Undefeated

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Overview

The football program at Manassas High School in Memphis, TN, has earned a powerful reputation during the school's 110-year history, but unfortunately it doesn't happen to be a positive one. The Manassas team has never been eligible for a single play-off game, and no one expected this to change before Bill Courtney entered the picture. Courtney was a businessman and football fan who took it upon himself to do something about the Manassas football program; he volunteered his services as coach and began shaping a ...
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Overview

The football program at Manassas High School in Memphis, TN, has earned a powerful reputation during the school's 110-year history, but unfortunately it doesn't happen to be a positive one. The Manassas team has never been eligible for a single play-off game, and no one expected this to change before Bill Courtney entered the picture. Courtney was a businessman and football fan who took it upon himself to do something about the Manassas football program; he volunteered his services as coach and began shaping a hapless team into one with genuine prospects. Filmmakers Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin followed Courtney and his players through the 2009 season, and their documentary Undefeated examines the coach's efforts to give the school a winning record, as well as the sometimes complex relationship between Courtney, a white, wealthy businessman, and his players, who are all black and mostly come from communities stuck in a cycle of poverty and crime. Undefeated received its world premiere at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival.
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Special Features

Feature Commentary With Directors Dan Lindsay And TJ Martin; Deleted Scenes; Black And White Teaser Trailer; Making Of UNDEFEATED
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide - Perry Seibert
Everyone jokes about the list of movies that are considered safe for guys to cry during -- the original Brian's Song, Old Yeller, and Saving Private Ryan spring to mind immediately. Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin's engrossing documentary Undefeated deserves to be on the list. The movie follows one season of football at Manassas High School. The North Memphis public school is in an economically depressed area; there's very little funding for the education system in general, and practically none at all for extracurricular sports. In spite of that, local businessman Bill Courtney, whose dream was to coach football, began volunteering his services at the program. Six years later, he's become the head coach and has helped develop the most talented group of kids he's ever had, many of them going into their senior year. All of this sounds like the stuff of clichés, and that feeling is compounded when we learn about the sad history of Manassas football -- the team has traditionally been an easy win for other schools, and in their 100-year history they've never won a play-off game. Courtney believes that this is the year that can change. It's easy to romanticize football coaches, to believe they're no-nonsense, tough-talking drill sergeants who instill the sort of pride, commitment, and toughness that leads to gridiron glory. Courtney embodies that tradition, but he makes it clear his goal is to be a teacher first and not solely concentrate on football. Early in the film, he explains that character builds a winning football team, but that football does not build character. That may sound dreamy, but he practices what he preaches, and although he's capable of being blustery, he proves time and again that he genuinely loves his players. We closely follow the effect he has on three of the students on his squad. His best player is O.C., an unexpectedly speedy offensive lineman who is headed for a college scholarship as long as he can maintain his grades. Then there's Money, an undersized lineman who, through sheer tenacity, can get the better of much bigger opponents. He knows he's too small to play college ball, and his hopes for finishing his playing career at Manassas are threatened by a knee injury. Lastly, there's Chavis, a troubled kid returning to the program for his junior year after spending the previous season in a juvenile detention center. We're told he has real anger issues, and it takes no time at all to see that's true. He quickly gets into confrontations with various teammates, and watching the put-upon Courtney get through to this kid is genuinely inspiring. And the payoff scene -- in which the stories of two of these players converge -- transcends the easy clichés of a sports film and actually offers a profound yet understated example of grace and humility. Until the final 20 minutes, Undefeated studiously avoids being about winning a game. Sure, the individual Friday nights bring interesting on-field storylines, but the movie is really about the changes these three kids, and finally Courtney himself, undergo during the course of three months, and how these experiences will hopefully help them each define for themselves who they are for the rest of their lives. And for that last 20 minutes, you will want to see this squad of young men succeed and will want to believe that Courtney's resolute faith in the motto that success follows hard work and self-sacrifice is true. It turns out that it is, but just not in the ways we expect.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 2/19/2013
  • UPC: 013132598888
  • Original Release: 2010

    • Rating:

  • Source: Starz / Anchor Bay
  • Region Code: 1
  • Aspect Ratio: Alternate Wide Screen (1.78:1)
  • Presentation: Color / Wide Screen
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Time: 1:54:00
  • Format: DVD
  • Sales rank: 2,890

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Bill Courtney Participant
Montrail "Money" Brown Participant
O.C. Brown Participant
Chavis Daniels Participant
Technical Credits
Dan Lindsay Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Producer, Sound/Sound Designer
T.J. Martin Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Sound/Sound Designer
Michael Brook Score Composer
Sean Combs Executive Producer
Paolo Coppola Executive Producer
Ed Cunningham Producer
Guy East Executive Producer
Michele Farinola Executive Producer
Seth Gordon Producer
Joe Iemola Sound Editor
Jillian Longnecker Executive Producer
Daniel McMahon Score Composer
Rich Middlemas Producer
Chris Miller Executive Producer
Miles Nielsen Score Composer
Nigel Sinclair Executive Producer
Cameron Steenhagen Sound Editor
Elijah Weber Sound Editor
Sandy Wilson Musical Direction/Supervision
Ralph Zipper Executive Producer
Glen Zipper Producer
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Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Undefeated
1. Chapter 1 [4:28]
2. Chapter 2 [5:31]
3. Chapter 3 [7:26]
4. Chapter 4 [6:57]
5. Chapter 5 [5:46]
6. Chapter 6 [7:21]
7. Chapter 7 [6:45]
8. Chapter 8 [6:02]
9. Chapter 9 [5:52]
10. Chapter 10 [5:01]
11. Chapter 11 [6:55]
12. Chapter 12 [6:47]
13. Chapter 13 [6:50]
14. Chapter 14 [4:49]
15. Chapter 15 [6:54]
16. Chapter 16 [7:19]
17. Chapter 17 [8:06]
18. Chapter 18 [4:16]
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Menu

Disc #1 -- Undefeated
   Play
   Captions
      English Captions For The Hearing Impaired: On
      Spanish Captions: On
      Captions: None
   Scenes
   Bonus
      Feature Commentary With Directors Daniel Lindsay & TJ Martin
         Commentary: On
         Commentary: Off
      Deleted Scenes
         Play All
         Joaquin
         Take Me Seriously
         Fat Guy Plays Free Safety
         Just Sitting There
         Officer Swansey
         Attrition
      Black & White Teaser Trailer
      The Making Of Undefeated
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