Football And The Movies

Football, in this day and age transcends the arenas and the fields they play in. Now, there are a lot of movies which use the game itself as a backdrop for some other script. Here are some of the more recent films about football.

1) The Longest Yard (Paramount 2005)

This 1974 movie was starred Burt Reynolds was later remade by Adam Sandler in 2005. It also featured Reynolds as one of the convicts in a Texas prison who welcomed the coming of Pail Crewe, played by Sandler, a former professional football star with shady dealings. The warden, seeing the opportunity to increase his political stock, challenges Sandler to form a team to play against the guards' football team. So against all odds and egos, Crewe (Sandler) forms a team called the Mean Machine to play against the guards. In the end, despite all the machinations of the warden, the win goes to the underdogs. Co starring in this movie is Chris Rock and stars of the World Wrestling Federation.

2) The Replacements (Warner Bros. 2000)

This movie is loosely based on the NFL strike that crippled the sport. Gene Hackman stars as the shoot from the hip coach who is tasked to find players to take the place of the players on strike and play for the Washington Sentinels football team. He has a file of ex-players or has-beens and invites them to camp to achieve their dreams. Starring Keanu Reeves, they find their fifteen minutes of fame as a team. Although vilified as scabs by the striking players, the head coach grills and drills the players into football playing shape to at least form a semblance of a competitive team. In the end, they stick together as a unit, survived the trials and hardships and became winners both on and off the field.

3) Any Given Sunday (Warner Bros., 1999)

Oliver Stone directs Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz in this gritty semi documentary on the inner workings of professional football. It exhibits the ownership views on coaching, the purists of the game, the young upstarts who want to conquer everything and be bigger than the game itself and the old guard who refuses to let go of their life and livelihood. The sensory overload in each play and in each sequence is fully captured in the cinematography of the story, including the quest for the last paycheck despite the danger to the long term health of the player. It also shows the cloak and dagger dealings and turnings of the big business that is sports.

As you can see the sport of football is not just an athletic event anymore. It is a sports spectacle which has crossed over from the sports arenas into the TV screen and now the silver screen. Films such as “The Longest Yard,” “The Replacements” and “Any Given Sunday” show us, the viewing public, a small slice in the days and the lives of football players. It shows the hard work and the perseverance needed, together with the will and the physicality one has to endure to succeed as a gridiron giant.