User reviews

I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. A documentary about high- school basketball that took seven years to make, this film will be compared to Steve James's Hoop Dreams, which is a high compliment indeed. But the films are different.

Serrill began following the girls' basketball team at Seattle's Roosevelt High School when they hired a new coach, tax law professor Bill Resler. Not expected to make much of an impact, Resler proceeded to build a powerhouse in his first year at the job. An eccentric but effective motivator, he chose a different "theme" for his team each year: Pack of Wolves, Pride of Lions, Tropical Storm, and then whipped his players into a frenzy. His motivational skills and his ruthless physical workouts gave the team the confidence and endurance to beat their opponents, even when they were bigger, taller, or more talented.

In his second year at the job, he noticed a young freshman by the name of Darnelia Russell. She stood out for a number of reasons. She had been an outstanding basketball player at her middle school. And she was black. At Roosevelt, in a privileged suburb of Seattle, black students were a minority, unlike at inner-city schools like arch-rival Garfield. In fact, when he tried to recruit her for his team, she rebuffed him at first, admitting to her friends that she wasn't used to being around so many white people. Her presence at Roosevelt was the combined idea of her middle school coach and her mother, who wanted to keep her out of trouble and make sure she got an excellent education.

Her arrival helps Resler build Roosevelt into a city dynasty and a threat at the state championships. But there are ups and downs. And if you wonder why the film took seven years to make, Serrill admitted that he just filmed everything and waited for the story to emerge.

Although the film touches on a few issues of race and class, Serrill says he wanted to make it more about the basketball, and there are generous clips of games, even from major network coverage. Although it give the film much of its energy, I felt myself wishing there were a few more interviews with players, especially Darnelia, who emerges as a central character in the story. We never really get to know her as anything other than a great basketball player.

That being said, it's a documentary about sports, so I'm predisposed to like it. There is real drama and excitement, both on and off the court, and it's also good to see the contribution of people like Bill Resler recognized, a good man who is instilling not just a love of winning, but of playing, and living. As the credits rolled, it was endearing to see that a few of the songs were actually composed and played by Resler, on guitar and vocals, with director Serrill on harmonica.

First time filmmaker Ward Serrill has really created a wonderfully emotional film. The Heart of the Game, truly has heart and it beats hard throughout the movie. Serrill filmed a girl's basketball team for 7 years; he recorded a total of around 200hrs. The movie turned out to be 102 mins.

As the team competes in games you really start to get into it and begin to root for them in your head. You don't know if they're going to win or lose; when they lose you feel disappointed, when they win you feel relieved. This film just grabs you mentally and it feels like you're watching it live. I felt for the players, felt for the struggle of Darnellia Russell, central character. The film was even humorous at times. The coach, Bill Resler, was a unique character and enjoyable to watch. You really get interested in the narrative and really want to see what will be the out come of this team and it's players. I remember being amazed that it was a documentary; it could have been a storyline for a movie. It's an intense emotional film and it holds and keeps you until the credits run up the screen.

There wasn't much negatives to the film, except like in many films, the movie wasn't as exciting until the middle and then the end. Of course, the ending of the movie wouldn't have been that great unless you've seen the beginning exposition. It was an enjoyable film, so don't let the impression that it's a usual motivational sports documentary, drive you away. The film will be released in wider theater screenings in the summer and the DVD maybe late 2006. I recommend it.

Had the story in "The Heart of the Game" been a piece of fiction, I wouldn't have believed a word of it, and probably would've cursed Hollywood for continuing to insult the intelligence of moviegoers. As it's a documentary, however, it's quite extraordinary to have captured this particular story in the making. Kudos to the filmmakers for exceptional foresight and/or luck!

Sports movies have become a bit clichéd over time, but I really hope that won't deter anyone from seeing this very moving film. It successfully captures the emotions and spirit of being part of a team with a sense of vitality, humor, and love that I've rarely seen before. Coach Resler in particular is a joy to watch, and will no doubt inspire a generation of coaches to use nature specials when developing game plans.

