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This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a documentary film about a historically unsuccessful high school football team and the rebuilding of the program by a volunteer coach in North Memphis, Tennessee. There is some adult language used that may be reserved for early teens and up. Also the movie is a little long but short enough to give a full story of the team. The movie targets two areas that Americans love dearly; their football and their youth. Americans are very involved, concerned, and infatuated with things we would have done different and being an athlete or reliving High school are two of the topics at the top of the list. The film starts with a very grabbing summary of recent events by the head coach, Bill Courtney, that grabs any viewers' curiosity for the entire film. Like most sports movies, as you probably expect, this is another underdog story. It is a "rags to riches" feel of a high school football team's season and it's rise to a become winning program with it's inner city talent. The school goes from a "pay to play" school where larger football programs pay the school to come and play them for a guaranteed win so that bad team can pay for their athletic programs to a more competitive school. The main characters and the chronology of the events through out the film tie into the ending very well. The three main characters, within the team, that are followed throughout were a good selection. There is the star player, O.C, the team captain and academic, Money, and the trouble causing player, Chavis. The turn of events from the beginning to end between Money and Chavis are worth keeping an eye on. This film really speaks to former athletes that have been removed from the camaraderie of school sports for a few years at the least. The shots captured of the home, student, and athlete life style causes me recall my own memories that are very much the same as in the film. The coach and player interactions during practice, in the school hallways, and the extra effort to make home visit for the athletes remind me of the same experiences I also had as a player. Although I don't mind, some may, when Coach Courtney makes a playful racist remark when trying to resolve another of Chavis's anger outrages. One of the coaches also touches on the local criticisms of the help the star player is getting similar to the movie The Blind Side with Michael Oher. I see this documentary as spotlighting the sport of football and belonging to a sports team as an alternative to other activities outside of school, like gang activity. Some may see this film as focusing attention the bad conditions of inner city schools and youth. The coach teaches positive lessons to the players as an alternative to what they were dealing with at home. Chavis gives us a good example of why the environment and team is more important than himself and his actions. This film does a great job telling the story of the football teams and a few key characters. It has a story line that plays out so well as if it were scripted but is so authentic that there is no way it could be made up. There are a lot of heartfelt and genuine lessons throughout this documentary and I hope you enjoy.

I am not going to lie to you, most of the time when I hear the word 'documentary' associated with a movie, I lose quite a bit of interest. From what I have heard that is not an unpopular opinion about documentaries. The knock on these type of films is usually that they are too boring, too education based, and most of all they lack the Hollywood acting, suspense, and plot line of your typical interesting movie. Does that sound about like your thoughts when thinking about the word 'documentary'? Well let me tell you that this movie, Undefeated, will blow you away if you are expecting a prototypical documentary film that lacks all of the aforementioned qualities. The filmmakers of this documentary absolutely hit it out of the park with this one! Undefeated is a triumphant tale about a mediocre (at best) high school football team that is simply unbelievable that it was all caught on camera to say the least. This high school football team, the Manassas Tigers out of Memphis Tennessee, is an inner city school in which the funding, especially for the football team, is very poor. The conditions in which these kids were going to school and playing football in were so poor, it was difficult to get good football players to come there for years, hence making the Manassas Tigers the butt of all football jokes in not only Memphis, but all of West Tennessee and the surrounding areas. In all honesty, it is pretty easy to make jokes about a football team that hadn't won a football game in 10+ years before the arrival of volunteer coach and star of the film, Bill Courtney. In coach Courtney's first season at Manassas he recorded four victories and began to turn some heads. A good thing for Coach Courtney about that minimal success in his first season, was some of those heads that were turning were some very talented eighth graders that took notice of the programs progress and were lured by Coach Courtney to come to Manassas to build a winning team there. One of those eighth graders was an eventual All American offensive lineman by the name of O.C. Brown. This film takes place during Brown's senior year at Manassas, and Bill Courtney's sixth season leading the Tigers as a volunteer head football coach. The filmmakers do a terrific job of capturing as much of this highly anticipated season as possible, and take you on a roller coaster ride of different emotions, from extreme disappointment to moments of great triumph. The best part of a documentary doing this, is the fact that you are able to not only experience this watching it, but your emotions live vicariously through the different football players and other people featured in the film. This is a key aspect that absolutely blew me away, and after you watch this movie you will understand more of what I am talking about when I tell you that the filmmakers hit absolute gold in luckily capturing a magical season for the Tigers. You will notice as you watch the film that you will hear from many people and accounts throughout the movie, but the film captures this season focusing on four main people. Two of the people it follows have already been mentioned, head coach Bill Courtney, and All American lineman O.C. Brown. Brown is a very talented football player that over the course of the season will struggle with the balance between football, and being able to keep his grades up in the classroom to possibly be able to go to college and further his football career. The third person featured in this film is Montrail Brown, or better known as "Money". (No relation to O.C.) Money is an extremely smart kid and although he may be undersized, works harder than anyone on the football field to be good. Money will not only be physically challenged, but also goes through a tough spiritual and mental challenge during this film. The fourth and final person with a key role in the film is a junior standout linebacker, Chavis Daniels. Chavis has storied and well documented anger issues, headlined in the beginning of the film in telling the viewers that he just got finished serving fifteen months in a youth penitentiary. The film will highlight and follow his anger issues throughout. Overall, this film teaches some of the same lessons and values that Coach Courtney instills in the young men on his team. I pulled two quotes from Coach Courtney in the film that I think portray his mission very well. At the beginning of the film he lays it all out there saying "The foundation has got to be a solid platform that you can stand on and speak to these kids and say, this is the way you build yourself, if you build yourself this way and handle yourself this way and have character, you get to play football. And winning will take care of itself because, young men of character and discipline and commitment end up winning in life and they end up winning in football. Well when you flip it, and the foundation of what you're doing is football, and then you hope all that other stuff follows. Well then you think football builds character. Which it does not. Football reveals character". The second quote is one he gives early on to his players, and is repeated in the film. "The character of a man is not measured in how he handles his wins, but what he does with his failures". This is the best documentary I have ever watched, I recommend you do yourself a favor and give it a try. You'll love every second of it!

This is the story of the Manassas High School football team and their coach. It is a predominately black school in Tennessee. They have never had much success because they are lacking in every area, money, hope, and talent. A white coach who pretty much gives his entire life to his young charges, works to get them successful in the classroom and on the field. They have a chance to win the first playoff game in the history of the school, but he must nursemaid them in every way he can to get them to that point. They have one division one prospect, a huge offensive lineman, whose academics are at issue. He has a loose cannon kid who has spent time in prison and has just returned, carrying his baggage onto the team. There is nothing simplistic about this film. These young men have two strikes against them and this is a chance to be true team. It's hard to reproduce the heart that is in this movie. Just see it and ask yourself if it isn't one of the best sports films you've ever seen.

I found this a very inspirational film with insights into the lives of the players and the coaches alike. Admittedly, a lot of the focus is on Coach Courtney, but we do get glimpses of the lives of the players too. Not only star player O.C. Brown, but players like Montrail 'Money' Brown, who struggles with a bad injury part-way through the season. It was great to see how both the coach and his team-mates stood by him throughout. Also there was bad boy Chavis Daniels, who had problems with discipline but overcame them to become an intrical part of the team. Even if, like me, you're not particularly a fan of the game this inspirational film is well worth a look!SteelMonster's verdict: HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDMy score: 8.9/10You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.