Battles in the trenches and in the skybox

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2005)

The best Sports Movie I've seen. Oliver Stone treats this like a war movie more than a film about American Football. But with plenty of gunned passes and long bombs You see this is not a sports movie in the traditional sense where a bunch of misfits, has-beens and never-will-bees, come together as a team to win against the odds, this film is about the events that go on off the field more than the time spent suited up on a Sunday afternoon.
Off the field we have the new money driven young owner (Diaz) clashing with the hard old school coach (Pachino). Ethics are questioned with the two Doctors on staff (Woods and Modine) and how they treat the players. The finance and the politics, the effects a team has on the city it's based in and vice versa and the families of the players involved, including a quite vicious Mrs Rooney (Holly) On the field it goes a little more by the numbers. In an allegory to the changing styles in the NFL, Dennis Quaid putts in an excellent performance as the Joe Montana of the AFFA, worried about the Michael Vick style play of Foxx's young blood coming to take over and both play well the conflict of the Pocket passer Vs the Scrambler and the Veteran star Vs the Next Big Thing.
LL Cool J's 'all about the money' free agent half back throws extra pressure on the beleaguered coaching staff while he attempts to get his stats up for his bonuses and sponsorship deals as Laurence Taylor provides some added authenticity in a role that would not have stretched him terribly, that of a Veteran All-Pro linebacker headed straight for the Hall of fame.
The games play more like battle scenes than sporting events, with close ups of action in the trenches, slow motion shots of important hits, as all the minor stories come together to the conclusion.
Stone also uses a lesson here learned by the industry in the classic 'Escape to Victory' in that he lets the actors concentrate on the acting and the players (such as NFL stars Terrell Owens and Ricky Watters) do the playing and both films benefit as sports movies by in fact not being sports movies at all.