The Heart of the Game
Miramax Home Entertainment
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When Seattle filmmaker Ward Serrill met Bill Resler, a college tax professor who moonlights as a girls' basketball coach, he didn't realize that he was about to embark on an incredible seven-year journey. Serrill, camera in hand, followed Resler – who looks more like Santa Claus in Birkenstocks than a whistle-blasting high school coach – into the Roosevelt High School gym and soon discovered a group of girls whose unbridled toughness, passion and energy he came to call The Heart of the Game.

Then, one day, onto the Roughriders' court (and into the film) walked Darnellia Russell – a tough, inner-city girl whose off-court struggles would eventually threaten to crash the star athlete's plans to play college ball and be the first person in her family to get a college education.

At the center of The Heart of the Game is Darnellia's unforgettable true story – the loss of her eligibility and her legal battle to get back on court to play the game that means everything to her. With Coach Resler, her team and her family standing by her side, she takes on enormous personal obstacles as well as the ruling body of high school sports in Washington State.

When you talk of sports documentaries, particularly basketball, Hoop Dreams is the be all to end all. At least it was. Although it's not necessarily better than the 1994 classic, The Heart of the Game should certainly be considered a peer.

Only after spending six seasons with Seattle's Roosevelt High girls basketball team was director Ward Serrill able to piece together his final film. Along the journey he was able to uncover at least four stories that could have made for a film of its own. Poverty, abuse, injustice and class structure are all explored within the confines of the team. Then there's also the unique coach who teaches his girls to be like wolves – literally – and always has something interesting to say.

To a certain extent, there's almost too much material here to fit into a 90-minute feature. Some issues are touched upon, explored a little and then things move on. But that's also part of the point. Life is moving so fast for these girls that proper reflection isn't always possible. As some of the girls discovered, they had to be removed from the surroundings to understand it for themselves.

The Heart of the Game is framed as your typical sports film: team rises from almost nothing to contend as an underdog champion. Serrill does a good job of grounding the film with the conventions to suck you in and make the team likeable. But then the politics and real stories emerge, which makes the film truly stand apart from the crowd.
Video: How's it look?
The film is shown in an enhanced widescreen format (1.85:1 aspect ratio). The picture quality was originally shot digitally and not in the best quality. It gives the film a very raw feel, which can be both good and bad.

Audio: How's it sound?
The main audio track is a solid Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. There's also a Spanish track.

Extras: What additional goodies are included?

• Director Ward Serrill provides a somewhat sparse commentary track, which delves a lot into his experiences making the film.
• Twelve deleted scenes with optional commentary from Serrill.
• "Making of The Heart of the Game" runs a little under a half-hour and documents the journey of the filming process.
• "Beyond The Heart of the Game" focuses on what happened after the cameras stopped rolling. It goes back to follow-up on the key players in the film and the promotional efforts used to market it.

Closing Thoughts
The Heart of the Game is an instant classic as far as sports documentaries go. Not only that, it's just a great film with lots going on. It uses genre as a hook but hones in human interest stories to make it memorable. A solid amount of relevant extras make the DVD great as well.


Review brought to you by our friend Ryan @ Movie-Views.com