The grand opera of sports brutality is just a business now!

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2009)

With it's large and noisy figures, one could say football has a little something in common with opera! And the high ticket prices mean people really want to see what they went there for in the first place. Yes, whatever artistry is on display is anchored in the business of spectacle.
The NFL has been around for decades and the players are now bigger, faster and sometimes stronger. All this natural and chemical enhancement means athletes train year round, not just from camp to playoffs. And those taking legal or illegal substances are using those twelve months a calendar too.
"Any Given Sunday" is fast, frenetic and almost impossible to follow at times because that's what the action is like for quarterbacks, receivers, linebackers and all the others on the gridiron. Things happen so rapidly, it's a wonder anybody can hold onto the pigskin for more than a second. Look at what happened to NFL tough guys like Jim Otto and Mike Webster on and off the field and you'll see how devastating the consequences of competing at this level truly are.
Jim Brown, who appears in this film, wrote quite frankly about his experiences playing nine bone crushing seasons as a pro. And the anecdotes he tells about his teams and others are reflected in this tribute to the old guard's last stand against the digital era's absolute takeover of this most manly game. Players do get violently ill before games (and sometimes during, though usually not on the field) and guys on the same team don't have to be friends at all to work well together. When every stat is judged for the possible bonus in one's contract, the desire to be a showboat is more obvious than ever.
Al Pacino is both wonderfully world weary and youthfully (for a man his age) still excited about coaching the team he has been with since before Cameron Diaz took over from her late father, the founding owner. You know egos will clash as this proud man, whose whole life is football, has to take orders from a young lady who isn't as old as some of his shirts.
Jamie Foxx is terrific as the back up's back up, who's thrust into the spotlight when starter Dennis Quaid is injured and his successor also gets knocked out of commission. Foxx shows all the fear and anger integral to quarterbacking, as he goes from "who's he?" to "the team's hope for the future!". The pressure and sycophancy young stars deal with is now his 24 hour a day schedule.
Oliver Stone isn't the first name you'd think of when wondering who'd direct a big screen flick about sports, but he took a break from the war-conspiracy complex he usually dwells in and did something interesting and fun here, as fun as broken bones contact sports can be.