Depictions of Football in American Cinema

[JeffreyMiller]

I really enjoyed Invincible. There was, for the most part, a good attention to historic detail in regards to players. I think I remember seeing Mike Boryla, Frank Lemaster and Harold Carmichael. There's an inaccurate bit of dialogue in the opening scene though... "We just lost to a team even worse than us!" That team was the Bengals who happened to finish 11-3 that year.

I concur. They did a nice job on this one.

[JeffreyMiller]

I rather enjoyed The Replacements, Leatherheads, Invincible, We Are Marshall, and the original The Longest Yard. I liked the story of Brian's Song, but did not buy James Caan as a professional football player … Jerry McGuire had some good football scenes. That and Draft Day showed some good "behind-the-scenes" stuff that goes on.

Another one I liked, mainly because of the casting, was Trouble Along the Way. Paper Lion was great too because we didn't get a lot of that "behind-the-scenes" stuff back then.

Hated Black Sunday, Any Given Sunday, Against All Odds, Second String

[Rupert Patrick]

I rather enjoyed The Replacements, Leatherheads, Invincible, We Are Marshall, and the original The Longest Yard. I liked the story of Brian's Song, but did not buy James Caan as a professional football player … Jerry McGuire had some good football scenes. That and Draft Day showed some good "behind-the-scenes" stuff that goes on.

Another one I liked, mainly because of the casting, was Trouble Along the Way. Paper Lion was great too because we didn't get a lot of that "behind-the-scenes" stuff back then.

Hated Black Sunday, Any Given Sunday, Against All Odds, Second String

I liked Black Sunday, which worked as an espionage thriller, but I can never look at the Goodyear Blimp quite the same way again.

As far as films with football subplots, I thought "Two-Minute Warning" was awful, but "The Fortune Cookie" (a Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy about a network cameraman who gets injured filming a football game and tries to milk it into a major lawsuit) was pretty good.

I recommend the Jim Brown late 60's film "The Split", which was a heist film about Brown and a group of thieves who rob the cash box at the LA Coliseum with a Rams-Packers game in progress. It shows up on TCM from time to time. It should be a better known movie than it is just based on the great supporting cast of Ernest Borgnine, Donald Sutherland, Gene Hackman, Jack Klugman, Warren Oates and James Whitmore. Here is the trailer for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAiCmPUUxMY

I don't know if anybody mentioned "Remember the Titans" which was a very good film. I know it was based on a true story but I don't know how accurate it really was.

[slats7]

Forgot what was the game they were watching? Falcons/Cardinals?[/quote]

Vikings @ Falcons

[BD Sullivan]

There was also the Marx Brothers in 1932's "Horsefeathers" and the Three Stooges with Lucille Ball in 1935's, "Three Little Pigskins."

[JohnTurney]

http://nflandhollywood.blogspot.com/

[bachslunch]

There was also the Marx Brothers in 1932's "Horsefeathers" and the Three Stooges with Lucille Ball in 1935's, "Three Little Pigskins."

Both are very funny. There’s another Stooges short that ends with a football sequence, “No census, no feeling.” Also very funny film.

[bachslunch]

North Dallas Forty was considered fictional, even though the depictions of key players and coaches mirror the Cowboys to a T. It was pretty good, while Semi-Tough was horrible.

When it comes to The Longest Yard, I want to vomit anytime someone brings up the remake. At least Burt Reynolds looked the part. Adam Sandler? Please.

Reynolds looked the part for a good reason — he at one time was a promising RB for Florida State. He opted for an acting career after injuring his knees and spleen in accidents both on and off the field.

[TanksAndSpartans]

I really enjoyed Invincible. There was, for the most part, a good attention to historic detail in regards to players. I think I remember seeing Mike Boryla, Frank Lemaster and Harold Carmichael. There's an inaccurate bit of dialogue in the opening scene though... "We just lost to a team even worse than us!" That team was the Bengals who happened to finish 11-3 that year.

I concur. They did a nice job on this one.

+1

Apparently, there is also a Steve Van Buren reference, but I didn't catch it in real time - found out from a book: https://www.amazon.com/Give-Steve-Kindl ... B0073NPOR6

[lastcat3]

I don't know if anybody mentioned "Remember the Titans" which was a very good film. I know it was based on a true story but I don't know how accurate it really was.

Even though Remember the Titans was based on a real team the story was still extremely fictionalized. There was little to no internal controversy and what little drama there may have been was all ironed out before the season even started. They basically were just a regular team. They made it seem like the team overcame so much when in reality all that happened was that they combined two really good teams together. When that happens any team could become outstanding within the state they play in. The guy did get paralyzed but it was after the season was over that the accident happened.


If you want to watch a historically accurate football movie 'We are Marshall' would probably be the one you would want to go for. 'Friday Night Lights' is fairly accurate also.