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unstoppable

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Bob Hoose
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Movie Review

For Anthony, the allure of becoming a wrestling champion has never been about fame. No, becoming a champion would simply mean that having only one leg would no longer be the most important thing about him.

Most of his life, Anthony has never been more to most people than just the kid who was born with only one leg, the guy who hopped around like a little jumping jack.

Then in high school he realized that, amazingly, he had a skill for wrestling. And wrestling was good for him.  For some reason, even though he had less leverage, less low-body strength, he could use his three-limbed physique in ways that quadraped kids couldn’t. On the wrestling mat, he was a force to be reckoned with.

As high school was winding down, and with the State high school championship already in his back pocket, Anthony had his eyes set on one thing: making it into the University of Iowa. That school had produced more national wrestling champions than any other.

There, Anthony could reach his goal.

But state champion or not, Iowa isn’t interested in a one-legged wrestler. In fact, none of the top schools he applied to are interested.

But Drexler is. Drexler is even willing to give Anthony a full-ride scholarship. Drexler, however, doesn’t produce champions. The school’s never had one. Ever.

So in the end, Anthony settles for a local school, Arizona State University. The team has no scholarship to offer him. In fact, the best that the wrestling coach can do is giving Anthony the option to try out as a walk-on. But it’s a big school, and it’s conveniently just down the street. So, Anthony can keep his job at the airport. He can live at home, earn all the money he can, and borrow the rest.

Now all he has to do is make the team.

Before he tries though, the ASU coach has a bit of advice for the one-legged Anthony. He puts his hand on Anthony’s shoulder, looks him deep in the eyes and sincerely says:

“Take the Drexler scholarship. Please!”

Anthony nods. He understands. And he replies:

“See you at tryouts, Coach.”


Positive Elements

Anthony is focused on his championship goal, but he’s also constantly aware of the strain that his mother is under because of her abusive relationship with her husband (Anthony’s step-father). We see how Anthony repeatedly takes steps to protect and comfort her and the other kids in their large family.

Anthony and his mom both voice their love for and pride in one another.

Several other characters go out of their way to support Anthony, too. One of those is his high school coach, whom Anthony goes to for a word of advice. Coach Williams also makes calls to other coaching acquaintances to help Anthony get into a good college.

ASU’s Coach Charles also gains a great deal of respect for Anthony and his self-sacrificial efforts to support the team. He sees Anthony’s refusal to make excuses or give up, and the coach eventually becomes the young man’s mentor. He publicly praises the young man.

Anthony’s commitment does not go unnoticed by his teammates. Some of the scholarship athletes even volunteer some of their scholarship money to keep Anthony on the team.

Not only does Anthony do everything his teammates do (running the bleachers; carrying weights; hiking up a mountain all while on crutches) he also carries the third-highest GPA at ASU.

Spiritual Elements

Someone says, “Praise the Lord.” And Coach Charles sees Anthony’s backbreaking efforts to keep up with the team and declares, “Lord, have mercy.”

Anthony’s younger brother talks about praying to God that he might lose one of his legs so that he would be more like Anthony. Anthony hugs him and tells him that he needs to keep his legs.

Sexual & Romantic Content

During a “good” moment, Mom and Dad hug and kiss while drinking wine together. After a loss in a match, Anthony’s stepfather nastily goads him about being “flexed” in the match. “Like some kind of woman, too. On the bottom.”

We see some shirtless male teens in a locker room. During a weigh-in before a match, two male athletes stand on scales dressed in nothing but briefs.

Violent Content

Anthony’s stepfather is physically and verbally abusive to his family members. We never actually witness him hitting anyone, but his imposing presence often feels threatening. We can also see fist-sized holes in a wall and broken pictures after a screaming fight between him and Anthony’s mom on a couple occasions, and physical abuse is clearly implied. There are bruises on Mom’s arms in the shape of fingers.

Anthony’s stepfather does push his wife to the floor in front of him on one occasion, and the brave young man puts himself physically between them. The angry, much larger man then threatens to fight and hurt Anthony. Eventually Anthony must wrestle his stepfather to the ground and put him in a submissive headlock until the police arrive.

While training, Anthony sometimes falls and injures himself. During a two-mile hike up a rocky mountain path, for instance, Anthony falls off his crutches repeatedly. His exhausted teammates watch with respect as he struggles to the top covered in raw scrapes and bruises.

Anthony finds several bloody cotton balls in the bathroom trash. He then realizes that his mom is going to various blood donation centers to raise money.

Of course, this being a wrestling movie, we see Anthony and others grappling forcefully with each other in their matches. In one instance, Anthony is kicked accidentally by his foe during a match. He gets up with a bloody scrape on his face.

Crude or Profane Language

Unstoppable‘s script is littered with one f-word and 10 s-words along with some two or three uses each of the words “h—,” “a–hole,” “a–,” “bulls–t,” “d–n,” and “b–ch.” God’s name is misused four times (three of those in combination with the word “d–n”). There are a couple crude refences to male and female genitalia.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Anthony’s prison-guard stepfather talks about searching criminals for hidden “dime bags” of drugs. Mom gets a bit tipsy drinking wine. Later, she talks to Anthony about drinking and partying when she was a young woman. But, she says, his birth changed her priorities.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Anthony’s mom overhears students badmouthing her son because he only has one leg. Several coaches state that not only do athletes “need” to be selfish, but that taking anything other than a first-place win is a total loss. (But while Anthony is laser-focused on someday being a champion, his story tells a tale of hard-work, friendship and teamwork.)

In a flashback, 10-year-old Anthony’s stepfather cruelly makes it clear that he is not the boy’s biological father and that Anthony shouldn’t expect the same love and care as his brother. The man also pushes Anthony repeatedly about making good “choices” while generally making poor ones himself. He loses his job, for example, but doesn’t tell anyone. And at one point he leaves Anthony’s mom alone to deal with the fact that their mortgage is six months in arrears.

For Anthony’s part, Anthony also makes some jokes about his stepfather when he thinks the man is out of earshot.

Conclusion

Anthony Robles’ real-life triumph-over-adversity story is impressively inspirational. This young man not only fought through an abusive situation at home, but he doggedly faced the many taxing difficulties of rising to the peaks of a fiercely competitive collegiate sport with only one leg.

His tale tells viewers that nearly anything is possible if you have people who love you, an unfailing faith in yourself and stubborn tenacity.

Unfortunately, this underdog story has also got quite a bit of unnecessary crude language shoehorned into the script, seemingly for no better reason than to make sure it didn’t get a PG rating. That’s disappointing. And even though it’s an incredibly inspirational tale, Unstoppable as a movie often feels plodding and predictable as well.

Those issues may not be enough to keep sports fans and family audiences at bay, but they’ll still need to be, uh, wrestled with.


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Bob Hoose

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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