Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Drumline

(2002)

I admit to a lot of prejudice in favor of this one. I was in the high school band, and it was the best part of my education. So I love marching bands. Having said that, there was a lot of difference between the white school and the black school styles of marching and playing. (I grew up in the segregated South, in Texas.) My band would not, could not, have done the sort of things they do in the movie. Our loss. The plot is cookie-cutter, fairly uninteresting, but the music and the drum duels are terrific. Lee: Varley has the biggest collection of marching band tapes/albums/CDs of anyone I’ve ever known.