As a runner, I was hesitant to begin watching a movie titled Run the Race. As running takes up so much of my time, I feared that I simply wouldn’t find the movie a pleasure to watch. After watching the trailer and learning that the movie does not revolve entirely around running but rather around the life of struggling teens, I pressed the purchase button and settled down for a film that proved to be the most inspiring movie I’ve seen in a while.

Set in the gloomy town of Bessemer, Florida, Zach (Tanner Stine) and Dave (Evan Hofer) Truett are slowly piecing their lives back together after the loss of their beloved mother. Along with this loss came the sudden absence of their father Mike (Kristoffer Polaha) who turned to alcohol in an attempt to drown out the persistent problems in his world. Leaving the brothers to fend for themselves, they turn to sports in the hope of receiving a scholarship to escape from Bessemer and take the leap into a greater world.

As Dave recovers from his life-threatening football injury, he trains alongside brother Zach, an all-state football player with aspirations to play for the Florida Gators. But when Zach injures his knee in a brawl with an opposing team’s player, his life seems to be crumbling down around him. The brothers turn to friends, love, faith, and even running as they work through the hard times to get what they have always wanted: a life away from Bessemer.

As the plot evolved before me, I found myself more intrigued with each scene. The plot was fresh, and it was unlike many other sports movies that are so commonly produced in today’s film industry. The producer Mark Rickard did not focus entirely on the injuries and complications with only one actor, but he focused on developing each and every character in order to produce a group of characters with relatable personalities.

The selected actors were perfectly fit for the roles they played in the film. During the first scenes, I was shocked to find out that Zach and Dave are actually not brothers in real life; they just happen to look strikingly similar to one another. Their father Mike also seems to fit right in with the two brothers on the terms of appearance, so not one of the characters in the film stuck out like a light in the dark.

Although I had never heard of a few of the actors and actresses prior to watching the movie, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the acting in general. The pain, worry, fear, and happiness reached through the screen, and none of the characters seemed to go overboard with their expressions.

After recently watching the TV show All American, I was able to see many similarities between the film and the show. Centered around football and the struggles of many high school students, both the movie and show proved to perfectly lay out the struggles of many students that are commonly forgotten and looked over. Both productions remind you of the greater problems many people in society face on a daily basis.

Although I was at first hesitant to watch Run The Race, the one hour and forty-minute film proved to communicate a much-needed inspirational message.