Chicagoland

Women are mighty in ‘Macs’

By Sister Helena Burns, FSP | Contributor
Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Mighty Macs” is based on the true story of the underdog Immaculata (thus “Macs”) College women’s basketball team in Philadelphia in 1971-1972. In the film, Mother St. John (Ellen Burstyn) of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters is a rather severe but dedicated college head, trying to keep her congregation’s school afloat.

Mother’s goals are very different from her school’s young upstart basketball coach, Cathy Rush (Carla Gugino), who is determined to get her ragtag basketball team to their first national championship. Newly married Cathy creates friction with her husband Ed (David Boreanaz) by going against the expected cultural grain and not staying at home. Instead, she gives much of her time and energy to basketball.

Everything in the film is tenuous: the school’s solvency and future, the basketball coach’s job, and the very members of the team — many of whom have pressing reasons not to stay on the team. A young Sister Sunday (Marley Shelton) — much to Mother St. John’s chagrin — gets over-involved with the basketball team, causing even more tension.

In 1972, the famous Title IX was enacted stating that any activity receiving federal funds couldn’t discriminate on the basis of sex. The film takes place during that time.

There is a gradual build up and transformation of the team from raw talent to honed skills, in great part because of Cathy’s confidence-building. In the end, the entire convent becomes the team’s biggest boosters and unofficial cheering squad.

Like the movies “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Soul Surfer,” this is a girls’ sports film, but with a Catholic twist. Tim Chambers, the writer-director, is from Philadelphia, and was taught by the IHMs himself. His intention in bringing “The Mighty Macs” to the screen was to tell Catholic stories and portray Catholics from a Catholic point of view. Some concessions with Hollywood had to be made in order to make that happen because Hollywood thought the movie was “too Catholic.” (Are Woody Allen’s films “too Jewish”?) Um, the movie is about nuns, for Pete’s sake.

The real heroes, however, are the young basketball coach and her team. We can easily forget that opportunities for women were once much more limited, not so long ago.

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