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REVIEW: There’s always going to be a market for a feel-good weepie about a middle-aged American man finding redemption in his life by bringing success to a rag-tag bunch of misfits and making a champion sports team out of them.
From Any Given Sunday to Moneyball, from Remember The Titans to The Mighty Ducks, it’s a formula that usually finds a crowd, and the world is awash with them.
12 Mighty Orphans has got a few good things going for it. Firstly, it’s a true story and the screenplay sticks closer than usual to the facts. Secondly, the setting is late 1920s, depression-era Texas, which makes for some solid social realism and a gritty back-drop to the on-field action that lends everything a bit of resonance and soulfulness, that is often lacking in sports – especially American Football – movies.
The players here aren’t spoiled millionaires, they are a dozen hard-bitten kids from an orphanage. And coach “Rusty” Russell – played here by Luke Wilson – really did mould a championship team from them. The fact that half of these “teenagers” look to be about 25 years old, is something we’re going to put down to poor diet, and not terrible casting.
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If formulaic sports movies based-on-true-stories are your bag, you’ll enjoy 12 Mighty Orphans just fine.
In support, but running away with the movie in most scenes, Martin Sheen plays the kindly school doctor who assisted Russell. The legendary Robert Duvall dials in a lovely cameo as a townsman who supports Russell and the Doc – and finds ways to show it. The prolific and reliable Vinessa Shaw appears as Russell’s wife, Juanita.
If formulaic sports movies based-on-true-stories are your bag, you’ll enjoy 12 Mighty Orphans just fine. I certainly did.
12 Mighty Orphans is now available to stream on Netflix.
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