Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as
an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25
years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach.
Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said, "I used this book as an inspiration
for the biggest win of my career when we ended UCLA's all-time 88-game
winning streak in 1974."
Compiled with
more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach.
Click the Book to read
the players telling their stories in their own words. This is the book
that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.
Click the book to read the first chapter and for
ordering information.
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The Brave One (9/10)
by Tony Medley
When you see as many rotten movies as I, it doesn’t take long to know
when you’re watching a well made film. Most movies lose it during the
setup, when they are trying to establish the characters. The setup for
this one lasts around 15 minutes. Director Neil Jordan establishes that
Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) and her fiancé, David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews
of the TV series Lost) are deeply in love with the sequence that
leads Erica and David to a fateful encounter in Central Park that turns
Erica’s life around. Sitting through the sequence, I knew that no matter
where the story took me, this was a film made by people who knew what
they were doing. There was no trite dialogue, no cutesy, unrealistic
repartee. The sequence was just two people who are in love and acting
the way people who are in love act.
Erica’s transformation from a sensitive Public Radio commentator on the
city of New York into a vigilante is exceptionally well done. After the
attack in Central Park, Erica has a complete change of personality,
unwittingly becoming a vigilante. Her transformation is so well done
that it is entirely believable. The entire film attests to this change,
even to the clothing she wears. Costume designer Catherine Thomas
gradually changed Erica’s appearance to subtly reflect that change. “She
starts out in layers and light colors,” says Thomas, “but as time goes
on, her clothes become darker and more spare. There’s a toughness to the
way she looks and I think it’s an important contrast.”
In addition to the clothes, the story is told through Foster’s point of
view which is emphasized by the cinematography. Jordan says “I wanted to
express a sense of dementia, so (cinematographer) Philippe (Rousselot)
and his camera operator, Neil Norton, came up with a device that moves
on a Steadicam, which we called a ‘wobbly-cam.’ It was great for certain
shots in which we were constantly shifting the paradigms.”
Adds Rousselot, “It basically rolls the camera, allowing us to
constantly change the horizon, which gives the impression of Erica
feeling off-balance.” It’s these types of attention to detail that make
the film so involving and credible.
Adding to the expertise of these brilliant filmmakers, there’s no
denying that a large part of the success of this film is due to Foster’s
talent. Like Russell Crowe, and unlike Sean Penn, she never seems to be
acting. What she puts on the screen allows the audience to believe it is
seeing the way a normal person might act, given the situation. Simply
put, she doesn’t give the impression that she’s “acting.”
Erica establishes a relationship with NYPD detective Sean Mercer
(Terrence Howard). It’s not a normal relationship, however. In true
thriller fashion, Mercer has an uneasy feeling about Erica and all the
seemingly unrelated killings that are taking place. In lesser hands,
this could be horribly hackneyed. But the way Jordan, Foster, and Howard
present it, it flows easily up to the unexpected climax, one that might
be troubling to some people, but not to me.
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