Review/Opinion

'12 Mighty Orphans'

Coach and educator Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson), Snoggs (Jacob Lofland) and Doc Hall (Martin Sheen) help a ragtag group of underdogs to a Texas high school football championship in “12 Mighty Orphans.”
Coach and educator Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson), Snoggs (Jacob Lofland) and Doc Hall (Martin Sheen) help a ragtag group of underdogs to a Texas high school football championship in “12 Mighty Orphans.”

When you have the proper stakes, it doesn't matter if William Shakespeare or William Goldman wrote the script.

The story of Masonic Home's high school football team is so inherently involving that Tommy Wiseau or "Plan 9 From Outer Space" auteur Edward D. Wood Jr. might make a good movie from Jim Dent's nonfiction book "12 Mighty Orphans."

Ty Roberts' new adaptation often plays as if he had a checklist of football movie cliches to follow, but this recounting of a Depression era season from Masonic Home features enough genuine triumphs over adversity to melt the hearts of an army of cynics.

Coach Harvey Neal "Rusty" Russell (Luke Wilson) led a squad of gridiron warriors unlikely to qualify for, much less compete in, Texas Class A high school football.

Oh, did I mention that they made it to the state championship?

All the lads were orphans and outcasts, so they had it worse than just about everyone else in the country did in 1930s. Their equipment was hand-me-down, and for a good portion of the season they had a solitary football for practice.

Thanks to Coach Russell's ability to inspire the lads on the field and in the classroom (one of his former students later worked on the Manhattan Project), 12 managed to qualify academically for high school play. That's still a paltry squad, and substitutions weren't an option in the violent game.

The food at Masonic Home must not have been that nourishing because they were also physically smaller than their opponents, earning them the nickname of "the Mighty Mites."

It's hard to overplay another retelling of David vs. Goliath, but Roberts and company come close. There is a corny voiceover that Martin Sheen's genial delivery almost overcomes. It's more fun to watch him play the enthusiastic school doctor who doubles as Russell's assistant coach.

The movie focuses primarily on Russell's struggle to build the team and to defeat their naysayers. The matter is personal because Russell himself was an orphan and understood what it was like to be marginalized.

Where the film comes up wanting is how it depicts the players themselves. During the closing credits, we discover that several of them led fascinating adult lives, and a disproportionately large portion played ball professionally. During the movie, only Jake Austin Walker as the surly but gifted Hardy Brown leaves much of an impression.

To be fair to this group of filmmakers, the performers are better suited for the story than the ensembles Wood and Wiseau guided. In addition to being suitably earnest, Wilson hails from Fort Worth, so the accents are thankfully authentic, and having genuine Lone Star locations certainly helps.

That said, it takes little imagination to determine any orphanage run by Wayne Knight (who will always be remembered as Jerry Seinfeld's nemesis Newman) might be a hellhole.

Roberts has one edge over many of his peers. Like the coach in his film, he knows there's a great story in misfortune.

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‘12 Mighty Orphans’

80 Cast: Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw, Wayne Knight, Treat Williams, Jake Austin Walker, Robert Duvall, Ron White

Director: Ty Roberts

Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, some suggestive references, smoking and brief teen drinking

Running time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Playing theatrically

To give his undersized athletes a chance against bigger schools, Coach Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson, center) devised the spread offense, without which modern football would not have been possible. Surrounding Russell and team physician Doc Hall (Martin Sheen) are (from left to right, starting at the back) actors: Preston Porter, Woodrow Luttrell, Sampley Barinaga, Jacob Lofland, (middle): Levi Dylan, Manuel Tapia, Austin Russell, Michael Gohlke (front): Slade Monroe, Jake Austin Walker, Bailey Roberts and Tyler Silva.
To give his undersized athletes a chance against bigger schools, Coach Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson, center) devised the spread offense, without which modern football would not have been possible. Surrounding Russell and team physician Doc Hall (Martin Sheen) are (from left to right, starting at the back) actors: Preston Porter, Woodrow Luttrell, Sampley Barinaga, Jacob Lofland, (middle): Levi Dylan, Manuel Tapia, Austin Russell, Michael Gohlke (front): Slade Monroe, Jake Austin Walker, Bailey Roberts and Tyler Silva.

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