Movie Musings: Brian Banks

Historical Fiction and memoirs have long been my favorite genres to read. Similarly, 'based on a true story' movies have long been among my favorite films to watch. Also sports movies. I'm a sucker for sports movies.

There is something very inspiring to me about seeing what human beings are able to accomplish, especially when they come together around a common goal. 

Brian Banks is not a sports movie in the traditional sense. But it certainly is about what human beings are able to accomplish when they come together around a common goal. When they don't give up in the face of adversity. When they believe that people have inherent worth and strive to help them reach their potential.

And it is a sports movie, in a way. In the sense that a promising young man had the potential to have a successful career in the NFL, and how that was taken from him, and {SPOILER ALERT!!} how he won it back.

A little background: 

Brian Banks was accused of rape as a 16-year-old high school student. The charges included kidnapping and he was tried as an adult. He faced the possibility of life in prison in a her-word against his-word case. Ultimately, he decided to take a plea deal in part at the urging of his lawyer. As the California Innocence Project website says, the lesser of two evils. 

His accuser sued the school and got 1.5 million dollars. She later recanted her story admitting that she made the whole thing up. 

I am in awe of the way Brian Banks responded, particularly to his statement to the press after having his wrongful conviction overturned: “There comes a time when you have to let go in order to move on. The only thing I wasn’t going to let go was this fight”

[for more details and background, check out History vs Hollywood]

We all need people who believe in us and help point is on a positive, constructive path. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Brian Banks met a man while in juvy that shaped his life through what he taught Brian. 

"All you can control in live is how you respond to life."

-Jerome Johnson

 

Those words influenced Brian through the rest of his time in juvy, in prison, and after he got out. 

"The system" is something people talk about a lot. And maybe even more now with a spotlight being directed at systemic racism. Some of the conversations in the movie made me think about "the system" in a different way.

Brian Banks was trying to convince a man named Justin Brooks who started an organization called The California Innocence Project to take on his case. Here is my paraphrased version of what Justin told Brian:

The system is broken, that's what I've been trying to tell you. It's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but so often it is the opposite.

 

Brian's response floored me. He challenged Justin, not in a confrontational angry way, but in a way that required a re-framing of ideas and extended an invitation to take responsibility for what we can control or how we can choose to view or interact with "the system". Brian asked 'What is the system?' and answered his own question 'It's people.' 

He went on to say:

"I know the system doesn't care about me, I've known that my whole life. The question is, do you?"

- Brian Banks

 

Do I? Do you? Or do we hide behind "the system"? 

I love what that question led Justin to decide: 

"I don't ever want to stop trying because the system has conditioned us to stop trying."

-Justin Brooks

 

And this requires us to take a long look at why things are the way they are. And what we can do now to change them. And yes, to acknowledge that in various ways and to various degrees we are responsible for creating and/or perpetuating wrongs in "the system"

Here is another truth Justin came to see as he worked to figure out why Brian ended up where he was: 

"The reason isn't just because a girl lied, it's because the system didn't care about the truth in the first place."

-Justin Brooks

 

And this one:

"I've come to realize that maybe it's not the system that failed him, maybe it's all of us."

-Justin Brooks

 

Towards the end of the movie, Brian's mom spoke to their legal representative, Justin Brooks, and the representative of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office who were discussing whether to move forward with trying to overturn Brian's conviction. 

She pleads with them to try. She shares that a mother's only desire is to protect her children, and her feelings of pain and regret that she had not been able to do so. 

"I will go to my grave feeling the pain of his past. But you can do something today to change the pain of his future."

- Brain's Mom, Leomia Myers

 

Thankfully those two men decided to try, and they succeeded. 

Here is what Justin Brooks told Brian Banks:

"Thank you for not giving up and making sure I didn't either."

-Justin Brooks

 

So, what are we going to do because of any of this? 

Learn, I hope. Act differently, I pray.

We can learn both through our own hard experiences and others. Something Brian said holds great power: 

"Sometimes you have to walk deeper into the darkness to find the light. That was solitary for me."

-Brian Banks

 

Hard things are hard. Darkness is scary. How we respond to them, and how we reach out to others who go through them speaks volumes. 

The day after his conviction was overturned, Coach Pete Carroll called Brian Banks and invited him to try out for the Seattle Seahawks. In the movie, these are the words he spoke on that phone call: 

"I'm so sorry you had to go to hell and back Brian"

-Pete Carroll

 

Acknowledging hard things is powerful. Extending a hand is too. 

And this song playing in the background during the phone call scene is also powerful:

They tried to bring me down
They tried to count me out

They fill my head with doubt
But it's not, it's Not Over
And yes I've been through hell
But on the other side is where I found myself
And it's not, it's Not Over

-It's Not Over by Sam Fisher, Gizzle

 

We can never know exactly what someone else is going through. And I really hope most of us don't have to go through the hardest things that others do. But I don't think we have to know exactly what someone else is going through to help. And I don't think someone else has to know exactly what I'm going through in order for me to learn from them. 

Brian Banks was presented with this same idea from the man who changed his perspective while he was in prison: 

"Now look, I don't know exactly what it is you're going through. But you've got to let it go, or it is going to pull you down. How you got here might be wrong, but the fact is, you are here and before you leave this place physically, you must leave it mentally. Or you'll be back."

-Jerome Johnson

 

At the end of the film I was talking with my roommate (who joined me for the last 15 minutes) and told her sometimes I wish I had become a lawyer so I could help people in this way. She told me something I want to challenge everyone else to do as well: "I think you'd be better off thinking about what you can do now with your skills and knowledge than wishing you had different skills and knowledge."

We can all use what we know and our circle of influence to make things better. Remember, the system is made up of people. You and me. We can each show we care. 

Knowing how this film ends doesn't make it any less worth seeing. I watched it on Hulu. You can also watch it on Netflix and Prime Video (and other places, I'm sure!) 

And whether you watch it or not, show you care through word and deed.