Movie Review: Coach Carter

Our life is just a matter of choices all the time. It comes with free will bestowed on us in birth. It gives us this great power to go against the tides of materialism and other animalistic instincts like lascivious acts perhaps. Choices give us freedom, and not the other way around. I remember in one of my Theology classes back in college (under Miss Parco), my professor could only stress enough that freedom is never absolute to a moral human race. God did not give us the freedom of choice, rather He gave us the freedom to choose good. Do you realize the big difference between the two ideas?

So many of us are confused with the prevalence of evil in our world. A lot of us would blame it on the higher being who all gave us the freedom of choice. But what many of us fail to understand is that choosing to do good is not merely a privilege. Choosing to do good is our right! So why not exercise that freedom that God so generously gave to us? Without the freedom to choose good, we would all just succumb to our sexual cravings all the time. We would all just be mindless creatures robbing and killing like it was destined of us to do. Without the freedom to choose good, we would be no greater than the animals. Without freedom to do good, we are left with no other choice than to give in to evil. But see now, we have such terrible feelings like guilt, hurt, pain, regrets and sorrow. Why? Because in every choice laid out before us, we know that God gave us the freedom to choose good.

All these make perfect sense to me and my teacher’s lecture just all came back to me now after watching Coach Carter on VCD. Because if I could sum up the movie in a sentence, I would say that the movie dealt with choices people make in a lifetime. Would you sacrifice education in pursuit of winning the state championship in basketball? Would you rather indulge yourself in drugs, parties and casual sex rather than strive to get a college scholarship? Would you rather be in jail when you can get a degree and earn a respectable job? Would you get down with your guy until you get pregnant and abort the fetus afterwards? In all of these, we always have the freedom to choose what is good and what is right.

Carter made the headlines when he cancelled gym practices until his players meet the grade point average in school. He stood on his ground with a clear goal of setting the right priorities for his boys. There were no compromises for him. He possessed the rare gift of effective leadership lacking in the majority. But though we may not have Carter’s ability to influence others, we always are our own leaders in life. And I strongly believe that if only each one of us will take full control of our lives and exercise our freedom to choose good, this world will really be much more harmonious and peaceful than ever.

This movie is very moving and inspiring. The battle of supremacy between good and evil – which one will it be for you? Do you really have a choice? Nuninuninu.