A faithful and intelligent adaptation of the best-selling novel by Peter Gent, a former pass receiver with the Dallas Cowboys, "North Dallas Forty" has the ring of authenticity that usually eludes Hollywood movies about professional athletes. As Elliot walks away, Maxwell briefly reminisces about their time together on and off the football field. They got your feet at one end, and your pussy at the other, and I wanna fuck you.. It's still not the honest portrait of professional athletics that sport buffs have been waiting for. don't look, but there is somebody sitting in our parking lot with binoculars,' " he says in "Heroes. Elliott's attitude is unacceptable: He hasn't internalized the coach's value system and he can't pretend he has. If a player is contributing and performing the way he ought to, he will usually conform We just can't get along with a player who doesn't conform or perform. and points to the monitor. It was directed by Ted Kotcheff and based on the best-selling 1973 novel by Peter Gent. However, at the end of the movie (a day or so after the game) when Elliott was talking to Maxwell and told him he quit the team, Elliott told Maxwell "Good luck on Sunday.". "On any play you got no points for doing your job, you got a ", In Reel Life: Everyone's drinking during the hunting trip, and one series of shots comes dangerously close to Elliott and Maxwell. Davis, playing the role of quarterback Seth Maxwell obviously based upon real-life Dallas Cowboys QB Don Meredith was a Hollywood novice. The teams front office holds all the cards when it comes to contract negotiations and can discipline, trade or release players without any consequence. This weeks special, Super-Bowl-weekend edition: Dan Epstein on the football-movie classic North Dallas Forty. In Real Life: Elliott is, obviously, a fictional version of Gent. In Real Life: Neely says this sequence rings false. And the Raiders severed ties with Fred Biletnikoff, who coached Nolte. self-scouting," writes Craig Ellenport at NFL.com. Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer, The Most Anticipated TV & Streaming Shows of March 2023, Pokmon Detective Pikachu Sequel Finds Its Writer and Director, and More Movie News. Mike McCarthy Just Sent a Concerning Message About the Cowboys $50 Million Star. The movie was to be shot in Houston at the Astrodome and the . But in the same way that the hit on Delma Huddle seemed more real than reality, Gent's portrait of the relationship between the owners and the owned exaggerated the actual state of affairs in a clarifying way. "Maybe he forgot all those rows of syringes in the training room at the Cotton Bowl. B.A. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. "They had guys on me for one whole season." Cinemark All rights reserved. NFL franchise and the black players could not live near the practice field in "I have always felt that it [the loss] was partly my fault. The novel ends in apocalypse when, after having been dumped by the Bulls, Phil drives into the country to begin a new life with Charlotte, the woman who can heal his life, only to find her murdered for living with a black man on her farm. trip, Maxwell refers to his member as "John Henry." Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine. Widely hailed as not only one the best American football movies, but one of best sports movies of all time, North Dallas Forty continues to score touchdowns with film audiences and it's winning more fans thanks to its debut Blu-ray release from Imprint Films in Australia, limited to 1500 copies. North Dallas Forty movie clips: http://j.mp/1utgNODBUY THE MOVIE: http://j.mp/J9806XDon't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6prCLIP DESCRIPTION:Seth Maxwell (Mac Davis) and Phillip Elliot (Nick Nolte) hook up for the final plays of the game.FILM DESCRIPTION:In a society in which major league sporting events have replaced Sunday worship as the religion of choice, North Dallas Forty appears like a desecration at the altar. Please click the link below to receive your verification email. sorts of coaches, (including) great ones who are geniuses breaking new ground North Dallas Forty is something of a period piece in other ways, too. in "Heroes." Indeed, it might actually resonate more deeply now, in light of all the recent CTE stories and studies. an instance where a player was made to feel he had to do this where he was put in the position of feeling he might lose his job. traded, but he agreed that the offside call was the beginning of the end. MovieQuotes.com 1998-2023 | All rights reserved, More Movies with genre: Drama, Comedy, Sport, directed this movie
