Review of Gridiron Gang

By Alex Conde

Rated: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

            I have to confess, before this movie, I’d never thought The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) could honestly act.  I put him in the same acting category as Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He was good in action films as well as in dumb comedies, but I had thought he just couldn’t hack it in a decent drama.  I’d like to state upfront that I was completely wrong.

Based on a true story from a prison in the United States, Gridiron Gang is the story of a prison for youth and the people who inhabit it.  Tired of seeing youth come in and out of the prison as if it were a revolving door, the prison guard Sean Porter (Played by The Rock) gets hit by inspiration one day and decides to start a football team.  As we learn more about him through the movie, we find that his passion for football stems from his past, and is rooted up at the same time in with his anger at his father.  He is joined in this uphill battle by his coworker Malcolm Moore (played in another incredible acting role by Xzibit) they begin by convincing the warden to let them play, and then convince a local Christian College to give them time on the field to compete.

            Gridiron Gang quite honestly ranks as one of the best football movies I have ever seen.  Football movies have a tendency to go for the “happily ever after” ending, where every story resolves itself and you walk out feeling happy.  This movie throws that away and takes an entirely different tact.  Instead of perfect endings, the movie takes the time to really establish the young gangsters as people instead of just a stereotype.  We learn that each person has motivations and desires, and it’s through those inner characteristics that they grow together as a team.  More so than anything, when the team starts to win, they’ve built the story so that the win is believable.  Sean Porter has given a team of strong, willful youths something to work for.  The movie both recognizes and speaks to the causes of gang violence.  In one strong scene, Sean Porter says that if they take the youth out of the gangs, they have just created a void in their lives, and suggests they need to create something to fill the void that brought the youth to the gangs in the first place.

            This movie tells a story that you can appreciate even if you don’t know a single thing about football, while at the same time being something a football fan can appreciate.  It’s a delicate balance, but director Phil Joanou walked that line and came up with a winner.  Go see this film!