WOODLAWN PLEADS FOR CHRISTIAN LOVE TO SOLVE RACE PROBLEMS
Races have been brought together through American sports at various levels, but until Woodlawn, the transformation of Birmingham, Alabama, in 1973/74 had not been told on the screen. When the film begins, documentary footage provides some context of the era. Then African American students are bussed to a former all-White school, and a scuffle breaks out. Inside the basketball court, the football team collects both Blacks and Whites nursing fears of each other. Lay evangelist Hank (played by Sean Astin) then appears out of nowhere to rouse them to join together as part of the “Jesus Revolution.” The team thus aroused surprises the city with victories in which the main star is Tony Nathan (played by Caleb Castille), who later played for the Miami Dolphins. A skeptical coach is converted, but a Supreme Court decision disallowing prayer at a public school is vilified. With a music score well designed to stir emotions, the film ends with ads for future “Jesus Revolution” events in 2016. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin thereby cheapen the message by commercializing a memorable true story and thus fail to outshine the secular-oriented Remember the Titans (2000), which features events in northern Virginia during 1971. MH