Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2014


Jayhawkers (film)

Buy Jayhawkers (film) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article


{{Infobox film

| name = Jayhawkers

| image = Jayhawkers (film) poster.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Film poster

| director = Kevin Willmott

| producer = Chris Blunk
Scott Richardson
J.S. Hampton

| writer = Scott Richardson
Kevin Willmott

| screenplay =

| story =

| based_on =

| starring = Kip Niven
Justin Wesley
Blake Robbins
Trai Byers
Jay Karnes

| narrator =

| music =

| cinematography = Matt Jacobson
Jeremy Osbern

| editing = Stephen Deaver

| studio = Audax Films
Through A Glass Productions

| distributor =

| released =

| runtime =

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $2 million

| gross =

}}

'Jayhawkers' is a 2014 American sports drama/biographical film directed by Kevin Willmott, following the life of Wilt Chamberlain, Phog Allen, and the 195657 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Former Kansas basketball player Scot Pollard portrays B. H. Born in the film.

Synopsis



The film, which was shot entirely in black and white, depicts Kansas basketball coach Phog Allen's recruitment of Wilt Chamberlain, the dedication of Allen Fieldhouse, and Allen's forced retirement. The film also follows Chamberlain's adjustment to life in Lawrence and his battle to help end segregation in the city, as well as the racism he experienced traveling for road games. The film depicts the Jayhawks triple overtime loss in the 1957 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship Game to North Carolina.

Cast



*Kip Niven Forrest "Phog" Allen

*Justin Wesley Wilt Chamberlain

*Blake Robbins Dick Harp

*Jay Karnes Chancellor Franklin Murphy

*Trai Byers Nathan Davis

*Joseph Lee Anderson Maurice King

*Walter Coppage Langston Hughes

Additionally, former Kansas basketball player Scot Pollard makes a brief appearance as fellow former Kansas basketball player B. H. Born.

Production



A portion of the budget was raised through the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, with over $54,000 raised.

Shot in Lawrence, Kansas, Topeka, Kansas, and Leavenworth, Kansas, the film stars then-current Kansas Basketball player Justin Wesley as Chamberlain. The 6-foot-9 forward was recommended for the role by KU coach Bill Self to Willmott.

A teaser trailer was shown at Late Night in the Phog 2012, The film premiered in Lawrence, Kansas, on February 14, 2014, and made its public debut on February 28, 2014 at Liberty Hall near the University of Kansas campus.

Willmott cast multiple University of Kansas alumni in the film, including Kip Niven, Jay Karnes, Trai Byers, and former basketball players Scot Pollard and Justin Wesley.

Reception



Ben Sachs of The Chicago Reader said he admired Willmotts skill in executing the basketball sequences, which illustrate more vividly than in most sports movies how athletics can become an outlet for personal and professional anxieties. Loey Lockerby of The Kansas City Star wrote, Willmott offers a creative and intriguing look at Lawrence in the 1950s.

In 2020, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody wrote an article revisiting the film, praising it as an exemplary, even thrilling, historical drama." Brody said, "All of the subjects woven into the drama are treated substantially and considered in detail especially the politics of race and of the nascent, and widely resisted, civil-rights movement.

References




Buy Jayhawkers (film) now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 2014



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1107841351.