The Junction Boys (2002)

Tom Berenger leads an outstanding cast in this bonecrunching dramatization of legendary college football coach Paul Bear Bryants debut at Texas AM in the summer of 1954 The often unnerving story finds Bryant ducking the schools good ol boy network of rich influential alumni by spiriting his new team away to a makeshift training base in a tiny town called Junction There Bryant runs the equivalent of a POW camp brutalizing an oversized underdeveloped bunch of rowdy young men and tormenting those who seek medical attention for cracked spines and deadly heat exhaustion Berenger delivers a wartsandall performance as the vulgar monstrous yet muchrespected Bryant and the direction by seasoned television vet Mike Robe is brisk and almost explosively charged Whatever one thinks of Bryants punishing methods the film does not flinch from telling its powerful tale Tom Keogh