Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said, "I used this book as an inspiration for the biggest win of my career when we ended UCLA's all-time 88-game winning streak in 1974."

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. Click the Book to read the players telling their stories in their own words. This is the book that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information.


Thumbnails November 2007

by Tony Medley

Father G and the Homeboys (10/10): Born and raised in Hancock Park, Jesuit Greg Boyle, America’s Mother Theresa, has devoted his life to providing a regenerative lifestyle for gangbangers in East LA. You won’t soon forget watching the tears stream down the face of young Frances Aguilar as she tells about the murder of two of her children before her eyes, Joe Aleman fight his drug addiction, and the other tales of the young people Fr. G has helped to change their lives. Not to be missed.

Gone Baby Gone (10/10): After years of less than mediocre performances in horrible films, actor Ben Affleck finally finds his niche as director and co-writer of this tense, black, profane, atmospheric Boston-based mystery about a private eye, Casey Affleck, tackling the kidnapping of a little girl and the Byzantine machinations surrounding it.

American Gangster (9/10): Director Ridley Scott combines with two of today’s best actors, Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington, an A-list supporting cast, and a well-written script by Steven Zaillian, based on a true story, to produce a rip-snorting, action-packed tale of two strong men colliding on either side of the law. Notwithstanding a running time of two hours forty minutes, I didn’t peek at my watch once.

Dan in Real Life (7/10): Despite its contrived situations, its Ozzie & Harriet-type family, and failure to achieve its potential, it’s still entertaining. To its credit, it presents a positive picture of a single father.

Michael Clayton (5/10):

Words, words, words,

I’m so sick of words.

This Alan J. Lerner litany from My Fair Lady succinctly sums up how I felt about Michael Clayton. Some might see the dark cinematography, the unshaven protagonist who is being pursued by demons, both known and unknown, and the wordy, incoherent story-telling as tense. George Clooney fans, mostly female, should love it because he’s in almost every scene. Despite a good turn by Sydney Pollack, it failed the watch test.

Elizabeth: the Golden Age (5/10): This story of a tumultuous part of the life of Queen Elizabeth I, covering her execution of her cousin, Mary Stuart, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, is told in such a strikingly melodramatic and superficial manner that the terrific cast is left to thrash around to try to save it. As for me, I’ll see anything with Abbie Cornish in the cast, and the recreation of 16th century England is romantically evocative.

Lust, Caution (5/10): With sex scenes so acrobatic (and graphic), a panel rating each position with 9s and 10s wouldn’t have been out of place. A pretty simple spy story that could easily have been told in 90 minutes; instead this is 160 minutes of reading subtitles. In Mandarin.

Mr. Untouchable (5/10): Director Marc Levin minimizes the damage that Harlem drug king, Nicky Barnes, foisted on New York City in the ‘70s by failing to emphasize the murders and drug addicts for which he was responsible, instead focusing on his conviction and then ratting out all his compatriots, finally getting off despite a sentence of life “without parole.”

Rendition (4/10): The filmmakers' clumsy manipulation of the facts to fit their bias misses a golden opportunity to examine a troubling issue in an even-handed manner. In film after film Hollywood chooses to demonize the United States, which has dedicated itself at great cost to ridding the world of medieval terrorists who subjugate women and murder at will. Some filmmakers, like Dutchman Theo Van Gogh, have been murdered for telling the truth about what is going on with the Islamic Jihad. Hollywood apparently doesn’t have filmmakers with that kind of courage

Lars and the Real Girl (3/10): Instead of the clever farce it could have been, this bilious tale of a clearly psychotic man, Ryan Gosling, who falls in love with a plastic doll and treats her like a real person, is told as a sweet love story, which makes sitting through its 95-minute running time seem like 95 hours.

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains (1/10): How do you make a fawning documentary about the man many consider the worst President in American history? You ignore his Presidency and spend two hours following his book tour. While it is probably apocryphal that Carter was the model for the role of the delusional Lars in the film “Lars and the Real Girl,” the resemblance is astonishing.

Read full reviews at www.tonymedley.com.

 

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