The Heart of the Game This is one of the great documentary achievements of the year. There have been so many stunning documentary films lately that they are beginning to provide far more revelation and insight into our times than most fictional works. The Heart of the Game is one of the most stunning examples. To review this as a sports film gives it little of the credit it deserves. What these remarkable filmmakers have done is to fashion a "sports genre" movie into a perfect gem of a film about adolescence, class, race, education, competition, gender, inspiration, and the gallant nature of the everyday the heroes and heroines in our midst. Directed by Ward Serrill, edited by Eric Frith and co-produced by Liz Manne, I think it rivals Grizzly Man in its ability to resonate beyond its own expectations and achieve something akin to poetry.

The filmmakers have put together a rousing portrait of two lives - University of Washington tax professor and women's basketball coach Bill Resler and basketball prodigy Darnellia Russell. Together with an ensemble of colorful and committed women athletes and coaches, they overcome a string of obstacles and turns of good and bad fortune that couldn't be scripted into a work of fiction any more powerfully. That the events you see actually unfolded as the film was being shot is remarkably good luck. They have taken the two hundred hours of footage over six years and beautifully fashioned it into a riveting story that will not only inspire but will blow your mind. The audience is evidence. I cannot remember the last time that heard a sophisticated older audience such as attended this screening, actually yell at the screen, comment out loud, sit on the edge of their seats, and applaud DURING the film. I'm not a sports fan at all. I dislike in many ways the tribal mentality of the commercial sporting event. But this film is way beyond a film for sports fans. It ought to be required viewing for any teacher, and for that matter, any high school class. Rather than another tired anecdote from the rarified world of celebrity let's see Bill Resler and Darnellia Russell on Letterman, Leno, Oprah. These are heroes worth hearing from.

I was a volunteer at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this year, so I got to sneak into a few movies for free. I wasn't too excited about Heart of the Game, but once it started . . . I was hooked.

Everybody in the movie is lovable. Every last one of them, from what I saw.

It's a lot funnier than I was expecting. I was thinking this would be a depressing, boring something-or-other, but it wasn't. It was actually a fairly lighthearted look at the team, up until the ending, which I won't ruin.

It's very funny, too. The interviewees cracked me up; they were just so likable.

Bill Resler (the coach) did a Q&A after the film was over, and I've gotta tell you -- he's a great guy. Hilarious. He's got a great screen presence, too.

I know I'm not qualified to comment on this, as I missed roughly forty minutes because I was assigned to another venue right smack-dab in the middle of this movie, but I loved what I saw, and I'll be the first in line to see this when it comes back around in June.

Highly recommended.

"A full-court press the whole game. No offensive strategy, just run like hell." Sounds like Hoop Dreams territory--the same go gettem' spirit resides with the newest entry in the basketball rags to riches genre, Heart of the Game.

In late 1990's Seattle, the Roosevelt High Roughriders get a greenhorn coach in Prof. Bill Resler, a middle aged tax professor, who has a heart and a dream. His recruit, Darnellia Russell, will help him reach that goal of going to the state championship. Along the way they'll have to fight the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, her pregnancy, and talented competition.

The themes for each season best symbolize the scorched-earth attitude of the scrappy coach and his warriors: Pride of Lions and Pack of Wolves are two of the scarier ones, coupled with chants such as "Draw Blood" and "'Put your teeth in their necks." No prisoners in their game, but it all does make for an exciting doc.

Even though I'm not interested in spending much time watching athletic events, I am a sucker for theses athletics stories because they always depict young people finding truth and honor and their futures along the way. That romantic view of sports is tempered by the fact that they don't always win the game but almost always the heart.

"What I know," Coach Resler says, "is that Darnellia is brilliant. The one issue she has to conquer is, believing in how smart she is." The documentary by director Ward Serrill perhaps too much focuses on Darnellia's challenges, but she deserves attention as charismatic and downright cinematic as she is. There are others, including the coach, whose stories could be the centerpiece, but none better than Darnellia's for all the components of compelling film-making.

"Have fun," coach Resler tells the players after every timeout. Have fun you will if you let yourself watch these winners play.

This is a documentary about Seattle's Roosevelt High School girls' basketball team. The coach builds a tough championship team in this mostly white suburban neighborhood thru hard work and motivations.

