We’ve had plenty to deal with in 2020. As I was sitting down to write about this amazing movie, I realized we were first required to “Shelter In Place” six months ago today. While many of us are back in the workplace, many more of us are working from home, attending school online, or just plain hesitant to spend our days and nights out in public. The 2020 fear started with Covid-19 and has progressed through protests and riots to wildfires.
Things have changed; the “norm” is new. Many of us have transitioned to working or schooling from home as a temporary inconvenience to the belief that we are now dealing with our future reality. Restaurants are limited, so we have started cooking more for ourselves and our families. We’ve even worked our ways through a puzzle or two, or twenty.
One of the more concerning issues we’re dealing with as well are the protests, peaceful to truly scary! Racial unrest. Hot days and warm summer nights have seen the protests crop up in every city. Big-city police officers are fighting for the right to protect their cities. Racial unrest. One would think it would have become a thing of the past by now.
Woodlawn, a true story, is a powerful movie. It takes place in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1973, another time and place of racial unrest.
A gifted high school football player must learn to boldly embrace his talent and faith as he battles racial tensions on and off the field at Woodlawn, a moving and inspirational film based on a true story of how love and unity overcame hate and division in early 1970s’ Birmingham.
Tony Nathan (Caleb Castille) lands in a powder keg of anger and violence when he joins fellow African-American students at Woodlawn High School after its government-mandated desegregation in 1973. The Woodlawn Colonels football team is a microcosm of the problems at the school and in the city, which erupts in cross burning and riots, and Coach Tandy Gerelds (Nic Bishop) is at a loss to solve these unprecedented challenges with his disciplinarian ways. When Coach (Jon Voight) goes to Tony’s home to recruit him, his father asks how many black players are on the team? When the Coach answers, his father asks, “Why do you see that changing?” The answer? Because it’s time.
It’s only when Hank (Sean Astin), an outsider, asks to speak to the team that everything starts to change. Hank becomes the team’s unofficial chaplain giving these boys the grounding they need to thrive in this turbulent time. The change is so profound in the team it affects their coach, their school, and their community in ways no one could have imagined.
Mark Burnett and wife, Roma Downey, are the Executive Producers, and Jon and Andy Erwin wrote, directed, and produced this Pureflix film. It is a well-done gem.
In my life I have experienced racial tension. I have to admit that after almost 60 years, I would like to think we were done with that part of history. We obviously haven’t resolved that issue. I do believe that the answer found in Woodlawn in 1973 is still the answer for today.
Find Woodlawn, the movie and watch it. It’s great for teens and pre-teens. It was produced in 2015, so you should be able to find it. It’s worth the search.
As always, send me your thoughts to carolyn@carolynhastings.com.
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