Stand Up To Play Baseball In The Benchwarmers

The main character, Malik, is a cocky African American track star that thinks everyone has it easier than him. He feels that the world owes him something, but almost everyone in it will work to hold him down. Epps has made a living portraying one type of athlete or another, but this is probably his best work because he creates a character that can be very accurate and likeable one minute, but totally juvenile and wildly frustrating the next. He struggles throughout the movie, but like the Fredrick Douglas quote used here says, "without struggle there is no progress." Malik really grows up a lot because the three main people around him are good influences. Malik Williams (Omar Epps) fits the traditional athlete type: cocky and arrogant. An urban black male on a partial track scholarship, Malik is at school to run, not learn. His attitude is that the world owes him, not the other way around. The reality that he can lose comes as an ego-bruising lesson.

In 1971 Coach Herman Boone replaced a popular, successful white coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in that community's effort to finally integrate its schools. The school and community were angrily divided by the federal integration order, and the volatility of the situation was heightened by the abrupt demotion of Coach Yoast and Boone's promotion to Head Coach. In this movie Coach Boone is on a mission to try to get the white and black players to unite and play together as a team. He wanted the two races to become a team. Around that time, there was a lot of racism and a lot of schools were segregated, so the players obviously didn't get along with each other at first. A lot changed when Boone replaced Yoast

     Another important role that is established by one of the players is the role of the magnet that finally brings the black kids and the white kids together. This role is taken on by Louie Lastik. He takes this role when he’s the first one to approach the other black kids and make friends with them. He shows us his role when he sits down net to the black kids

Jessica is the new girl, while Alexia is popular and bratty. Peter is the class clown, while his friend Luke is the smart kid and a total nerd. Danielle is shy and has a hard time standing up for herself. Anna is an outcast because of her home situation, and Jeffery hates everything. Mr. Terupt is the new teacher who knows how to deal with them all. The class wanted to have a great year with their new favorite teacher, but then a playful joke turns into a possibly fatal freak accident. So, the kids grow very close to each other as they hold onto hope that their teacher will be okay.

The film wasn’t about that 13-0 record and winning a state championship, but the struggle that came with it and all the hardships they had to deal and get past. Racism, prejudice, compassion and love were all key aspects of this film as shown. The racism, prejudice of the team when they first met was severe and had been changed. The love and compassion came as the team grew to become one unit and love each other and be able to become something more powerful than they could be by themselves.

The story is told as an historical narrative about the lives and relationships of the four main characters in this movie, Gordy, Chris, Teddy, and Vern. This relationship created a sense of belonging that is unparalleled, still being of significant impact to the narrator as he depicts though his telling of the story. The narrator, one of the boys named Gordie, is specifically impacted through this friendship, creating the sense of self belonging he longed to develop. Gordie had been physically and mentally starved of belonging from his parents. As his parents favourite child had died (Gordie’s brother Denny), they had fell into a great depression, attempting to remove all emotion from their soul. This is shown throughout the movie, as Gordie has flash backs of his past, with the most memorable one being the graveyard scene. As Gordie’s brother was being buried, his father approached him stating that “It should have been [Gordie].” Despite the sadness and importance of the situation, his father still delivered those horrendous remarks to his grieving son. His parents used Gordie as a punching bad, an outlet for there anger at the world for taking there Son so soon. From these remarks and actions spurred a deep dejection towards Gordie. He felt that he wasn’t welcome, and actually started to believe his father’s remarks. However, as his circle of friends developed throughout the journey, and Gordie started to learn about his friends in depth, Gordie felt that his friends accepted him and found him useful. He finally had a meaning in such a diluted world, a sense of self worth. One example of Gordie finally experiencing a sense of belonging was while the sitting around the camp fire, the boys beseeched him into sharing one of his marvellous stories, that he personally believed were childish and

