Overdose !

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2009)

Somewhere I read that (Oliver Stone) has mixed 3 screenplays in one to make (Any Given Sunday). When you watch the movie, you must believe that as the truth. (Stone) is a knight among Hollywood directors. He fights the American system and foundations burningly and unstoppably. You have to notice his basic creed through nearly all of his works; he was fierily against the military foundation in (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Heaven & Earth), the political foundation, so the intelligence (JFK, Nixon), corporate raid (Wall Street), the media (Natural Born Killers), so why not to take on the sport foundation as well. However, this time, something was not bad, but too much. It was really about to be too-much-it's-bad!
We have a movie about a noble man against a system (values vs. money), a movie about a coach and a player (team vs. self), and a third one about a team that had to survive despite its own breakdown. (Stone) didn't want to lose any part of the big picture he was drawing, trying his best to present all the story lines, the satire, and the bitter details that he can tell about such a "world", however in one movie. And the result is an intensive movie, but so heavy. I had to watch it 3 times to catch on its treat in complete.
True that (Stone) managed to gather a lot of things by his distinct style without being adolescently manipulative or showy, but nothing can deny that the final product gives you the fatigue. There are almost 10 characters with hot drama and something to satirize also; I bet the characterization was such an exhausting job for the writers here. So sometimes you feel that this is an abbreviated TV series in strenuous 150 minutes; which feels like longer than that! Yes, the editing tried to collect the many pieces, keep the (Stone) flavor, and maintain a fast paced movie in the same time, though it's nothing but a violent long video clip in many places. Now and then, it forces you to lose any concentration you have.
I think it's like a cinematic novel in the frame of a movie. The sense to speak omnisciently and deeply ruined somehow the desire to be that watchable movie. Sure it delivers its very good case and commentary, but in someway forfeits its balance as a drama while the main personality of the whole thing is torn between being a simple story about how the "team" is more important that the "self", and being an epic about deadly tyrannical modern empire that makes the gladiators to kill them.
Unlike many movies that have similar problems, (Any Given Sunday) isn't slothful, but of course thick with a director who refuses to cut much of what he says. Till now I can't believe how (James Caviezel) and (Tom Sizemore) played roles that were eventually deleted, which means that this movie would've been something like 3 hours long already! Look at the closing credits displaying on the last 10 minutes; obviously they didn't want to make it any longer, so they put them while very serious event at the very end, which has been badly appeared because of this kind of dealing.
Anyway, it needs to be watched more than once to be fully understood, so to relish its own kind of enjoyment, and its real profound metaphors. (Stone) was right about so many issues here, but he wasn't right only when it came to making an engaging facile movie out of wide wild Film. He succeeded in that brilliantly before, for instance in (Wall Street). But, here, the dose gave me an impressive headache. Watch it 3 times to experience well the 3 movies that it is. 3 smart ones by the way, but weren't made entirely in just smart one.