Profanely funny, wised-up and heroically antiheroic, "North Dallas Forty" is unlikely to please anyone with a vested interest in glorifying the National Football League. As his teammates look on in amazement, Matuszak finishes the confrontation by tearing off the coachs suitcoat and hurling some additional choice words at him. In the novel, Charlotte was a widow whose husband was an Army officer who had been killed in Vietnam; Charlotte had told Phil that her husband had decided to resign his commission, but had been killed in action while the request was being processed. "That story in 'North Dallas Forty' of being in a duck blind and North Dallas Forty was to football what Jim Bouton's Ball Four was to baseball, showing the unseemly side of sports that the people in charge never wanted fans to know about. In Real Life: This happened to Boeke, a former Cowboys lineman, who Charlotte, who seemed a creature of rhetorical fancy in the novel, still remains a trifle remote and unassimilated. and the The gulf between coaches or owners or fans, is also clarified because of Gent's intimate understanding of the milieu and intense psychological identification with the players. There even were rumors around the time of the movies release that Hall of Famer Tom Fears and Super Bowl XI MVP Fred Biletnikoff both of whom served as advisors on Forty were blackballed from the NFL because of their involvement. It literally ended his But Gent had larger aims. Were calling the series Revisiting Hours consider this Rolling Stones unofficial film club. He's done. I lived a double life, half of the year a bearded graduate student at Stanford, the other half a clean-shaven member of the Kansas City Chiefs. A winner all around. The Passion and The Pain of "North Dallas Forty" - The Washington Post. 1979. As with 1976s The Bad News Bears, which North Dallas Forty resembles in many respects, it takes a heartbreaking loss to finally bring clarity to the protagonist; though in this case, the scales dont fully fall from Phils eyes until the day after the game. If anything, the towering, madcap Matuszak is the commanding physical presence. coach called that play on the sideline or if Maxwell called it in the huddle. North Dallas Forty #1 North Dallas Forty Peter Gent 3.90 1,439 ratings88 reviews This book is a fictional account of eight harrowing days in the life of a professional football player. So, did that mean that Meredith was a dope-head? In Real Life: B.A. The situation was not changed until Mel Renfro filed a 'Fair Housing Suit' in 1969.". Remove Ads Cast Crew Details Genres Cast Dayle Haddon may also be a little too prim and standoffish to achieve a satisfying romantic chemistry with Nolte: Somehow, the temperaments don't mesh. In Real Life: "In Texas, they all drank when they hunted," says Gent championship game in 1967, and Jim jumped offside, something anyone could The Barista Express grinds, foams milk, and produces the silkiest espresso at the perfect temperature. If you nailed all the ballplayers that smoked grass, you couldnt field a punt return team! (Indeed, the officers report conveniently overlooks the fact that the victim was seen sharing a joint with the teams star quarterback. Right away I began to notice that the guys whose scores didn't seem to jibe with the way they were playing were the guys Tom didn't like.". Much of North Dallas Forty revolved around the characters portrayed by Mac Davis and Nick Nolte, a fun-loving quarterback and a worn-out receiver, respectively. When pressed into sexual service by an enthusiastic mistress, Elliott has to remind her to watch the sore arm, the sore shoulder, the sore leg. Bowled Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties to the BCS Era. Hes confident that he still has the best hands in football, but the constant pain is wearing him down and so, too, is the teams rigid head coach. And every time I call it a business, you call it a game.. English." Muddled overall, but perceptive and brutally realistic, North Dallas Forty also benefits from strong performances by Nick Nolte and Charles Durning. In the scene, Matuszak gets into an argument in the locker room with a coach following a loss. Someone breaks open an ampule of amyl nitrate to revive him. Roger Waters Asks Maroon 5 to 'Take a Knee' During Super Bowl Halftime Show Two shots out of that and Hartman is shot to shit, freaked out. NEW! However, this subtler, reserved Nolte is an appealing heroic figure. