The Theme of Success the 2011 Film: Undefeated

Success is a Choice
In the film, “Undefeated” (2011) directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, Coach Bill Courtney helps out inner city high school football players with everything from their plays on the field, to their grades in class, to their personal life at home. With this extracurricular activity being a main aspect of the characters’ lives, their lives outside of the sport are positively impacted from playing football in Manassas.
The film starts with Coach Bill Courtney listing off players whose disorderly conduct has resulted in them being unable to play for the Manassas Tigers. North Memphis used to be a booming place because of the Firestone plant, but since the plant closed, people moved out and jobs closed. The football program, as a result, fell off the map currently making the Manassas Tigers the underdogs. People who know the about the team don’t remember their wins, instead their losses are the ones being recognized. Bill Courtney started volunteering to coach the team six years ago. Soon after Courtney joined the team, Manassas started to look promising.
A few 8th graders walked into the workout room a few years ago and shared their opinion that they no longer saw the Tigers as the worst team. Now upperclassmen, the movies takes the viewer into the lives of three particular players: O.C. Brown, a 300 lb. lineman whose performance on the field, sadly, doesn’t match the performance in the classroom; Chavis Daniels, a linebacker who is easily agitated, likes to settle things with his fists; and Montrail “Money” Brown, a player who excels both on and off the field and suffered from an, almost, season-ending knee injury.
The football program at Manassas was never funded so the team had to play something called ...

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... go to his physical therapy or to school, yet he’s so determined to play football that he considers playing on a bad knee. Coach manages to talk some sense into him, reasoning with him that if he does the right thing and goes to therapy, class, and rests, then things will work out for the better. Montrail’s knee is better by the time of the playoffs and he is granted a full scholarship to any university by a friend of Courtney.
These players, with the help of Coach Courtney, transformed into selfless team members that went on to show that Manassas football is not dead through determination, character, discipline, and commitment. They show that if you want something bad enough, then you have to do the necessary work to make that happen. Although, this is shown through the perspective of football, it can be applied to anything that one wishes to accomplish in life.