“Inspired by true events,” and based on the novel by Jim Dent, “12 Mighty Orphans” has Rusty Russell , manages the orphanage with a firm hand and a paddle named “Bertha” that he uses to keep the boys in line.
Rusty, of course, is an honest, upright man and he befriends Doc who helps him manage the football team.
Rusty and Juanita talk about having a “chance to make a real difference,” because life inside the Masonic Home, a “cold, uncaring institution,” is said to hold “very little promise.” The filmmakers clearly think it is no use to say something once when three times will do.
That said, this is after Rusty takes care of getting the Masonic Team admitted into the league, and the cliched montages of the teens “learning” so they can pass the educational requirement to play, and their practicing, badly, on the field.
The game is a washout, but soon Rusty, with the help of his precocious daughter, Betty, develops an innovative new formation that starts to turn the team’s fortune around.
That said, a subplot involving Frank trying to destroy the team’s chances, because he greedily wants the child labor, is pretty awful; it is depicted with the subtlety of Bertha.
And he even gets a scene that reunites him with his “Apocalypse Now” costar, Robert Duvall, who plays an Orphans supporter.
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