What Makes Gavin O’Connor The Best Sports Movie Director Of Our Age

“His whole life was a million-to-one shot” was the tagline for a scrappy little 1977 movie called Rocky. Directed by John G. Avildsen, from a script that Sylvester Stallone wrote for himself to star in — and protected throughout the process of getting it made like a dog with a bone — the rough-looking, low-budget boxing tale became an international phenomenon.

It’s a great sports movie, and it’s a great underdog movie, but it’s also more than those two things, and that more is encapsulated in that inspired tagline: “His whole life.” That’s the hook. I won’t spoil Rocky if you haven’t seen it (although if that is indeed the case I’ll question whether you were born on earth or not), but its ultimate theme is life itself, and what one individual does with it. Rocky Balboa might not have been able to even pronounce the word “existential” but that what his story truly is.

Once Balboa went from underdog to hero the movies about him changed —for how could they not?— and while many of them were sturdy albeit somewhat ridiculous entertainments, none had the incredible emotional pull of the first. Avildsen, who didn’t direct another Rocky film until Rocky V in 1990, actually was able to bring some of the do-or-die integrity of his older work to the Karate Kid movies, in which martial arts turned into both a sport and a survival skill for weedy Ralph Macchio.

Last week saw the early VOD release of The Way Back. It’s a striking film that got a lot of press partially due to the affinities between its lead actor and the role he plays here. Ben Affleck, whose struggles with alcohol have yielded him a lot of bad tabloid press, is Jack Cunningham, a construction worker and feckless drunk who’s called upon to coach the basketball team at the high school where he was once a star. It’s an underdog story — when Jack asks the priest at Bishop Hayes who hires him how the team is, he’s told bluntly that they’re bad. It’s got a lot of echoes of earlier films, not just Rocky but of course Hoosiers, the 1986 movie starring Gene Hackman as a guy looking for redemption as both coach and human being.

But The Way Back is nevertheless distinctive and genuinely rousing, not just because of Affleck’s act-what-you-know performance but the sharp direction of Gavin O’Connor.

O’Connor has directed three sports movies in his career, and they’re all winners. He made his first feature, Comfortably Numb, in 1995, but it was at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival where he made a big splash, with Tumbleweeds, a female-driven quasi-road movie (co-written by O’Connor’s then wife Angela Shelton, from whose early life experiences it was drawn), one that also launched the career of ace actress Janet McTeer. It looked as if O’Connor could have carved out a nice corner in character-driven indie dramas, but he then spent a bit of time developing a TV drama series. His next feature didn’t come until 2004, and that was Miracle, retelling the true story of 1980 Olympic Hockey team. You know, the one that quite improbably beat the Russians.

“You think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.” So says coach Herb Brooks, spectacularly portrayed by Kurt Russell, to his charges. This theme recurs to a certain extent in The Way Back. And as in The Way Back, the focus is as much on the characters as their sport, which in the case of this movie led to some complaints that it didn’t feature enough hockey qua hockey. For those who can’t follow hockey, though, that’s a strength.

God knows there’s plenty of mixed martial arts in Warrior, O’Connor’s next sports-themed movie, a follow-up to his troubled 2008 cop drama Pride and Glory. The function of it is to draw the viewer in to the sport, show the ways it’s different from boxing, and really bring home its brutality — the better to show just how devoted its participants have to be. Its scenario also raises the stakes by having its protagonist/opponents being long-estranged brothers. Once these guys — Tommy and Brendan, played with ferocity by Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton — reach their respective breaking points, you understand their kind of fighting well. Hence, your investment in it can be rewarded by O’Connor’s graphic, detailed action work in the movie’s finale. “Who controls the pace controls the victory” is a motto of Brendan’s, and O’Connor’s pacing of the long climactic fight is superb. And in this film the stakes aren’t high just for the fighters, but for their alcoholic dad, played by Nick Nolte, who got an Oscar nomination for this work.

In The Way Back it’s clear from the start that Affleck’s character Jack is only partially committed to oblivion; there’s a part of him that still wants meaning. (Affleck and O’Connor were last teamed in The Accountant, a silly but satisfying action movie that gave no inkling of what they accomplish here.) After he is offered the coaching gig, he drinks himself stupid and rehearses his rejections of the job, settling on “I just have no interest in coaching your fucking basketball team. That’s all there is to it.” That’s his way of saying he has no interest in life itself, and there’s a real reason he feels this way.

But he takes the job nonetheless, suspecting something about it may help him. The film is a layered character study, not just of alcoholism, but of parental grief.

When The Way Back hits the court, there’s a lot of inspirational cussing. “Reach in your shorts right now and tell me if you find a pair…have a little fucking pride!” Cunningham yells at his charges. As this is a Catholic school, he’s instructed to tone down his language. While there’s only one player who’s a true player, so to speak, Cunningham is able to shape the team to make the most of its scrappiness. “Use our lack of size to our advantage,” he advises at one point.

O’Connor stages and shoots the basketball action with confidence, but doesn’t lean on it too hard. As a director he knows where to place the stresses so the intended crowd-pleasing moments hit their sweet spots.

Cannily, during one crucial game he emphasizes not just the action but the trash-talk and admonitions of the competing coaches — Affleck’s opponent is played by Matthew Glave, whose coach projects amusing “I can’t believe we’re losing to these guys” energy. Cunningham gives a pep talk to the team — and then a contradictory one to Brandon, the aforementioned star player (Brandon Wilson): “Forget that. Take the shot.” In this movie, as in all great sports movies, small but hard-won victories count the most.

Veteran critic Glenn Kenny reviews‎ new releases at RogerEbert.com, the New York Times, and, as befits someone of his advanced age, the AARP magazine. He blogs, very occasionally, at Some Came Running and tweets, mostly in jest, at @glenn__kenny.

Where to stream The Way Back