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s. When even the occasional chance is denied him by a management which believes it more prudent to dump him, Elliott has enough character to say Goodbye To All That with few regrets and recriminations. on third-and-long situations? From the novel by former NFL player Peter Gent. Single-bar helmet face masks abound; poorly-maintained grass fields that turn into hellish mud pits at the first sign of rain; and defensive players have to wrap at least one hand around the quarterbacks throat before the referee will even consider throwing a roughing the passer flag. In a meeting with the team owners and Coach Strother, Elliott learns that a Dallas detective has been hired by the Bulls to follow him. Just confirm how you got your ticket. You know, that crazy tourist drink that I fix for stewardesses? To you its just a business, Matuszak admonishes the coach, but to us its still gotta be a sport.. Every time I say it's a business, you call it a game! Best of 2022 Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. ", In Reel Life: Elliott has a meeting the day after the game with Conrad Hunter (Steve Forrest). Peter Gent knew them firsthand and translated them into enduring art. [14] After 32 days from 654 theatres, it had grossed $19,010,710[14] and went on to gross $26,079,312 in the United States and Canada. And every time I call it a game, you call it a business!, I love your legs. To say they come off as extremely unsettling today, especially when Maxwell defends the linemans aggressive sexual harassment as key to maintaining his on-field confidence, would be an understatement. "Gent would become Meredith's primary confidant and amateur psychologist as But Meredith's pass was intercepted in the end zone by Tom Brown, sealing the win for the Packers and a heartbreaking loss for Dallas. By Paul Hendrickson. And every time I call it a 'business', you call it a 'game'." Phillip Elliott and Maxwell (Nick Nolte and Mac Davis, respectively) are players for a Texas football team loosely based on the championship Dallas Cowboys. Elliott's skill as a receiver is readily acknowledged by his coach, B.A Strothers (G.D.) Spradlin, exceptional as the martinet basketball coach in "One on One," contrives to make this gridiron Draco a fresh impression of the same type). Cinemark easily between teammates and groups of players, and seems to be universally respected. playoff game against the Browns. See production, box office & company info, Sneak Previews: More American Graffiti, The Amityville Horror, The Muppet Movie, The Wanderers, North Dallas Forty. I had come to terms with playing football while opposing the war in Vietnam back in college at Notre Dame. North Dallas Forty was to football what Jim Boutons Ball Four was to baseball, showing the unseemly side of sports that the people in charge never wanted fans to know about. Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe. Shaddock. When you are young, you think you career." what it all boils down to, your attitude." Meredith was one of those players. "The NFL Films showed it from six or seven In Real Life: Why North Dallas? ", In Reel Life: After one play, a TV announcer says, "I wonder if the Of course, the freedoms we failed to gain in 1974 are enjoyed by every NFL player today, and the NFL is doing just fine. They reveal proof of his marijuana use and a sexual relationship with a woman named Joanne, who intends to marry team executive Emmett Hunter, the brother of owner Conrad Hunter. (Don) Talbert and (Bob) Lilly, or somebody else, started shooting at us from across the lake!". Although considered to possess "the best hands in the game", the aging Elliott has been benched and relies heavily on painkillers. It did not seem fake. But the experience of playing professional footballthe pain and fear, but also the exhilaration-that is at the heart of North Dallas Forty rings as true today, for all the story's excesses, as it did in the 1970s. "That is how you get a broken neck and fractures of the spine, a broken leg and dislocated ankle, and a half-dozen broken noses." In the late-1970s, Phil Elliott plays wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls professional football team, based in Dallas, Texas, which closely resembles the Dallas Cowboys.[3][4]. Neither is a willingness to endure pain. However, superior "individual effort" isn't sufficient. seasons (more about this later): "One time a neighbor told me, 'Pete, now "I knew I was only going to play if they needed me, and the minute they didn't need me, I was gone. The novel is more about out-of-control American violence. The football world he described wasn't mine. Elliott's nonconformist attitude incurs the coach's wrath more than once, and at one point, the coach informs Elliott that his continuing attitude could affect his future career with the Bulls. His teammates include savvy quarterback Maxwell (Mac Davis) and lunk-headed defensive lineman Jo Bob Priddy (Bo Svenson), who deal with the impersonality and back-biting of the game through off-field diversions. But the action seemed more real than staged, and there's that one stunning scene that's still stunning after more than 30 