• Latest
  • 47 films
  • Features
  • Five Facts
  • Hollywood Tales
  • Making of
  • Movie News
  • Reviews
  • About
  • Contact
  • Latest
  • 47 films
  • Features
  • Five Facts
  • Hollywood Tales
  • Making of
  • Movie News
  • Reviews
  • About
  • Contact
  • Latest
  • 47 films
  • Features
  • Five Facts
  • Hollywood Tales
  • Making of
  • Movie News
  • Reviews
  • About
  • Contact
  • Latest
  • 47 films
  • Features
  • Five Facts
  • Hollywood Tales
  • Making of
  • Movie News
  • Reviews
  • About
  • Contact
47 films

47 FILMS: 53. NORTH DALLAS FORTY

Chad Sternberger Apr 23, 2018

In our continuing series of 47 films to see before you are murdered in your dreams, we present the gritty football drama North Dallas Forty.

If you were to look at the poster of North Dallas Forty, you might think it is going to be a boisterous comedy. Raucous laughs, beery fun, locker room jokes. That kind of thing.

But I don’t think there’s a more brutal film about professional sports. Nick Nolte stars as Phil Elliott, a professional footballer whose body is a calamitous mass of bruises and barely healed bones. Seeing him ease into a bath as he sucks down painkillers, booze and pot to numb the results of the previous night’s game is to watch a body literally on its last legs. Directed by Ted Kotchef, the film shows the sport to be a decadent activity stripped of almost all romance in the pursuit of success and money.

The team is held up as the ultimate value. But ultimately there’s no reciprocity. The team doesn’t matter. As Elliott tells his coach: ‘We’re not the team; we’re the equipment.’

Nolte was a footballer for a time and he imbues his role with a world weary knowledge. He’s a self-destructive man who might be saved by simple weariness as much as a late romantic entanglement with Charlotte, a girl he meets at a party. The partying is a microcosm of the world, with a very rapey vibe as well as violence and humiliation lingering under the hedonism. Elliott and his quarterback pal pop pills and drink beers as they prepare for the game, but Elliott has been benched. There might be a possibility of one last chance, but it means getting the doctor to drug him so he doesn’t feel the pain of his destroyed knee.

There have been plenty of disaffected sports films – Slapshot comes to mind and Fat City – but North Dallas Forty hangs in there as one of the most critical of its subject. The only plea for the sport as a sport rather than a business comes from one of the dumbest characters as they other players look on slack-jawed with surprise.

For more of our 47 Films to see before you’re murdered in your dreams CLICK HERE.

(Visited 35 times, 1 visits today)

Related

47 Films fat city Nick Nolte north dallas forty slapshot sports films
KEVIN SPACEY TO RETURN IN MILK 2KEVIN SPACEY TO RETURN IN MILK 2Apr 20, 2018
JJ ABRAMS REVEALS STAR WARS EPISODE 9 WILL HAVE ALTERNATE TIME LINEApr 23, 2018JJ ABRAMS REVEALS STAR WARS EPISODE 9 WILL HAVE ALTERNATE TIME LINE

Related PostsBest

47 films

47 FILMS: 53. NORTH DALLAS FORTY

Chad Sternberger Apr 23, 2018
47 films

47 FILMS: 36. THE WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES

Chad Sternberger Jun 3, 2016

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

10 Top Posts This Week
  • TOM HANKS PLACED UNDER HOUSE ARRESTTOM HANKS PLACED UNDER HOUSE ARREST
  • NEW PHOTO OF CHARLIE SHEEN CAUSES CONCERNNEW PHOTO OF CHARLIE SHEEN CAUSES CONCERN
  • CHINA 3D PRINT AN ARMY OF GUTTENBERGSCHINA 3D PRINT AN ARMY OF GUTTENBERGS
  • FIRST LOOK AT SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT REMAKEFIRST LOOK AT SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT REMAKE
  • STEVE MARTIN CONFIRMS CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 3STEVE MARTIN CONFIRMS CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 3
  • HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 3 CONFIRMEDHUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 3 CONFIRMED
  • HomepageHomepage
  • SHARON STONE'S VAGINA IS REMASTERED BY THE BFISHARON STONE’S VAGINA IS REMASTERED BY THE BFI
  • JUPITER ASCENDING 2 'WILL HAVE SMALLER BUDGET'JUPITER ASCENDING 2 ‘WILL HAVE SMALLER BUDGET’
  • JAMES WOODS WELCOMES JOE BIDEN VICTORYJAMES WOODS WELCOMES JOE BIDEN VICTORY
Categories
Tweets by @studioexec1
Friends of the Exec: Jooble
Friends of the Exec
live for films
Friends of the Exec: Agony Booth.
Recent Comments
  • SHAWN RENNERT on PAUL RUDD: ‘I WORSHIP SATAN’
  • Camila F on HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 3 CONFIRMED
  • John Cheetham on SEAN PENN TO STAR IN AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET MOVIE
  • John Cheetham on SEAN PENN TO STAR IN AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET MOVIE
  • UrbanYeti on TOM HANKS PLACED UNDER HOUSE ARREST
9 Times Table & Other Tales
9 TIMES TABLE

BUY NOW

Friends of the Exec: Agony Booth
  • Latest
  • 47 films
  • Features
  • Five Facts
  • Hollywood Tales
  • Making of
  • Movie News
  • Reviews
  • About
  • Contact

ÂĐ Copyright TheStudioExec. All Rights Reserved.

Designed By Nerospark