Code Breakers (2005)

Code Breakers is a film about football, honor, and the military. A large group of West Point cadets devise a way to cheat on their academic tests to help keep the football team together, breaking the academy honor code. One cadet has the guts to come forward and that starts the chain of events that disgraced Army football and West Point in 1951. It's a lesson in how anything can be rationalized as for the greater good. Something we should always strive to prevent if we are to stay true to the codes we accept and expect to live by. The whole point of the academy is to weed out those that can't make the grade. We tend to falsely think that effort is worth as much as achievement. While great effort that falls short should not be considered bad, it is grounds for being let go. While sports does teach team work and leadership, it should never be an end unto itself. It is, after all, only a game. Living in Wisconsin, I was surprised that coach Vince Lombardi was part of the film. A very well made film that draws you into the characters and the promise of a military training program that teaches the right stuff.