OT: Favorite football movie?

Submitted by Bob The Wonder Dog on

Just rewatched "Any Given Sunday" for the umpteenth time. Love that film's camera shots, it's gritty realism, and Al Pacino's speech at the end. That Jamie Foxx can ball.

Hoping to get another few football movies in before Saturday. Any recommendations?

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ScruffyTheJanitor

August 28th, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^

I remember watching that game with a state-fan  friend of my brothers. After things go south, I am freaking out. However, I act all confident through the entire game. I keep saying,  "Michigan is going to win, man," through the whole fourth quarter. Even though I am 99.9 percent sure that I am going to have to eat crow. My brother's friend keeps acting incredulous even as  Braylon started to Braylon. Even after Braylon's second touchdown, I told him, "I told you so" like I already knew the ending and I was completely unsuprised. The misery on his face was priceless. Still the best troll job I ever did on anyone.

Joined: 02/03/2011

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Wendyk5

August 28th, 2014 at 10:32 AM ^

Heaven Can Wait, the 70's version with Warren Beatty. He plays Joe Pendleton, a quarterback for the LA Rams who is prematurely "pulled out of life" by an anxious angel, played by Buck Henry. So his spirit has to find a new body to inhabit, someone who is just about to die. He ends up in an asshole billionaire's body, but is determined to get that body in good enough shape to try out for the Rams. Everyone around him thinks he's crazy, except for one of the trainers, played by Jack Warden, who believes he is really the dead QB in the billionaire's body. He ends up buying the Rams to get a tryout, but before he can get a chance to see the field, the billionaire's body is killed by his crazy wife (played by Dyan Cannon) who has been trying to kill him all along. The last scene is the Rams in the Superbowl. The current quarterback takes a hit which essentially kills him (it's his time to go), so Joe Pendleton's spirit steps into that body and they go on to win the game, with him quarterbacking. It's about fate and circumstance, and has a great 70's cast. 

Joined: 11/20/2008

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GoBLUinTX

August 28th, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^

North Dallas Forty, gritty yet fun movie with a wink and a nod toward the Dallas Cowboys

Longest Yard, "He broke his f***ing neck." The original

Necessary Roughness, Kathy Ireland...nuff said

Brian's Song, The original TV movie, it captured a nation and made guys cry from coast to coast.  It's all that we talked about in school the next morning.

The aforementioned M*A*S*H football game.  Not a football movie, per se, but one of the most iconic movie football games ever.

Joined: 12/02/2013

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michigan fan 1976

August 28th, 2014 at 10:49 AM ^

i would say my my 4 favorite football movies of all time are

 

1. rudy, i just love the inspiration he shows and passion he shows to get what he wants in life

2. varsity blues, this is a classic with a lot of humor to me that i never get tired of watching

3. facing the giants, i love how this movie depicts how nothing in life is to big to overcome and if you really put your heart and mind into something you can truly overcome

4. the blind side, love how it shows that no matter where you come from if you have talent it will be found 

 

just my take

Joined: 02/05/2013

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Hugh White

August 28th, 2014 at 2:48 PM ^

Trust me -- you will enjoy this movie!

 

First, the narrative/telling is incredible film-making.

 

But the story itself is the most impossible-but-true football tale ever memorialized in film. Calvin Hill. Tommy Lee Jones. Meryl Streep. George Bush. Al Gore. Gary Trudeau. Sexual revolution. Vietnam war. Conference Championship at stake. National ranking at stake. Two undefeated teams. Bitter rivals.

 

A shy underclassman has to overcome adversity to take over the big game. An unsavory antagonist resorts to foul play. Zebra controversy. And an ending that would have been rejected in Hollywood as too improbable had this been fiction [SPOILER - 16 points are scored in the final 42 seconds of play].

 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaYshRf5-tU

Joined: 11/26/2012

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swalburn

August 28th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^

1.  The Program - It came out when I was in High School so I remember watching it repeatedly.  I often ask my 6 year old daughter if she is hurt or injured when she is upset.

2,  North Dallas Forty - The guy who wrote the book used to speak at our middle school when I was there.  He was not a big fan of pro football to say the least

3.  Any Given Sunday

4. Remember the Titans

5.  Necessary Roughness

 

The guys who played Lattimer from The Program was also in Necessary Roughness and Any Given Sunday.

The TV show Friday Night Lights blows all these movies out of the water.

Joined: 11/24/2011

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mm92.

August 28th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^

Best: Remember the Titans.

Worst: Rudy. Sure go ahead and work your but off and play harder tan anybody else, you'll still only get in on two plays. Rudy should have transferred.

Joined: 10/10/2012

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steve sharik

August 28th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^

Pains me to say it, but Rudy is the best.

I've heard that the new film out, When the Game Stands Tall, is good.

Friday Night Lights (the motion picture) is an absolutely criminal act perpetrated on the book.  Keep wanting to try the TV series to see if it can properly portray the book in themes.

Remember the Titans is solid.

Joined: 08/08/2009

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MGoViso

August 28th, 2014 at 12:29 PM ^

You named the same four I would! But with a different spin or two...

I loved Friday Night Lights as a movie, one entirely separate from the book of the same name. For all intents and purposes, they are different works. FNL is my favorite football movie; FNL is one of my favorite documentarian/investigative/journalistic/storytelling books. Two separate things.

However, let me save you some time...the show is worse. Way worse. It sucks. It is teenie drama crap. My wife (the smartest and best person I know, but also a lady who can relax by watching vampire shows) watches it as a guilty pleasure. The show is as divorced from the movie as the movie is from the book. 

When the Game Stands Tall was excellent. I loved it. A lot. One of my favorite parts is during an emotional team meeting:

"...tomorrow, I will fight for you guys, until I die out there, if I have to."

Coach, interjecting: "Collapse. Not die. It's just high school football."

Good perspective on life.

Joined: 09/27/2009

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BeatOSU52

August 28th, 2014 at 12:29 PM ^

My favorite football movie is the The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon

 

 

But I do want to say Varsity Blues strictly because Jon Voight is awsome in that movie.

Joined: 11/13/2011

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UofM626

August 28th, 2014 at 12:37 PM ^

Is by far the best!

Talks and touches about everything in College Football. Was way ahead of its time.

College kids and steroids

College kids who actually wanted a degree.

Relationships

Racial boundaries

Bag men

Illegal activity

Coaches who knew and didn't know what was going on w the kids

Heisman. Pressure

Alcoholism

Parental pressure

Rape and Cover up

The stigma of a Football player on a large campus.

Recruiting

Boosters

The movie has it all



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Reader71

August 28th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^

The Program is a shit movie, but at least it portrays Michigan as THE team. Am I the only one who thinks very little of Remember the Titans as a picture?

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