On P List of Movie Reviews

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Passing Glory (1999)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 10/20

PassGl
10/20: Despite having done Hoop Dreams, Steve James is a mediocre director.

Hardly much happens in Passing Glory. Sure, there's a racial tension here and there, but I've seen it all in countless pictures before. Here, Steve James isn't saying anything new; therefore, he uses basketball as an excuse to pull in the viewers, yet the "championship" game at the end is boring to watch.

The acting is all right but is almost on the high school play level. A strong actor who's unfortunately not in many films, Andre Braugher's skit is getting old by now. It's time for him to change gears. Rip Torn is fine. I knew who that was when he first showed his face, so it's nice to see Arthur Agee again; he could've done more movies.

There was a secret game played in New Orleans between St. Augustine's all-black team and Jesuit's all-white team which occurred on February 25, 1965. The former was the champion of the Louisiana Interscholastic and Literary Organization, which was the sanctioning body of the state's black schools as recognized by the all-black newspaper The Louisiana Weekly, while the latter was the state championship winner of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association in Class AAA (the highest classification) as recognized by the all-white The Times-Picayune.

Unlike the film, St. Augustine won in blowout by the score of 81-59. Father Joseph Verrett decided not to watch because he didn't like the fact that the game was being played in secret. Reverend Robert H. Grant (Rip Torn) actually came up with the idea. There was no NBA logo on the basketball back then.

All in all, Passing Glory is a passable film about the first integrated game in New Orleans high school basketball history.