years of amped-up, digitally enhanced movie violence. In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote "The central friendship in the movie, beautifully delineated, is the one between Mr. Nolte and Mac Davis, who expertly plays the team's quarterback, a man whose calculating nature and complacency make him all the more likable, somehow. Today, we cant help but wonder if Charlotte would now be caring for a man who cant even remember her name, much less the highlights of his playing career. And so from then on, that was my attitude toward Tom Landry, and the rest of the organization going all the way up to Tex Schramm. been credited against Landry's disciplined system of play," writes Gary Cartwright, who covered the Cowboys during the 1960s. When the Bulls management benches Elliot after manipulating him to help train a fellow teammate, Elliot has to decide whether there is more to life than the game that he loves.CREDITS:TM \u0026 Paramount (1979)Cast: Mac Davis, Nick Nolte, G.D. SpradlinDirector: Ted KotcheffProducers: Frank Baur, Jack B. Bernstein, Frank YablansScreenwriters: Ted Kotcheff, Frank Yablans, Nancy Dowd, Rich EustisWHO ARE WE?The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. A basketball, not football, player from Michigan State, Gent played wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys from 1964 through 1968, then was traded and cut, and started writing a novel. The novel is darker, a long gaze into the abyss. in 1979, Every time I call it a business, you call it a game! them as early as 1962. He was one tough SOB. "North Dallas Forty" and another new release, "Breading Away," seem to have received that salutaruy from of screenwriting in which every crucial conflict is adequately resolved and every conflicting viewpoint is adequately -- and sometimes eloquently -- expressed. "Freddy was not even asked back to camp," writes Gent. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Terms and Policies See Also do," Gent told Leavy in 1979. The movie is more about the pain and damage that players like Phil Elliott endure in order to play football. the Cowboys quarterback's life would become more and more topsy-turvy as the own abilities is a continuing theme throughout the film, and there's plenty You better learn how to play the game, he counsels Phil, and I dont just mean the game of football. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. Encouraged to develop a ferolious rapport, Svenson and Matuszak emerge as a sensational, eversized comedy team. Better football through chemistry, he cracks through gritted teeth, while the teams assistant coach (a Maalox-chugging Charles Durning) uses Phils example to manipulate the needle-shy Delma Huddle (former WFL star Tommy Reamon) into taking a similar shot for his strained hamstring. trap play last season? [16][17], Last edited on 11 November 2022, at 04:50, "North Dallas Forty, Box Office Information", "- Trailer - Showtimes - Cast - Movies - New York Times", "The Impact And The Darkness: The Lasting Effect Of Peter Gent's North Dallas Forty", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=North_Dallas_Forty&oldid=1121221647, This page was last edited on 11 November 2022, at 04:50. The site's critical consensus states: "Muddled overall, but perceptive and brutally realistic, North Dallas Forty also benefits from strong performances by Nick Nolte and Charles Durning. Unfortunately, the Cleveland defensive back was in the wrong place. buddy buddy stuff interfering with my judgment." We struck over "freedom issues," like the one-sidedness of contracts and the absolute power of the commissioner, for which we were accused by the public of being "greedy" and by the owners of threatening the survival of the game. An off-duty Dallas vice officer whos been hired to investigate Phil has discovered a baggy of marijuana in the players home. But Gent says Jordan's comments were not accurate: "I was not particularly strong but I took my beatings to catch the ball," he says. North Dallas Forty is available on Netflix Instant and DVD. of genius, and it isn't until you leave the game that you found out you may have met the greatest men you will ever meet. He's walking away. Gent stands by his self-assessment, and says that Landry agreed about his Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Coming Soon. In Real Life: Gent was investigated by the league. "Pete's threshold of pain was such that if he had a headache, he would have needed something to kill the pain," Dan Reeves told the Washington Post in 1979. usually took a couple months for the pain and stiffness to recede," says The murderer is Charlotte's ex-boyfriend and football groupie Bob Boudreau (who is also not in the movie); Boudreau has been stalking her throughout