10 winning football films to get you ready for Sunday
Look! Up in the airwaves!
It's not a bird! It's not a plane!
It's Super Bowl!
In honor of Sunday's tackles and touchdowns, I'm passing 10 football movies to you. Catch them if you can.
1. "Friday Night Lights" (2004)
A bold and blunt indictment of a sports culture where success on the gridiron trumps family, friends, romance and real life.
Actor Peter Berg directs this harsh examination of the 1988 season of the Permian High Panthers of Odessa, Texas, in classic documentary style: quick zooms, grainy out-of-focus shots, color-bled imagery and hand-held cameras.
It's powerful stuff based on H.G. Bissinger's 1990 book that spawned death threats from residents upset with the author's unflattering view.
2. "The Longest Yard" (1974)
It might be the only Hollywood production ever delayed because of prison uprisings.
That's because Robert Aldrich's violent drama was shot at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia. And that's where Burt Reynolds' disgraced quarterback serves time for shaving points, apparently a crime considered worse than child murder.
Eddie Albert plays the sadistic warden who bullies the prisoners into a "friendly game" with the guards. Can they kill the competition?
This ranks as one of Reynolds' best films, aggressively directed by a man known for pugnaciously pushing the limits of violent entertainment. Just don't confuse it with the inferior 2005 remake with Adam Sandler.
3. "Any Given Sunday" (1999)
Oliver Stone plasters his retina-assaulting, testosterone-injected X-ray of professional football's behind-the-scenes power-plays on the screen in a lengthy, unruly Caligula-like narrative. (Stone envisioned this movie as an homage to Robert Aldrich.)
Using every cinematic trick in the playbook (and many others not in it), Stone tells the story of a veteran coach (Al Pacino) struggling to stay relevant in a bottom-line age personified by Cameron Diaz's ruthless team owner and her alcoholic mother (New Trier High School grad Ann-Margret).
4. "North Dallas Forty" (1979)
The National Football League declined to help Ted Kotcheff make his critical look at the human cost of the NFL's business model. Nick Nolte plays an aging player pumped up with pain killers.
Some critics thought singer Mac Davis was too small to play a pro quarterback. But the NFL had a precedent in Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants QB Fran Tarkenton. So there.
5. "Brian's Song" (1971)
No true Chicagoan can watch this ABC Movie of the Week without irrigating the irises.
Buzz Kulik's drama shows us how Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) helps teammate Brian Piccolo (James Caan) deal with cancer.
Moving, sincere and restrained, "Brian's Song" ranks as one of the best made-for-TV movies. Its broadcast success, however, could not be replicated by a follow-up theatrical release.
6. "The Freshman" (1925)
Harold Lloyd's silent comedy classic casts the master performer as Speedy, a "regular guy" who realizes that the best way to become the most popular man on campus is to play on the football team.
This proves a challenge because the coach is so tough "he shaves with a blowtorch," and Speedy is more suited to being a cheerleader.
An excellent comedy with surprising moments of pathos, along with the funniest Hail Mary final football play recorded on film.
7. "Little Giants" (1986)
This blatant commercial for the joys of Pop Warner football is utterly predictable fun, a formula film enhanced by the zesty cinematography of Oscar-winning cameraman and Columbia College grad Janusz Kaminski.
The familiar story (from co-writer Robert Shallcross, a graduate of Lake Park High School in Roselle) pits rival brothers (Ed O'Neill and Rick Moranis) against each other as coaches in a stock jocks vs. misfits game, one that proves the universal, ageless appeal of comic flatulence.
8. "Knute Rockne - All American" (1940)
No football movie list can be complete without winning just one for the Gipper. Future President Ronald Reagan plays tragic athlete George Gipp with finesse, but this classic biopic belongs to Milwaukee native Pat O'Brien as the winningest college football coach in America while at Notre Dame university.
The versatile O'Brien, who did boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Glenview with Waukegan native Jack Benny, rehearsed so much that, aided by excellent makeup, he made the coach his signature role in a long and varied career.
9. "We Are Marshall" (2006)
McG's fact-based drama demonstrates the communal nature of football by depicting the aftermath of a 1970 plane crash that killed 37 Marshall University players, five coaches, two trainers, the athletic director, 25 boosters and five crew members.
Students persuade the college president to keep the football program alive as a tribute. So, he hires a new coach (Matthew McConaughey) to carry on.
But there's a problem. NCAA rules prohibit freshmen from playing varsity football.
This movie is 10 years old, yet it resonates with the same pain, disbelief and need for healing that have become too common in communities today reeling from disasters and mass shootings.
10. "Heaven Can Wait" (1978)
Warren Beatty's remake of 1941's "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (about a boxer mistakenly taken into heaven) adds political sass and social satire to its delightful original.
Beatty plays a pro quarterback snatched too soon by Buck Henry's overly anxious angel. So his boss (James Mason) orders Beatty be returned to live out his proper years as a nutty billionaire, because his original body has been cremated.
How will the QB live his lifelong dream of playing in the Super Bowl? Being a billionaire has its advantages. This pleasing screwball comedy won an Oscar for art direction, plus nominations for actor (Beatty), supporting actress (Dyan Cannon), supporting actor (Jack Warden) and four others.