story about hope.
I mentioned a little about Todd being interesting. He’s the Dudly Doright of the police force. He’s by the book, Mr. Righteous, do-your-job-or-leave kind of guy. He’s also next in line for the top position, Billy’s position. So how much of what he does, including getting Billy in trouble, is out of righteous duty and how much is jealousy and desire for Billy’s job? I won’t tell you, but his actions prove his true heart and do so in a way that I think by itself adds a whole new layer to the story. As I said earlier, not all the scenes are written well enough to bring out the full power of the emotions involved, but Todd and Billy’s final confrontation got to me.
Some have said that the characters are too stereotypical to be enjoyable. I don’t completely disagree. I think Lee and Coach T. are pretty much off the shelf, and Keith is borderline. I also don’t think that’s detrimental to the movie much especially in the case of Lee. She’s the typical wild teenager with less character development than Billy, but she also carries her emotions across in a touching way. Coach T. is more singular. Someone called him the coach that doesn’t care about football like it’s the most common characterization ever. Maybe his motivations are not revealed as clearly as they could be, but he’s just trying to be successful. Maybe he’s going about it in a hypocritical or even underhanded way, but it’s not so much that he doesn’t care about football, I think he still loves it, he’s just sick of high school football and dreams of moving up to college level. Stereotypical? I suppose, but his motivations and dreams are completely realistic. Keith doesn’t get enough screen time to make him into a complex character; he’s just a horny brat who thinks he can take whatever he wants without fear of retribution. If this were his story I’m sure we would see what made him into this walking slab of evil hormones and the effects getting his sorry butt thrown into juvenile hall has on him. However flat his personality may be, he’s a fairly small (though pivotal) part of the story told. Moving on along our list of characters, I couldn’t disagree more about Billy being stereotypical. How many movie sheriffs that you think of are fame-starved, injured, ex-star football players? Maybe I just haven’t seen those movies. Besides, that idea is drawn from Rick Johnson’s personal experience as a star player who left because of injuries. We’ve already discussed his character in detail. He’s quite complex if you want to go that deep with it. Todd looks at first to be stereotypical, but later actions prove him to be more complex if anyone has stayed with the movie long enough to see it. We could go on and on about all this, but a case can be made for virtually every character in cinema history to be stereotypical in some way if you get in the mindset to see it that way.
I think the movie is predictable because it reflects life, and viewers can realize how this type of person will react in this type of situation. On the same token, however, I think improved writing could have made the viewer feel like they’re watching real life instead of another movie imitating it.
Oh, one other thing. At least one review I’ve read has expressed distaste at the way the South is portrayed as obsessed with football. It’s an element just like the sex or the police work. Rick draws a lot from football because that’s what he knows, it’s understandable, but this is no more a football movie because it deals with people that play or coach the game than it is a porn because people engage in sexual activity or a detective flick because it involves police investigations. And besides that, I can tell you from first-hand experience that the South IS obsessed with football, especially in these small towns. The big deal everybody makes of the game in the movie… I’ve lived it! So don’t let anyone tell you this is an unrealistic portrayal of a small, Southern town’s love of high school football.

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve already talked this much about this movie. Believe me, I didn’t start out with the intention of writing a full dissertation. The way I go on about all this you’d think this was the best movie I’ve seen in years. Not so. Like I’ve pointed out, there are plenty of flaws, and there have been people whose judgment I trust that didn’t care much for the movie. However, there aren’t very many reviews of it out there, and some of the ones I read I thought were unduly harsh. I think highly of this movie, and I respect its themes. I appreciate its hopeful message when it could have been a movie about tragedy with Billy or Lee or both giving up on life and eating a bullet, or Billy scheming to blow Keith’s head off. There’s a spirituality there that I also appreciate. It’s not a religious movie by any means, but it doesn’t overlook the fact that most Southerners, whether they mean it or not, go to church. In church Billy is confronted with his dual nature in a way that I think shows reverence for God. This is capped by the final scene of hope being heavily accentuated by one of my favorite Michael W. Smith songs which in and of itself tells the end of the story. It confirms Billy’s genuine change of heart and his newfound desire to not just sit back and let these changes take their own course, but to jump headfirst into life as a different man.

Content:
There is some minor language, nothing to worry about. There is a short shot of a woman’s butt, but the sex is implied not depicted. Mostly this just deals with mature themes. You’ve got underage drinking, talk about sex, and such. What’s really disturbing is the rape and spoken descriptions of it. That might be hard to swallow, but the movie takes a responsible position with part of its message being that rape is deplorable, hard on the victim, and not justified by “boys will be boys” no matter who the boys in question are. Even with the nudity this is a movie I highly recommend for teens.

DVD:
Not a surprise that there isn’t much to it. The menu is simple but does feature some animation and music. The case is solid plastic though it’s a little thicker than usual. There is, unfortunately, no insert, only a picture on the back of the sleeve visible because the entire case is transparent. There are 8 chapters but no title list. If anyone is particularly interested in the chapter titles respond to this review below, let me know, and I’ll update the post to include them. The audio and video quality is acceptable but will not even begin to spark the interest of aficionados of groundbreaking technology.
There is a commentary by the director. It can be slow and dry at times, but there are definite points of interest as he talks about the process of bringing an independent film together, working with Meatloaf and other recognizable names, and stories about his friends involved in the movie. You’re not going to want to get the movie just to hear it, but if you spend the money or even if you just rent it, give it a chance. The only other extra is a trailer.

Considering most places are asking $20 or more (at the time of this review) for the movie, you’re not getting a whole lot for your money. Despite me writing a book about it, I probably wouldn’t have spent that much on it myself if I hadn’t been in it. However, if that weren’t the case and I had only rented the DVD, I would have thought it well worth the time and expense. But just for me to enjoy it as much as I do says something about it since most of my DVD collection is Jackie Chan and sci fi movies. So if you like real-life dramas, I highly recommend at least a rental. I think what’s going to grab most folks, though, are the themes. This could be a good conversation starter with a teen about rape and dealing with it, about dealing with life, or numbers of other topics. Rent it if you get the chance, buy it if something that I’ve said has particularly struck you, and watch for me! In the opening scene I’m the guy in khakis and tennis shoes at the back of the crowd. When you see Michael Papajohn (he’s missing his front teeth) raising his arm to cheer (this happens in 2 shots) I’m directly behind his right arm. Don’t blink, you’ll miss me! I’ve got a video camera glued to my face. You can’t see me, but it’s what they wanted me to do, so there you go. I’m also working on a web page which will include a description of my day on the set. Meatloaf fans in particular will want to read that. I will be available for autographs at the conclusion of our review session. No pushing, now, there’s plenty of ink for everyone…


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older