Product Description

Go courtside for a true-life rush like no other in this passionate and inspirational documentary in the same powerful tradition as HOOP DREAMS. Director Ward Serrill brings the camera up close and personal to capture the Roosevelt Roughriders girls' basketball team during six turbulent seasons, taking us far beyond the court. You'll meet Bill Resler, the tax professor turned hard-driving unorthodox coach who turns the team around — and Darnellia Russell, the talented inner-city tough girl who battles off-court threats to regain eligibility. You'll meet a real team full of drive, toughness and the unbridled desire to make history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5453 in DVD
• Brand: Team Marketing
• Released on: 2007-02-27
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 98 minutes

Features

• One need not have any interest in basketball to be moved by Ward Serrill's incredibly moving, hypnotically riveting documentary. A HOOP DREAMS-style story transposed onto females in middle-class Seattle, THE HEART OF THE GAME follows a high school basketball team's trials and tribulations over six years. Though it follows a team, the film is ultimately the story of two unique, courageous,

Amazon.com
The Heart of the Game is, simply put, one of the most enjoyable and joyous documentaries ever made. For several years, the movie follows a girls' basketball team called the Rough Riders from a Seattle high school as they strive to win the state championship, and in the process discovers heart-wrenching twists of fate, vivid and compelling characters, colorful dialogue, and a nail-biting conclusion. The Heart of the Game starts with Bill Resler, a professor of tax law who agrees to become the head coach for the girls' basketball program at Roosevelt High School. He swiftly challenges the players with demanding drills and wild metaphors (each year he picks a different theme for the team, from "pack of wolves" to "tropical storm")--and the girls take him on, pulling together into a potent team. But when a girl from a poor neighborhood named Darnellia Russell joins the Rough Riders, her skill takes their fortunes even higher--until she unexpectedly has to quit. From there, the movie takes more and more compelling turns, carried along by the winning personalities of Bill and Darnellia. The Heart of the Game, like Hoop Dreams, works first as an exhilarating sports movie, but has a rich human story that will make it fascinating to people who don't care about basketball. First-time filmmaker Ward Serrill lucked out with the material, but he clearly labored to shape what must have been thousands of hours of footage into a taut, headlong movie. His labor paid off. See this movie. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!
I often enjoy documentaries - but I can't say i'm a huge fan of girls basketball, and moreso especially highschool girls basketball. However, this movie is awesome!! Edge of your seat excitement, real emotion, real people and the coach (Bill Resler) steals the show. You can't help but be touched by the story, and you'll also be laughing out loud too. It's not often for me that movies hit such a wide range of emotion - and I watch a lot of movies. Heart of the Game is a definite must-see if you like any of the following: comedy, action, drama, sports or uplifting stories. It's truly a film for every age and every gender. I don't often believe the movie critics out there - yet all of them seem to be raving about this film as much as me, so check it out!

Self-Transcendence Through Sport and Teamwork....
This absorbing documentary is a fascinating study on the transcendence of sports and teamwork. It features a Seattle high school scrapping and clawing its way to the state basketball girls championship. Its star player, a young black single mother named Darnelia Russell becomes the focal point of the narrative as she must go to court against the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association to retain her eligibility for high school competition.

Coach Bill Ressler is an unorthodox tax professor turned basketball guru. He harbors and implements a number of quirky ideas which seem to work:

* drills were the girls lean on each other in order to overcome their phobia about physical contact
* players only meetings where the girls or sequestered for hours without coaches in order to resolve interpersonal rivalries and conflicts
* giving each team and animal theme for this season such as pack of wolves, school of Peron is, etc. for a motivational purposes

It becomes clear that Coach Ressler is not just coaching basketball but teaching life lessons. Whether you are a sports fan or not, you will be engrossed by this absorbing documentary of self-transcendence through the discipline of teamwork and athletics

The Story, The Team, The Coach AND the Director all have "Heart"!
You'll probably come to this film expecting to see a female version of the Academy Award winning documentary Hoop Dreams. At least I did. But it's much more than that. It's the story of a team and it's players but it's also the story of their amazing coach - college tax professor Bill Resler (a REALLY funny guy who you'll not soon forget) and - behind the camera, the film's Writer/Director Ward Serrill. They, as well as one player who sets things in motion, Darnellia Russell, all have that HEART that's in the title!

The best way to see this film is to know nothing going in except it's about a high school girl's basketball team, filmed in "real time". Then let yourself get immersed in it as the story plays out. The less you know, the better. You will laugh and cry and have your spirits lifted in the film's 98-minute length.

But don't stop there. The DVD has HOURS of extras, and that doesn't count the full feature commetary (which I did not listen to). Many of the deleted scenes will add more background and you should watch them. Next watch the 29 minute "On the Road with Heart" short to get some real insight and hear a VERY VERY funny story as told by Coach Resler and having nothing to do with Basketball. Finally you MUST watch the 30 minute "Making off short", which tells it's own story of heart and self-esteem when you learned the story behind Write /Director Serrill's journey to make this film.

This is a great sports film but also a film that every teenage girl should see. It's rated PG-13 but I don't remember even hearing what is called "Brief Strong Language".

The film only played some small festivals and hopefully will reach a wider audience on DVD. Come for the feature and stay for the bonus features. You won't be sorry (or bored either!).


Steve Ramm "Anything Phonographic"