the novel. In Reel Life: The game film shows Stallings going offside. It's an astonishing scene, absolutely stunning, the most violent tackle ever shown in a football film, and it has not been surpassed. Phils words echo the sentiments that motivated the ill-fated NFL strike of 1974, in which players unsuccessfully demanded the right to veto trades and the right to become free agents after their contracts expired. We dont have to wonder about that at all. "[10] Sports Illustrated magazine's Frank Deford wrote "If North Dallas Forty is reasonably accurate, the pro game is a gruesome human abattoir, worse even than previously imagined. "And I did." company, and the Cowboys pioneered the use of computers in the NFL, using Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Consistent with this tradition of football writing, the "truth" of North Dallas Forty lay in its broad strokes rather than particular observations. We might as well be the best.. It's not as true a picture as it was 10 to 15 years ago, when it was closer to the truth. At camp, I explained that this drug was legal and cheap -- it cost about $2 for 12 ampules of it -- everybody tried it and went crazy on it. The essentially serious nature of the story seems to enhance the abundant, vulgar locker room humor. Staggering into the kitchen, he finally locates a couple of precious painkillers, washing them down with the warm dregs of one of last nights Lone Stars. And I knew that it didn't matter how well I did. Austin/Texas connections: As Texas-centric as North Dallas Forty is, it wasn't filmed in Texas. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. The humor, camaraderie and loyalty are contrasted with the maddening agression, manipulation and adolescent behavior patterns. ", NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle denied any organized blacklist, but told The Post, "I can't say that some clubs in their own judgment (did not make) decisions based on many factors, including that they did not like the movie. Besides, he tells one of his girlfriends, its the only thing I know how to do good., The only guy on the Bulls that Phil can talk to about his misgivings is Seth Maxwell, the teams charismatic starting quarterback. North Dallas Forty; courtesy of Paramount Pictures Greetings and salutations * film snots Since it's January (where new releases go to die), your favorite goodie two shoes is stiff-arming the movie house to wallow like a sweaty pig in an altogether different useless American pastime. players when, even though they followed his precise instructions, a play went The players also live a far more modest existence off the field than their 2019 counterparts: Phils abode has the shabby look and feel of student housing, while fur coats and silver Lincoln Continentals are the closest things to bling that his teammates possess. Bowled Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties Is Greta Thunberg the Michael Jordan of getting carried by police? (1979) Ted Kotcheff directed this movie in 1979 Title North Dallas Forty Year 1979 Director Ted Kotcheff Genre Drama, Comedy, Sport Interpreted by Nick Nolte Charles Durning Bo Svenson Plot - After being one of the best players of the 'North Dallas Bulls' football team, Phillip Elliot finds himself on the bench watching his companions' victories. "North Dallas Forty," the movie version of an autobiographical novel written Half the time, he . Dan Epstein on how the 1979 football-movie classic rips a pre-free agency, pre-Kaepernick league a new one, Mac Davis, left, and Nick Nolte, right, in 'North Dallas Forty. ", Though sometimes confused by Landry, Gent says he admired the man: "Over the As we all know deep rifts and problems occur between sports players and club owners but we never get to really know the truth and what goes on in the boardroom and player meetings. In North Dallas Forty, he left behind a good novel and better movie that, like that tackle scene, resonates powerfully today in ways he could not have anticipated. ", In Reel Life: The film stresses the conflict between Elliott's view that football players should be treated like individuals and Landry's cold assessment and treatment of players. The book had received much attention because it was excellent and "According to Landry's gospel, the Cleveland defensive back who As the Cowboys' organization learned more about She's "I cannot remember Released in August 1979, just in time for the NFL pre-season, North Dallas Forty was a late entry in the long list of Seventies films pitting an alienated antihero against the unyielding monolith of The Man. Drama. Menu. And a good score in a game was 17 And they would read your scores out in front of everybody else.
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