Medora

This movie deals with something that’s long fascinated me – the decline of small town America due to the decline in the manufacturing sector. I used to get upset at big corporations for outsourcing (I suppose the movie whose lack of a Best Documentary nomination prior to Hoop Dreams most angered people, Roger & Me, had a lot to do with that) but the aftermath of the 2016 election made me learn how the virtual death of manufacturing in America is by and large due to technology, not due to outsourcing (and certainly not due to immigration), and frankly people used the blue-collar working-class flyover-state word salad to justify the real motivator of racism.

However, in this movie no blame is passed around. The residents of Medora, North Dakota simply express their dismay that their once-thriving community has turned into a ghost down since the two manufacturing facilities were shut down.

The struggles of the basketball team are used as a metaphor for the struggles of the town overall. The team has not won a single game in YEARS. A big part of their problem is that nearby small towns’ schools have gotten consolidated into larger ones, and thus they have a much deeper  talent pool to choose from. The local government has talked repeatedly about consolidating Medora’s high school with a nearby larger one, but some residents, especially older ones, oppose their old high school being shut down. If the town loses even its high school, with its proud history, then there is, for all intents and purposes, no more Medora. The people who have been there since birth take great pride in their small town and all its traditions such as the annual parade, and don’t want to lose that sense of identity.

Unlike in other movies in this series, the players in this movie have no prayer (to put it mildly) of reaching the NBA or even the NCAA. They only get to play high school basketball because their school has so few options from which to choose. They certainly are not going to win any sort of championship, but are hoping to at least win A GAME and bring some pride back to their dying but once glorious town.

The filmmakers also do a terrific job incorporating the players’ personal battles into the narrative, such as one’s never having met his dad and another’s pride at having gotten into trade school despite his mental impairment. Life isn’t easy for anyone in Medora but sometimes when you’re born into rough circumstances you literally and figuratively have to learn to appreciate small victories you get.

 Bottom Line: Moving film.

Up Next: Last film in this series.

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