411 Movies Interview: James Gartner
Posted by Jacob Ziegler on 01.18.2006
The director of "Glory Road" speaks...
One might think that when choosing a director to helm a film based on one of the most important basketball seasons of all time that a producer might look for someone with a deep love of the game.
However, Jerry Bruckheimer opted to go the other route when he picked Michigan native and Ferris State University graduate (and he has now lived in Traverse City since 1989) James Gartner to direct "Glory Road," the story of the 1963 Texas Western Miner basketball team.
"I wasn't a big basketball fan," Gartner confessed in a phone interview, "and I'm still not," he said.
Gartner said that Bruckheimer was familiar with his work on commercials, and that they had wanted to work on something together for a while. He said that it was the "heart, the drama, and the humor" of the story that attracted him to it.
Ironically, Gartner's lack of love for basketball was one of the things that sold him to the real Don Haskins (played by Josh Lucas in the film). "He asked me right away if I liked basketball, and I had to tell him the truth. I just wanted to tell the story, and I think he appreciated the honesty."
A film like "Glory Road" presents the challenge of taking a story that has been done many times before – the underdog team that rises to glory – and making it unique. "It's tough to rise above the clichés," Gartner said, "but you just have to deal with it."
Gartner dealt with it by using a mixture of both experienced and fresh-faced actors to assemble his team. "I wanted guys who could play ball first, and then they could read for the parts," he said.
For example, Schin A.S. Kerr, who plays David Lattin, had never acted before. "He has an interesting connection to the story," Gartner says. "His father played for a team that actually faced the Miners that season."
Since he's not a basketball fan, Gartner said he had to surround himself with people who are knowledgeable about the game. "I had a lot of great people working with me," Gartner said. "Mike Fisher did the choreography, and Tim Floyd (who coached the Chicago Bulls after Phil Jackson left the team) and Pat Riley (who actually played against the Miners in the championship game) were both consultants.
"We had seven cameras rolling during the basketball scenes," he continued, "and we only had about 300 extras, the rest had to be digitally inserted."
The most difficult challenge Gartner and his actors faced was filming the especially racially charged scenes. "During the scene where the players find racial slurs written in blood on the wall, Mechad Brooks (who played Harry Flournoy Jr.) didn't even want to see the room until we shot the scene, so he could feel the way the real players felt."
The man Gartner was most concerned about pleasing was Don Haskins himself, whom Gartner expressed a great deal of admiration for. "He was just such a great, humble guy," Gartner said. "I respect him more than anyone else.
"We premiered the movie for him in El Paso, and I was unable to go due to a prior commitment," he continued. "But really, I was really just scared of how he would react. Thankfully, he loved it."
