Undefeated
DIRECTED BY DANIEL LINDSAY & T. J. MARTIN
Before a caption reveals that newly crowned Best Documentary Oscar winner Undefeated was shot in North Memphis, Tennessee, you’d be forgiven for thinking the film’s opening montage of derelict homes and debris-strewn streets was footage of New Orleans, post-Katrina. It’s a startling portrait of a chronically underprivileged community where economic devastation has taken a toll akin to that of a natural disaster.
It’s also a succinct summary of the odds facing the students of Manassass High School, who are more likely to have a relative in jail than a pair of parents who hold college degrees. In such circumstances, it’s little surprise that members of the school’s football team were once region-wide whipping boys, and were reliant for funding on “pay games,” where they were bussed in by schools with more prosperous programs and paid to suffer morale-sapping drubbbings.
The humiliating practice was still in place when the all–African American team came under the voluntary stewardship of a white business owner named Bill Courtney, but was scrapped as Manassass’ fortunes improved with each passing year of his tenure. Undefeated follows the Tigers’ 2009 season, during which, with the aid of a trio of talented but troubled seniors, Courtney hopes to guide the team to its first playoff run in the school’s 110-year history.
That scenario reads alarmingly like a dubious retread of The Blind Side‘s patronizing demonstration of white paternalism, but Courtney never condescends to his charges, and approaches his coaching role with the infectious zeal of a fatherly force of nature. Like many of his players, Courtney himself grew up without a dad, and he appears to derive sincere fulfilment from serving as a male role model and source of moral instruction, even at the risk of neglecting his own family’s needs. And that devotion is evidently mutual—many of Undefeated‘s most affecting moments result from the powerful bond between players and coach, despite plenty of moments of on-field drama.
Directors Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin do exhibit a notable blind spot, however, in their reluctance to probe the larger questions posed by a system in which African American youths must frequently rely on athletic prowess in order to realize their post-secondary hopes. In delivering a stirring narrative, slickly edited for maximum uplift, it’s arguable that Undefeated perpetuates a problematic status quo. That said, downbeat sports docs don’t win Oscars—just ask Steve James.