GO TIGERS!
Directed by: Kenneth A. Carlson.
Produced by: Carlson & Sidney Sherman.
Written by: Carlson.
Director of Photography: Curt Apduhan.
Edited by: Jeff Werner.
Music by: Randy Miller.
Released by: Docurama.
Country of Origin: USA. 103 min. Rated: R.
DVD Features: Deleted Scenes. Interview with NFL Football star & Massillon Native Chris Spielman. 1951 "Touchdown Town" Archive News Reel. "Where Are They Now" Update. Massillon Hall of Champions Gallery. Trailers. Original Music. Bios.

Why was a documentary about high school football one of the hottest tickets at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival? The answer lies in Mr. Carlson’s ability to capture the dramatic and unpredictable on- and off-field moments of one of the nation’s premier high school football teams, the Massillon Tigers, as it tries to rebound after two losing seasons. Carlson, born and raised in Massillon, Ohio, monitors a town in conflict as it weighs not only a need to pass a levy, but the propriety of resting its success on 17- and 18-year-old athletes. As each week ticks by and the Tigers win another game, you are simultaneously caught up in rooting the team onto victory and alarmed at the import which high school football maintains in the lives of this industrial town’s citizens. It seems that everyone–from the Mayor (who allows the band to march “anywhere it wants” when the team plays its archival) to the school superintendent (who wisely allows the team’s success to help propel support for the levy)–is rooting for the Tigers. Everyone, except the many non-athletes in the school who simply can’t wait to graduate. Revealing how the season turns out, or whether the levy passes, would ruin the suspense. But there is no question that Go Tigers captures an excitement which few sports movies achieve.

DVD Features: Several deleted scenes should not be missed. The cradle to grave obsessive enthusiasm and loyalty are even further enhanced (sometimes to an extreme degree) in some of these hilarious out takes, especially those about the “Tiger Van.”

Michael Morley, President of CineBLAST! Productions (Revolution #9, Bobby G. Can't Swim & Spring Forward)
August 27, 2003