One of my favorite genres of film is biopic. Especially sports biopics. I love a sports biopic about athletes or people I know about, but I like biopics about athletes I don’t know about more. Because I get to learn something new, I didn’t know. That’s what Sweetwater is about. It’s about the first Black NBA basketball player Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton (Everett Osborne).

Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton is an ex-soldier who plays basketball for all Black Harlem Globetrotters coached by Abe Saperstein (Kevin Pollack). He’s a flashy player on the most famous flashy team in the world. This catches the eye of another coach of the New York Knickerbocker’s Joe Lapchick (Jeremy Piven) He convinces the team’s owner Ned Irish (Cary Elwes) to buy out his contract and bring him to the Knicks even though league rules prohibit a Black player from playing in the all-white NBA.

Martin Guigui does it all in this film. He writes, directs, produces, and helps with composing the music as well. He makes an above-adequate sports biopic that has a heart to it. Not knowing about this man made the movie that much better for me. It did have a lot of tropes about things we’ve seen in sports biopics like Race, The Express, and 42 in the past but it still doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of this film at all. 

An actual subplot with Osborne’s character and a blues singer Emmaline (Janine Staples) was a nice added storyline to this movie. And another subplot involving the commissioner of the NBA Maurice Podoloff) added more intrigue to the story. In an era with a lot of racism and prejudice, it’s hard for the film not to touch on some of these issues even at the top of the league. All the subplots balance out the main story.

With sports movies, the number one thing that has to be filmed and gotten right is the actual playing of said sport. In this case, it’s basketball. The basketball was filmed OK but I’ve seen it filmed better specifically in Hoosiers which is a similar type of sports film. The game is similar in respect as well. That is one of the parts of the movie I wish had been done a little better. Not that it’s terrible or anything but maybe it could have been filmed a bit more crisper. 

I watched this film in the Blu-ray format and it looked great. The only thing about it that added any context was a few archival photos and explanations of who this man was and a very short interview during the credits. Other than that there were no special features on the Blu-ray. Which was disappointing. It did come with a digital code. If you buy the Blu-ray you can redeem it on Vudu or Movies Anywhere.

Sweetwater is a better-than-average sports biopic. The performances from an all-star cast of actors led by Osborne are the main reason besides the story to see this film. The do-it-all man himself Guigui did a good job making this movie look and feel the way it was supposed to look and feel. The music and production design were very good. They added a nice touch to what would be a throwaway sports film. It’s elevated to above average though. And sports and basketball historians should check it out.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen