1: The Story Behind the Longest Winning Streak in Football History

Rating:
Summary: A must for the highschool football fan!
Review: As a successful high school football coach, I find this film an extraordinary inside the otherwise reserved and cloistered world of high school sports, giving insight into what makes a team a WINNING TEAM. A rich text of triumph and trial. A treat for the fan - a MUST HAVE for the coach, player, or player/coach.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular documentary - lets you draw your own conclusions
Review: I certainly knew what I expected before seeing this wonderful documentary - a film about the pressures of being a high school athlete and how it can ruin a young man's life. Or so I thought. This story, however, caught me completely offguard by showing the bond between the players, the coaches, and the town in an amazingly honest and warm way. Aside from being an interesting look at one of the most respected and amazing streaks in teh history of US sports, "1" shows the emotion and comraderie that most filmmakers would have plain missed. Fantastic documentary.

Rating:
Summary: Should be mandatory viewing at schools across America.
Review: I saw an advance screening of "1" and highly recommend this documentary. This is exactly the kind of film that helps balance out the negative misperception of public education in America that our public schools are full of underachieving youth. The movie follows a recent season of a football team from a northern California high school, De La Salle, a team which was on a unprecedented 13-year winning streak. From what I understand the school had turned down multiple offers over the years from other notable film makers to document the players and the remarkable coaching staff before granting Mr. O'Hara an "all access pass" to the team. Through elaborate interviews with the players and coaching staff, as well as behind the scenes locker-room and game footage you learn the teams "secret sauce". But thats not really the point of the film. "1" is the story of over-coming adversity through brotherhood, discipline and spirituality that just happens to be focused around football. Should be mandatory viewing at schools across America.