The football movie that's heart is off the field

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2000)

Oliver Stone's latest film is an interesting cynical perspective of professional football's provocative subculture of money, prestige, women, respect, and disrespect. Although much of the movie is devoted to displaying the great intensity and physical danger of the game of football, Stone's intention in this movie seems to be to illuminate every element of professional football except for the concept of playing together as a team. Stone succeeds in portraying both a realistic and startling picture of this football subculture. While many other football movies have been simply narratives of one team's success, Stone explores more of the off-field situations of the game, such as the greed of the team owners and executives, and the players' desire for immense prestige and publicity. Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, and Jamie Foxx all give competent performances, though the depths of their characters are not very great because of Stone's desire to explore the lives' of many different characters. However, Stone's reluctancy in centering on one or two characters is not detrimental to the movie. One of the suprises of the movie was Lawrence Taylor's acting prowess, as he may be one of the hidden talents of Hollywood. Of course, Any Given Sunday is fraught with jarring hits and crushing blows on the football field, and Stone's sometimes surreal direction and up-close camera angles are very exciting especially to a seasoned football fan. Speaking of fans, it would have been interesting if Stone had explored football from the fan's vantage point as well. Three stars out of four.