This movie is so bad, it's got to be great.

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2000)

This movie is not about American football, it is, as the tagline (life is a contact sport) suggests, about life. It is about the good old US of A.
For three hours Oliver Stone tortures us with nothing but standard sports-movie stuff, served on a plate of showmanship with a side of emptiness: A legend falls, the unlucky rookie prevails under number 13, black people listen to rap, white people listen to Metalica, the legend returns and all ends well. We are looking at total nothingness coated in sugar. The actors are magnificent, the music shakes you in your seat, the production is breathtaking, but the story being told is just not interesting.
The movie concerns a game (life) that is basically very simple, but is ruled by money and followed minutely by television. The most insignificant things become important and the most important things like love and life itself are set aside. All that counts is the money. Thus Stone criticises the American society of today, to which the same comments apply, and suggests that changes must be made step by step. Fighting for every inch, because all those inches will add up to victory. Victory over the kind of people that actually think this movie is the best American football-movie ever...