People love football, lists and movies. Combine the three and you get this list of five great football movies.
1. ‘THE LONGEST YARD’
(Robert Aldrich; 1974) (four footballs)
This one has everything, including a car chase that opens the film, transvestite cheerleaders, Burt Reynolds (an ex-footballer), a great line (“I think I broke his freakin’ neck”) and most important, Ray Nitschke. Any film starring the Green Bay Packer great automatically makes any list. And the . . . uh . . . low pass scene is hysterical. Get that man a cup!
2. ‘FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS’
(Peter Berg; 2004) (four footballs)
More Top Picks Ridgid R86038
Even with its skewed perspective that does the book a disservice, this football movie rocks. As a tale of football’s importance to a small Texas town, this film is almost perfect. And the game scenes are brilliant, as is Billy Bob Thornton, who absolutely nails the tortured, hollow-eyed look that any football coach acquires after a while.
3. ‘NORTH DALLAS FORTY’
(Ted Kotcheff; 1979) (three footballs)
If football players were given unlimited access to women, booze and drugs, you’d have the degenerate but mostly good-hearted louts of the North Dallas Bulls. Mac Davis and Nick Nolte make this movie, particularly Nolte, grizzled and gravel-voiced even then. Few films get at the cynical, disposable-humanity qualities of the NFL.
4. ‘ANY GIVEN SUNDAY’
(Oliver Stone; 1999) (three footballs)
Even Conspiracy Boy Stone and Al “Tony Montana All the Time” Pacino can’t mess this one up. It’s the classic tale of a rookie filling in for a veteran and becoming a jerk, and it’s as predictable as the day is long. But the football scenes, amped-up as they are, rock the house. When Jamie Foxx looks out over the opposing defense in cross-eyed confusion, it’s a classic football movie moment. James Woods’ sleazy team doctor is just icing on the cake.
5. ‘THE PROGRAM’
(David S. Ward; 1993) (three footballs)
The football scenes, combined with Andrew Bryniarski as face-painted steroid user Steve Lattimer, make this movie overcome all, even the idiotic Halle Berry/Omar Epps love story. There should never, ever be love stories in football, unless they are of the temporary sort as demonstrated by Bernadette Peters and Burt Reynolds in “The Longest Yard.”