It zig zag thru the various players' lives including one black girl from a poorer neighborhood. The director is following too many characters. It's as if Ward Serrill had a scattergun for a camera. It would be much better to concentrate this documentary on a couple of story lines. It needed it to pick up the tension as a story. Also it was distracting to have Ludicrous to narrate. That's the last thing a narrator should do. He should never overshadow the story.

For my money, "Miracle" (2004) is the best sports movie ever. That's mainly because it's subject matter was the greatest moment in sports history — the wildly improbable victory of the United States hockey team over the Soviet Union's in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

My main carp about that film was that it didn't adequately portray to the viewer just how staggeringly great the Soviet team was. Picture a baseball team that featured Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Cy Young, Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan, and a dozen other players of comparable magnitude, all at the peak of their powers, and you'll have some idea of what an overwhelming force the Red Army "amateur" team was. The movie doesn't mention it, but they had made it to the medal round by defeating Japan 16-0, Nederland 17-4, and Poland 8-1, in a sport where typical scores are on the order of 3-2.

The movie may not beat you over the head with the amazingness of the Soviet team, but it did do a terrific job of conveying it subtly. As the game entered the last 2 minutes, with the Americans ahead 4-3, the film shows head coach Herb Brooks discussing with his assistant exactly what to do when the Soviet coach, Viktor Tikhonov, pulls his goalie (a common hockey tactic, a gamble, since it leaves the net open, but it gets an additional attacker on the ice). As the seconds tick away, they keep looking at Tikhonov, who appear frozen, just staring at the game. Finally Brooks remarks, in wonder, "He doesn't know what to do!". And at that point it dawns on you: it's because he's never lost before.

I have many more good things to say about "Miracle" (and I don't even like hockey very much), but here in 2006 I'd like to tout the 2nd best sports movie ever: "The Heart of the Game". And, amazingly enuf, it's a documentary! No famous actors, no huge production budget, no award-winning novel on which to base a screenplay, no opportunity to do retakes if things don't go according to script -- just real life, captured as best as they can by director Ward Serrill and his crew with hand-held cameras over a period of 7 years.

The film follows a girls' basketball team, the Roughriders of Seattle Roosevelt High School, and their quirky coach, Bill Resler, University of Washington tax professor by day and motivator of teenage girls by night. The main subplot for the 2nd half of the film is the struggle of star guard Darnellia Russell (no relation) to gain legal eligibility to play for the team after sitting out a year due to pregnancy. Meanwhile, across town, Garfield High School has a new coach, Joyce Walker, herself a former Seattle high-school star who went on to success and fame at the college, Olympic, and pro levels. The Bulldogs are tall and deep, and their star player, who proudly claims she can take Darnellia to the hoop any time she feels like it, happens to be Darnellia's best friend. And Garfield proposes to take no crap from nobody.

There are about 5 seconds' worth of "X"s and "O"s and not quite enuf action footage for my taste (tho what there is is top-quality camera-work). But most of the film is about Resler's interactions with the girls. (And let there be no mistake, they ARE girls, not women.)

I would say more, but let me leave it at this: if there weren't plenty of evidence that this all actually happened, you'd swear it was fiction. A terrific story, very well told.

And now let me say a kind word for Title 9. This was part of Educational Amendments of 1972 (signed into law by President Richard Nixon), and it prohibited sex discrimination in any education program or activity within an institution receiving any type of federal financial assistance. That notably included athletics.

Here are some statistics of interest:

 • In 1997, women received 41% of medical degrees, compared with 9% in 1972.  • In 1997, women earned 44% of law degrees, compared with 7% in 1972.  • In 1997, 41% of all doctoral degrees to U.S. citizens went to women, compared with 25% in 1977.  • Prior to Title 9, there were 32,000 women on intercollegiate teams, today there are 150,000.  • Prior to Title 9, there were 300,000 girls on competitive high-school teams (or 1 in every 27 girls), now there are 2.78 million (1 in every 2.5).

I am a huge fan of girls' high-school and women's college basketball (which goes a long way toward explaining why I'm so fond of this movie). And the fact of the matter is that there isn't a woman playing basketball at any level today who remembers a time when it wasn't considered a perfectly normal and natural opportunity available to the female half of the human race.

