James Oermann

The 5th Quarter is a motion picture that deals with emotions and real situations that people deal with every day. It is rare in life that a person never experience some sort of hardship or loss. All of us will lose a family member or other loved one. The official website is a great place to start when familiarizing yourself with this film. The loss of a son and brother in an unnecessary auto accident start the emotional roller coaster of the movie. The brother of the fifteen year old who died in the accident takes the number 5 jersey in the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in memorial to his lost brother. The number 5 jersey was the one worn by the deceased brother, and the coach of the Wake Forest football team gives special permission to Jon, the older brother of the deceased Luke to wear. The story of emotional ties between brothers along with the values of perseverance in the face of sadness and loss are great assets to this film. In fact the main value and artistic focus of the film is the ability of family members and to a lesser extent community to survive tragedies such as young people being killed before they even had a chance to live life. The movie is certainly not a football movie, as most game scenes are short and don’t play pivotal roles in the film, The main focus as emphasized by the Christian Broadcasting Network is moral values (http://www.cbn.com/entertainment/screen/the-5th-quarter-dvd-review.aspx?mobile=false&u=1). While it is seen as a film in strong contrast to the violence, sex, cursing, and glorification of anti-social activities in recent decades, as a work of cinematic art, and as entertainment in the cinematic genre, The 5th Quarter falls flat. Unfortunately the movie has received mostly poor reviews, having less than a 6 stars out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt-/). It is considered poorly written, and does not convey the story line, or characters very well in the opinion of most reviewers. The official web site is here the5thquartermovie.com. Where you can get all the details on actors, writers, locations, and background to the real life story which is the base of the motion picture. The story is based on real-life events and the family which is the center of the drama, the Abbates express their strong Christian faith during the movie. Most of the preachers featured in the film are in real-life preachers. This motion picture is one of the rare ones which shows real family ties, and how important it is to keep to one’s morals. Great actors, Andie MacDowell and Aidan Quinn are cornerstones to the movie. They of course played in other famous movies about family ties, emotions, and survival in both the physical and emotional sense before. Quinn in Legends of the Fall, and MacDowell in St. Elmo’s Fire are both excellent examples, which are both very worthwhile films in themselves for those who want to see motion pictures which are not the normal faire of violence, sex, and car chases. Both of these actors have proven to be able to act in very sophisticated and emotionally complex roles as they have both done since the 1980’s with a long list of movies for each one. The 5th Quarter plays on the colloquial term 5th quarter of a football game which is an after party to a football game, but obviously is also an oxymoron of sorts because if something is divided in quarters, the 4th would be the final one. Using the 5th quarter also plays on the desire of Jon and his family to go above and beyond to not only complete an entire four quarters, but stay on after the game is over to memorialize his brother Luke in extra time after the game is long over. For Jon, the game was not over when his brother died, but it began and we then have the basis of this film about the ability to both remember our lost loved ones, but also move beyond the grief to become better people. We encourage you to see the official website, the5thquartermove.com and learn about this sometimes forgotten film to assess if the mostly Christian based movie is one really worth seeing. While other motion pictures over the decades have been better received, The 5th Quarter is one very worth watching. The 5th Quarter was a great 2010 movie which was not so much about football, or the 5th quarter of a football game, but more about family relationships and what we do during the 5th quarters of the difficult times we have in our lives. Football scenes only appear after thirty minutes of the motion picture. For those wanting to watch a great football movie, this may not be the best, however those wishing to see a movie with solid Christian values, and one which shows the strong bond of family, and the tragedy of young lives lost, then The 5th Quarter is a clear choice for you. There have been many moralistic movies over time, but to some degree they have been replaced by action drama the past ten years or so. Forrest Gump, Dances with Wolves, Schindler’s List, and other movies of the 1990s clearly showed morals as key points in the drama and plots. In recent years The Dark Knight, and the Fast N’ Furious franchise along with recent James Bond movies have left us wondering about the moral story cinema can show. The 5th Quarter is a recent movie which clearly goes in the opposite direction of what Hollywood has been doing. While certainly there have been plenty of romantic comedies, action, science fiction, and even historical fiction, movies which revolve around basic moral values, and very visceral human emotions, it is rare to have movies so tied with values and emotional bonds as this one. See the trailer of The 5th Quarter here.