Drumline

A film set in a university marching band. Devon grew up in Harlem. He plays the drums, his ear is very good, and he never learned to read music. He is taken on a scholarship by a university in the south. The school's band is better known than the school, and on match days the real show happens at half time. Devon causes trouble from the first day. His ability is greater than everyone's and he shows it to everyone. The band has a saying: one band, one sound. Devon is the exact opposite. From there the film is a story about discipline. Morning rehearsals, running, counting steps, punishment and expulsion from the band. The matter of reading music breaks in the middle. When it emerges that he lied, he is put out of the section. What the narrative is interested in is not talent but the group: throughout, the film repeats that being good alone is worth nothing, and the finale is built on that. There is also an argument between generations. The band director defends the traditional repertoire and his younger assistant wants popular music and spectacle; the narrative proves both of them right. The performance sequences are the film's real strength. The choreography, the formations and the rhythm rest on how real university bands work, and in most of the scenes real bands are on the field. That tradition belongs to the historically Black universities in America, and the film was one of the first large productions to carry the culture to a wide audience. Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldaña, Orlando Jones and Leonard Roberts are in the cast. Charles Stone III directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes music and performance films. Who it is not for: anyone looking for surprise in the plot; the narrative follows a familiar sports film structure exactly.