Gridiron Gang
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''Gridiron Gang'' is a 2006 American
biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...
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drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Phil Joanou Phil Joanou (born November 20, 1961) is an American director of film, music videos, and television programs. He is known for his collaborations with the rock band U2, for whom he directed music videos and their 1988 documentary film ''Rattle a ...
, and starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson,
Xzibit Alvin Nathaniel Joiner (born September 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Xzibit (pronounced "''exhibit''), is an American rapper, actor, television presenter, radio personality, and record executive. He began his musical career in 1992, ...
, Kevin Dunn,
Leon Rippy Leon Rippy (born October 30, 1949) is an American actor. Active on screen since 1983, Rippy has appeared in numerous films and recurring roles on television. He is best known for his roles as Earl the Angel on the series '' Saving Grace'', saloon ...
and L. Scott Caldwell. It is loosely based on the true story of the Kilpatrick Mustangs during the 1990 season. The film was released in the United States on September 15, 2006. It was distributed by
Sony Pictures Releasing Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (formerly known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group until 2013, and abbreviated as SPMPG) is a division of Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage its motion picture operatio ...
and
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
.


Plot

Sean Porter works at Kilpatrick Detention Center in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. He is frustrated at not being able to help the kids get away from their life problems when they are released from the center, such as
street gangs A gang is a group or society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collecti ...
and drug dealings. Porter decides to create a
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
team so the teens can feel like they're part of something and believes football will teach them what it takes to be responsible, mature, and disciplined winners. Porter picks out a few he feels will benefit from this program and requires that they practice with him the following day. He states to his new team, the Kilpatrick Mustangs, "You do it my way, not your way. Your way got you here and you're here because you lost. Right now you are all losers, but if you accept this challenge and stick with the program, you are all going to be winners at the end." Two of the teens do not get along because they are from rival gangs. William "Willie" Weathers is from the 88's and Kelvin Owens is from the 95's. The first game is against one of the best teams in the league, Barrington Panthers. The game starts out somewhat positive for the Mustangs, as they recover a fumble on the first drive, but things quickly turn. They are demolished by Barrington, losing by 38 points. After starting 0–2, the Mustangs start winning games as they learn to work together. Kelvin and Willie finally shake hands when they win a game by one
touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...
after Kelvin makes a big block for Willie. Near the end of the season, the Mustangs are headed for the
playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
s. They are getting more publicity and more fans along the way. One of Willie's 88 gang mates, Free, stops by the field. He realizes that Kelvin is a 95. They get into a fight, and Free shoots Kelvin in the shoulder. Before he can put a bullet in Kelvin's head, Willie tackles Free to the ground to save Kelvin. Free is shocked that Willie helped Kelvin and not him. The police show up, and Free runs off. He fires at the responding officers who fire in return, killing him. Although Kelvin survives the attack, he will not be able to play in the finals. Willie becomes distraught about Free being killed. He even got a fight with one of the inmates after he criticized him for getting his "Homeboy" Free killed, and was sent to the box. Coach Porter visited Willie and told him he was not the same loser he once was when he got here. Kilpatrick is almost forced to forfeit the playoff game due to concerns about further gang violence, and Coach Porter had to convince everyone that football helped the players break away from their usual problems also developing a bond, but Porter's boss steps in and arranges for volunteers from neighboring police departments to patrol the game. The County Sheriff's spokesperson states that "We will do whatever it takes to ensure that gangs do not take over the lives of our youth". In the playoff game, a rematch against Barrington, the Mustangs go into the half down 14–0. Willie gives a motivational speech, and they go out and beat Barrington on the last play of the game. It is revealed in the narration that they lost the championship game 17–14, but no one called them losers. A few months later, Sean's football method is officially made part of the program. Nearly all the former members of the Mustangs are doing well in their new lives outside the detention center: Willie Weathers is playing football at a top boarding school. Kelvin Owens is playing football for Washington High. Kenny Bates is going to school in
Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Santa Mo ...
and living with his mother. Junior Palaita got a job working for a furniture company and Leon Hayes is playing football for Dorsey High. However, Miguel Perez and Donald Madlock went back to their old gangs and are now in California youth authority prisons, and Bug Wendal was killed in a
drive-by shooting A drive-by shooting is a type of assault that usually involves the perpetrator(s) firing a weapon from within a motor vehicle and then fleeing. Drive-by shootings allow the perpetrators to quickly strike their targets and flee the scene before l ...
in Compton, California. In all, 24 of the players are continuing their educations, three are working full-time jobs, and only five are back in jail. The movie ends with a new group of Mustangs training for the next season. Some footage of the 1993 '' Gridiron Gang'' documentary is shown during the end credits.


Cast


Production

It is set and filmed at
Agoura Hills Agoura Hills () is a city situated in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 20,330 as of the 2010 United States census, 2010 census, which decreased to 20,299 in 2020. Agoura H ...
, Camp Kilpatrick,
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, San Fernando and
Westlake Village, California Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County, California, on its western border with Ventura County. Upon its incorporation in 1981, Westlake Village became the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.Baker, Pam (2002). ''Thousand Oaks We ...
, in 92 days between May 23 and August 23, 2005.


Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
reports a 44% approval rating with an average rating of 5.65/10 based on 101 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "The role of probation officer Sean Porter fits Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson like a glove; however, the execution is so clichéd, the youths' stories (based on real events), fail to inspire." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, it has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.


Home media

DVD was released in Region 1 in the United States on January 16, 2007, and in Region 2 in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2007.


See also

*
List of American football films A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* List of teachers portrayed in films *
List of hood films This is a list of hood films. These films focus on the culture and life of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and, in some cases, Asian Americans, Asian-Americans or White Americans who live in segregated, low-income urban c ...


References


External links

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Visual Arts Ent. Official site
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050313044838/http://www.visualartsentertainment.com/ , date=2005-03-13
Gridiron Gang on americanfootballfilms
2006 films 2006 crime drama films American coming-of-age drama films American crime drama films American football films Columbia Pictures films Films produced by Neal H. Moritz Films scored by Trevor Rabin Films set in California Films set in Los Angeles 2000s hood films Sports films based on actual events Original Film films Biographical films about educators Biographical films about sportspeople Cultural depictions of players of American football 2000s coming-of-age drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language crime drama films