Coach Carter Essay

I believe that this will be easier for me to understand what Is happening In the film and I think I will be able to understand the personalities of the characters whilst watching a film rather than reading a novel. I find that they are easier to analyze. Coach Carter Is based on a true story, Samuel L. Jackson portrays Ken Carter who has a legend status at Richmond high.At the beginning of the film Carter was offered a job at the school as head coach of the basketball team. He accepted the Job to attempt to bring change into the or neighborhood and to the student athletes who played for the basketball team. One theme that the film uses is teamwork, at the beginning of the story the team weren't playing as one unit but as a group of individuals, this resulted in the team losing most of their games in the previous years.When Coach Carter took over he taught them that teamwork will always beat a team of individuals, he taught them to pass the ball to each other rather than continuously shooting, he also punished the team as a group rather than singling out each Individual. This made brought the team closer and taught them some discipline. Another theme was winning Isn't always everything, this theme Is shown when Coach Carter locks up the gym, he does this because the team break their contracts with not all of them achieving a or higher after they promised they would all get their act together and pass their classes.He shows that he cares more about the boys passing their classes than winning which his main goal was to try to ensure a successful future for these students rather than winning championships, proving that he values education and a successful life over winning games. This theme is also shown in the last game where he team comes up short in the final, obviously them team was shattered but after the game they were in the change rooms singing because they were proud of their achievements. The boys were all proud of how far they had come and were very appr eciative of what the Coach had done for them and getting their lives back on track.One really big theme Is respect from one of the very first scenes the Coach talks about respect and how the team should refer to him as â€Å"sir† and vice-versa, In that same scene he talks about the â€Å"n-word† and how it is a derogatory term and he does not want to hear it anymore. At first the team didn't respect the Coach, but once they realized what he was trying to do and saw that he was respecting them they eventually showed respect back by sticking by him when his job was on the line after complaints about his coaching methods.During the team's first few game the boys would continuously taunt their opponents as they began to get overly cocky due to their winning streak, Carter then punished them as he did not want his boys to be perceived that way and wanted the boys to win graciously. Throughout the course of the film there were a few characters who developed their personalit ies, one being Time Cruz, at the beginning of the film he was a no good street thug who was a menace to society and was In a gang and he had no purpose In life, Coach Carter opened his eyes and showed him that there Is more to life than being a thug.In a later scene there was a drive by shooting in which his cousin was involved in, upon Carter for guidance. Cruz went on to follow Coach Carter's advice and he went on with his study and continued to play basketball. In the end this led to Cruz going to college and earning a degree. Coach Ken Carter is shown as highly unorthodox high school basketball coach. Coach Carter took the coaching Job and made his own rules.He believed that everyone in the team must receive a good grades and form a strong bond in the team or they would not play and he had everyone in the team sign a contract stating that they would get good grades or else not be able to play. The team was undefeated and on its way to the Championship, when Coach Carter received the low grades of his players he locked the gym and benched the team for not getting good enough grades. Coach Carter received some praise but much more criticism for his decision. Coach Carter taught his players that they must be committed and work art to excel.Whilst watching the movie I noticed that there were not many moments when the whole team was in the shot, instead the director really wanted to focus on one person at a time. They focus on individuals which shows their attitudes and expressions really well. However on the occasions that they were shown together they look like a united team, this shows the viewer the bond that they have created. This movie was filled with lots of Urn style music which fits well with a movie about basketball, this satisfies most viewers as many basketball players stereotypically sites to this music.Depending on the scene the music was more up-tempo or was slowed down, during a game the music was used to pump the viewer up whilst the sadder pa rts of the movie had slow emotional music, for example music about losing people was played when one of the players relatives died. In the end Richmond lost in the championship final, the players were distraught but shortly after they realized that they had won in another way, the players made friendships, learnt respect, got their lives back on track, earned college scholarships and ultimately became better people.