What goes on for the teams, players, and draft day in the NFL.

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2016)

Draft Day is about the second biggest day in the NFL, behind the Super Bowl. Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) the general manager of the Cleveland Browns has big decisions to make to draft the best players for the team and the future of Browns football. While this day is occurring many other story lines are playing out including the relationship between Sonny and Ali (Jennifer Gardner) the salary cap manager for the Browns. There is a couple of themes in this movie, however, I think the main theme is the character that we demonstrate and live by is how we are judged. This film has many star actors and real life sport and commentator stars portraying themselves. Coach Penn (Dennis Leary) numerous times projected symbolism with showing his championship ring and saying "this is what everyone and the Cleveland Browns want." Winning and being a champion was projected by these scenes. Throughout the movie there are great aerial shots of the cities and stadiums of NFL Teams, in addition to breathtaking skylines captured also. The movie also utilized visual techniques of having side by side shots of two scenes showing the conversations taken place between the actors. There was even a four screen shot during a critical time for the negotiation between the Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns, the war room of the Browns, and the time clock. There were many examples of character observation in Draft Day especially, the $100 story in the playbook where the player the Browns already had demonstrated the strongest character by having the actions, vision, and investment by sending back the money and reading the playbook. Which no one has ever done. One of my favorite observations is the line that Sonny tells his coaches to do. He says, "figure out what the player has and figure out if it matters or not." I think he was referring to the character of the prospects they were evaluating to join the team. That line reflects of the actions of Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman) and the actions he demonstrated in the video they were reviewing. Mack just made a sack and returned the ball for a touchdown. He then gave the ball to his sister in the stands and was penalized for that. His sister died six months later. It was the character of Mack that seals the decision for Sonny to pick him as the first player picked. Once again, character is being conveyed in this film with his action in the game and Sonny's original decision to pick Vontae Mack by the mystery note he writes at the first and is not revealed until he picks Mack. He did what he wanted to do in the first place and not pick the star winning draft pick that everyone wanted him to pick. The game of football is held by the strong characters in which play the game. It's not always what they can do, but who they are and how they act that makes them winners on and off the field.