''12 Mighty Orphans'' is a 2021 American

sports film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spor ...

which was directed by Ty Roberts from a screenplay by Roberts,

Lane Garrison Lane Edward Garrison (born May 23, 1980) is an American actor best known for the role of David "Tweener" Apolskis on the television series ''Prison Break''. He appeared in the pilot episode of the El Rey network's series ''From Dusk till Dawn''. ...

and Kevin Meyer. It is based upon the

non fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with bei ...

book ''Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football'' by

Jim Dent James Lacey Dent (born May 9, 1939) is an American professional golfer. Dent was born in the golf mecca of Augusta, Georgia, home of the Masters Tournament, though as an African American he wouldn't have been allowed onto the Augusta National c ...

. The book is based on the Masonic School for Orphans in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. The film stars Luke Wilson,

Vinessa Shaw Vinessa Elizabeth Shaw (born July 19, 1976) is an American film actress and model. She began her career as a child actor, and had her breakout role in Disney's 1993 Halloween comedy-fantasy film '' Hocus Pocus''. Shaw also appeared in ''Ladybu ...

Wayne Knight Wayne Elliot Knight (born August 7, 1955) is an American actor. In television, he played Newman on '' Seinfeld'' (1992–1998) and Officer Don Orville on '' 3rd Rock from the Sun'' (1996–2001). He also voiced Igor on ''Toonsylvania'' (199 ...

Jake Austin Walker Jake Austin Walker (born June 24, 1997) is an American actor and singer. He is known for his roles as Jared Talbot in the Sundance series ''Rectify'' (2013–2016), Henry King Jr. in the DC Universe series '' Stargirl'' (2020–2021), and Liam ...

Jacob Lofland Jacob Seth Lofland (born July 30, 1996) is an American actor best known for his role as Neckbone in the film ''Mud'' and for his role as Aris in '' Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials'' and '' Maze Runner: The Death Cure''. Life and career Lofland w ...

, Levi Dylan,

Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...

and

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

. The film was released in the United States on June 11, 2021 by

Sony Pictures Classics Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...

. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

The true story of the Mighty Mites, the football team of a Fort Worth orphanage who, during the Great Depression, went from playing without shoes, or even a football, to playing for the Texas state championships. Over the course of their winning season, these underdogs and their resilient spirit became an inspiration to their city, state, and an entire nation in need of a rebound, even catching the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The architect of their success was Rusty Russell, a legendary high school coach who shocked his colleagues by giving up a privileged position so he could teach and coach at an orphanage. Few knew Rusty's secret: that he himself was an orphan. Recognizing that his scrawny players couldn't beat the other teams with brawn, Rusty developed innovative strategies that would come to define modern football.

Cast

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

initially took place for seven weeks from October 7 to November 25, 2019 in Weatherford, Cleburne, and

. It is based on the non fiction book of the same name by

Alice Eve Alice Sophia Eve (born ) is a British actress. Her movie career includes roles in ''She's Out of My League'', ''Men in Black 3'', ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', and '' Before We Go''. She has had recurring roles on the TV series ''Entourage'' and ...

was initially attached to the project early in the development, but dropped out for unknown reasons shortly afterwards.

Release

acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film in January 2021, five months pending the official release. It was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on June 11, 2021 which was followed by a wide expansion one week later on June 18, 2021. The film was released theatrically in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

three months later on September 17, 2021.

Reception

Box Office

In its opening weekend the film made $251,569 from 132 theatres. It expanded to 1,047 theatres the following weekend, making an estimated $870,000 and finishing in eighth place at the box office.

Critical Response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 88 reviews with an average rating of 6/10. The site’s critics consensus reads: "''12 Mighty Orphans'' will rouse faithful fans of old fashioned inspirational sports dramas, but the target audience has seen this sort of thing done more effectively before." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100 based reviews from 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by

PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a film ...

gave the film an 80% positive score, with 75% saying they would definitely recommend it. Peter Debruge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "Square but satisfying" and said "sometimes they do make ‘em like they used to."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 8482584 Sports films based on actual events Films based on non-fiction books Films produced by Michael De Luca Films scored by Mark Orton American football films Films shot in Texas Films shot in Fort Worth, Texas Sony Pictures Classics films 2020s sports films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films