One character named Hector, or Zero, is a friend of Stanley in the camp that didn't know how to read or write before Stanley taught him. Later in the story, Zero explains how his mother left him when he was very young, and ever since, he hasn't been able to learn how to read or write. He continues telling Stanley of how he lived on his own, without any guardians. Stanley Yelnats, another character went from a bullied kid because of his looks, to someone who made strong bonds and trusts with new friends. Stanley is strong, and would take any challenge to save his friends. This is shown when Stanley and Zero ran from the camp, and tried to get to a source of water on a mountain. Zero passes out, and Stanley "took hold of Zero's forearms and pulled him upright... He stood up, lifting Zero's worn-out body off the ground." Stanley later finds water, and quickly fed Zero the water. This shows how much Stanley cares about his friends, and how strong he is to save them. To sum up, a lot of the characters' backstories are very interesting, and explains a lot in the story. This is one reason why I believe you should read the book Holes.

Branch Rickey decided to take a leap of faith and do what was viewed as the unthinkable at the time, sign an African-American to a baseball team. In the film there is one scene in particular

Another part in the movie shows Kirby Higbe, his teammate in the Brooklyn Dodgers, aiming the baseball for Robinsons head. Throughout the movie Higbe Chapmans and Higbes actions show evidence of segregation in sports because they are treating Robinson as if he does not belong in baseball, for example, Ben Chapman stated “why don’t you get that boy you sent down to the International League, huh? That’s where the Africans play, ain’t it?” (“42” 01:14:57- 01:15:04)

Boone and his family face horrible experiences when moving to Alexandria. When moving to the neighborhood, many neighbors were so upset but many were also happy that he didn’t back down. He was offered the head coach position but turned it down because he felt it would be incredibly disrespectful to Coach Yoast. Boone & Yoast agreed to make the relationship work. The African American students meet with Coach Boone in the gym, the meeting turns into a disaster when Coach Yoast and the white students arrive and disturb the meeting. Gerry Bertier was one of the students among the crowd of white students to interrupt. “I’m Gerry Bertier. I’m the only All-America you got on this team. If you want us to play for you, you reserve over half the positions …we don’t need any of your people on defense we’re already set.” said by Gary Bertier to Coach Boone. Boone makes it clear that all players will be on the team regardless of the color of their skin.

The film begins by introducing each of the five characters. John Hughes gives us five common archetypes with each of his characters including: a jock, a popular princess, a geek, a criminal, and basket case. These generic characters make it easier for the audience to relate to one of the characters in the film. Andy, the jock, is the generic high school athlete, or so it seems.

The three main characters were Jack Logan, Becca, and Principle Muhldinger. Jack Logan (son of high school football superstar Tom Logan) is the main character. He is not very coordinated but is extremely fast. He puts together the C Team and challenges Principal Principle Muhldinger's

Ponyboy, Johnny, Sodapop, Darry are all a part of the unruly gang, the Greasers. S.E Hinton is writing these characters as rebellious young men, with a harsh background, who takes their anger and hardship out on gang fighting. These roles play an important part in this book because it shows that even though they nothing physically, they have a heart stronger than gold for each other and others mentally. Hinton use these characters to show prejudice leads to wrong conclusions, violence and oppression because these “poor” young men are getting beat up by the rich Socs who have never felt the feeling of being in poverty. “ You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you’re in a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don’t stick up for them, stick together, make

There are several main characters. The first three Sal, who tries to find out a secret about her mom. Her mom,who is being called by Sugar, because her last name is Chanhassen, which means sugar. Sugar was very quiet and always worries about being respectful in front of other. While Sal is very active. Phoebe is another main character, she is crazy with her ideas. Phoebe has a sister named Prudence. She is just in love with cheerleading and doesn’t care about her family. The Winterbottom’s are very respectful, except, they worry too much. There are also four other main

Two characters that will be examined from the film include Andrew Clark (played Emilio Estevez) and Richard Vernon (portrayed by Paul Gleason). The setting of the film takes place on a Saturday at a suburban Chicago high school. The students are arriving for a special session of detention that will take place all day. In the beginning, everyone is sticking with their traditional stereotypes that were formed from other perceptions (based upon the social group they belonged to). As the day progresses, everybody begins to realize that they are more than these commonly held views. Instead, each person has their own special skills and talents that make them unique. Moreover, all the students and adults are wrestling with similar challenges at