But I do.

Thank you, Title 9!

This documentary had me talking about it days after watching it. It had me truly rooting for everyone in the movie. When the movie went off it left me wanting more. Ward Serrill should be nothing but proud of his work. I'm just upset that I hadn't heard of this documentary before.

It's nice to see someone like Bill Resler who isn't a big name in sports take a team and not be concerned about them winning and yet turn the team into a powerhouse. Yet also you end up also liking their rivals and their coach Joyce Walker. Although the movie is about a team you can't help but get attached to Darnellia Russell.

This is a must see documentary.

This is a decent sports documentary which covers six intense seasons on a Washington high school girl's basketball team. At the heart of The Heart of the Game, the focus draws towards the Roosevelt Roughrider's passionate, dedicated coach, and his relationship with a troubled and talented point guard. The portraits afforded here do offer uplifting, adversity-conquering glimpses into the soul of true athletes and the support systems set up to help make them thrive, but still usually ends providing more glimpse then revelation. During the six year season coverage, the random ups and downs that occur for this championship-hungry pack of females do become redundant, often substituting genuine sentiment for cold statistics, summed up by rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges boring narration.

Coach Bill Resier remains an inspiration throughout, showing unfettered dedication to his young team, though the focus on young star Darnellia Russell does become questionable in the articulation of this simple film's thesis. It can feel at times that the filmmakers are trying to paint this talented young women in a light that will best serve their movie, despite the contradictory behavior coming from her on-screen. Nevertheless, the ensuing legal battle that saw her coaches and teammates fighting for her to finish senior year on the team drives a uniting morale that finally brings an emotional sting near the satisfying conclusion. Certainly not necessary, especially given the overshadowing Hoop Dreams that will forever dominate this niche, the realistically moving finale somewhat justifies the majority of doc's uninvolved detailing.

I had the great pleasure to watch this movie with the audience being the director, the coach, and we sat directly behind the current Roosevelt Roughriders girl's basketball team! What an amazing movie and experience!

This is one of those movies that if it were scripted out it would be written off as too corny to be realistic. The obvious comparison would be Hoop Dreams, yet I think this movie is far better. The camera is hand-held mini-DV, the shooting goes in and out of focus, and the overall camera technique is less than polished, but this adds rather than subtracts from the movie much like it did for Blair Witch. The film is shot in an incredibly intimate way, drawing you deep into the team and making the audience an honorary Roughrider. There are no villains, though in the hands of another film-maker there are plenty of opportunities to have created villains. This choice blends well with the appeal for many of women's sports over men's and unites the film, audience, and team together cohesively, allowing the audience to understand and feel everything that the girls on the screen are going through.

I believe this is very likely the Oscar winning documentary for this year and may usher in a new story telling direction in documentary films.

Great movie, hard work and proves there are still good people willing to help others regardless of economics, gender, or race.Darnellia has her future ahead of her and it is up to her. Others can only guide the way but she is in charge. Hopefully others will realize not to give up when things turn against you and when given lemons make lemonade out of them. She deserves a break from the autocratic, bureaucratic and stifling attitude of the athletic barons. She overcame her difficulties and others can also. Right is right and it is fortunate that others recognized it and were willing to help. Kudos to the legal profession for doing so and the coach for sticking by her when difficulties arose.

This movie sounds like it combines two interesting plot lines: the story of an unexperienced coach turning around a mediocre basketball team and the story of a young woman's struggles to stay eligible to play. Unfortunately, both of these stories are hinted at more than they are shown. Serrill started filming after Bill Resler had already made the team successful. Even more disappointing, Darnelia Russell doesn't seem like she wanted to be part of the movie, and rarely grants the filmmaker any kind of access to her life.

The footage of the basketball games is worse than what an average parent would have shot on their camcorder. The final 20 minutes or so are excerpted from local Fox sports (including the sportscasters' commentary!) and are the only really exciting part of the movie. An ill-advised Roger & Me moment doesn't help either.

There could have been a good movie made about this team, but this is not it.