Rating: 
Summary: It's the real deal
Review: Taken from Pete Gent's book about life with the Dallas Cowboys of the Don Meredith era, this movie (a quarter century later) is still the only film that deals with much of the reality of professional football in America. Other movies have been funnier ("The Longest Yard"), others have used more Hollywood fantasy to make their point ("Any Given Sunday"), but none other than George Plimpton's "Paper Lion" have any accuracy.
Not only is "North Dallas Forty" accurate, it is accurate in the extreme. It shows players taking shots in their joints in order to play in the game. It shows the way management treats players like meat, like yesterday's newspaper. It shows the way players eschew teamwork to look out for themselves, their statistics and their salaries. In a very Hollywood way, this movie uses big stars but makes a valid point about pro football in a way no film ever has.
I went to Pete Gent's school, Michigan State University, where I lived in an athletic or "jock" dorm. I knew football players at MSU including a couple that went on to become pros and all-pro in the NFL. I'll never forget the day I showed up for my test in freshman Natural Science when I had a little chat with the two football players in my class, one of whom went on to become an all-American and all-pro in the NFL and blocked for O.J. Simpson.
"We were at the professor's house last night going over the test," one of them told me moments before the test was passed out. That was one of my first real-life lessons in how college athletes are different from the rest of us. When the "North Dallas Forty" version of college football is made, maybe that scene will be included.
Until then, you have this film to help you understand how the NFL really works and what it's employees go through during their careers, which average 4.3 years.
Rating:
Summary: A Sad Look at a Great Sport
Review: This film made in 1978 is a behind the scenes look at the world of professional football that remains sadly pertinent to the NFL today making the meshing of the business world and athletes a sport of its own.
Nick Nolte plays an aging and aching receiver who has the heart to play the game of football but lacks the ability to have his mind controlled by the people who run the game. Nolte is excellent as he winches and moans throughout the film waiting for his chance to play but being continuously undermined by a corrupt coaching staff and the owners of his team. Mack Davis plays the handsome Texan quarterback who cares little about the mind control and more about having a good time. Charles Durning is the Maalox drinking assistant coach who adds some comedic relief to the story, along with Bo Svenson who plays a psychotic linebacker with nothing but "kill" in his heart. Dabney Coleman and Steve Forest are the evil business brothers who treat their players like machines tossing them out whenever necessary without a thought. Finally G.D. Spradlin does an excellent job as the head coach without much of a soul but with plenty of insight.
The story shows a world filled with parties, adultery, corruption and drugs as it engulfs the football players searching to fulfill their dreams of stardom and self-importance. One hit can end it all and one badly placed step can change their world. In order to succeed and have a long career in the game drugs are used to keep the aging body going. While on the outside a toke of marijuana ends the game (shades of Ricky Williams here!). Somehow it just doesn't make any sense. The film is a great classic if you love football but the actual game scenes are high school football at best. And politics......aren't they everywhere? Watch for the stirring speech from an athlete's heart delivered by the late great John Matuszak.
Rating:
Summary: Seamy side of American institution
Review: This movie really blew the lid off a lot of the shenanigans that go on in professional sports. I'm sure that many were upset with the portrayal of athletes as drunken, pill popping idiots but that was probably a reality back then. This movie precedes Any Given Sunday by two decades and still hits harder in its revelation of football's seamy side. Nick Nolte is superb as Phil Elliott. Mac Davis also gives a fine performance. The scenes of athletes being shot up with painkillers to play is intense. The laissez faire attitude of coaches and team owners is probably more realistic than the NFL would care to admit. I love the scene when Nolte gets suspended for smoking marijuana and his response is that the team is injecting harder drugs into him each Sunday just so he can play. That kind of mirrors the insanity and stupidity of the NFL drug testing policies even today. Football is an American institution but indeed there is a dark side. This movie does a fine job of pointing that out.
Rating:
Summary: Not Your Typical Football Flick
Review: Very effective film of the sports world. Nolte is terrific, even if the romance is a little cliche and unbelievable. Very talky, and not much action on the field, but gives an excellent counterbalance to the usual "feel good" sports films I've grown tired of. DvD picture is superb. Audio starts a bit shaky (with music and background noise overpowering dialouge) but eventually evens out.
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