BS High Review: HBO’s latest documentary film is by Academy Award-winning directors Travon Free And Martin Desmond Roe. It is from executive producers Adam McKay and Michael Strahan, with a runtime of 1 hour 35 minutes. Jack Turner and Spencer Paysinger also serve as producers for the documentary.
The production companies involved in this docu-movie are The Athletic, Matador Content, Moore Street Productions, SMAC Entertainment, Dirty Robber, HBO Sports and Hyperobject Industries. The film revolves around the infamous Bishop Sycamore High School Football Team.
– Max’s BS High Review Contains Mild Spoilers –
BS High Review: The Falsity in this Football Team is Heartbreaking
Telling a real-life story that no one has forgotten, BS High is all about the Bishop Sycamore Centurions, who miraculously found themselves on national television playing football against a premier league institute. A team that no one knew about was suddenly on ESPN on that fateful night of 2021 when everything about the con dealings in the world of football came undone.
BS High does not shy away from the above-mentioned incident. In fact, the documentary movie starts with archival footage of the ESPN telecast of August 29, 2021. Bishop Sycamore High was playing against the very reputed IMG Academy when things fell apart with the 58 – 0 score, with the latter winning.
This loss was so heavy on the team and so iconic in football history that people wanted to know more about the underdog losing team than the popular winning team. Next, we know, a can of worms was opened as Bishop Sycamore High School was exposed to not even existing in the first place. Instead, it was a false recruiting program led by a man called Roy Johnson.
HBO’s documentary film is all about unearthing the birth and destruction of the racket run by Johnson and who he was as a man. The corruption scandal is broken down to us in the form of archival footage mixed with interviews by people who are African-American as well as white. Even Johnson is featured in the documentary with an interview conducted with him way later, where is rather open about his crimes.
BS High walks us through the entire process of how Johnson took money from people in the name of making the young athletes’ dreams of starting a U.S. football team come true. He fabricated high schools, conned people and broke down families. However, the documentary tries to stay objective towards the villain too, letting us know his issues in regards to anger management and pathological lying. We have friends and families of the people affected come in, to talk about this corrupt incident.
BS High: Final Verdict
Overall, BS High is a good attempt at creating a sensational sports documentary. However, there are moments when it fails to capture the story thoughtfully or give us enough information. There are no clear explanations about a lot of events and the emotional flow is more compared to the educational flow in this piece. Many important interviews and events are also (potentially) missing from the movie that would give it more depth and understanding. Nonetheless, if you are interested in sports and scandal this can be the pick that will satisfy your needs.
You can watch BS High now streaming on Max.
In case you have watched this latest documentary movie, let us know in the comments below what you feel about it!