There are a few go-to movies for me when it comes to sports. When baseball season starts, I’ll re-watch Bull Durham or Major League or Cobb. With golf, I go with Tin Cup. With football, it’s Any Given Sunday, Oliver Stone’s frenetic film that both celebrates and condemns the sport. It’s a film that’s messy and unsure of itself, which is perfect for football.
Any Given Sunday makes it quite clear that pro football players are modern day gladiators. And while gladiators are typically given glorious treatment in history and pop culture, they were basically slaves putting their life on the line to distract the masses. In that way, it’s an apt comparison, though obviously there’s a lot more money and fame involved for modern athletes, and the deaths are far slower. I don’t think it’s an unfair comparison, especially cinematically-speaking.
Stone, of course, isn’t subtle about any of this; just watch the dinner scene between Pacino and Foxx with the chariot race from Ben-Hur playing in the background and intercut into the scene. That doesn’t make it wrong, but the bluntness of it is distracting at times. Then again, is there a more blunt sport than football?
This is why it actually feels natural for there to be so many scenes of men discussing their legacy and whatnot in relation to a game. It’s silly, but it’s real. These broken men abuse drugs, women, their families, etc. They might be gladiators, but they live like they’re in Caligula. It makes all the talk of the importance of leaving behind a legacy of greatness seem pretty fucking stupid. Sanctioned excess will do that to people, and what organization is more hypocritically perfect for this than the NFL?
The NFL, which unsurprisingly did not participate in the film (the Dolphins are referenced at one point, implying that the fictional league of this film co-exists with the NFL somehow), presents the sport with the same reverence Any Given Sunday does. But they try to bury any negative side effects of the sport like drug abuse and CTE and abhorrent off-field behavior. At least Any Given Sunday presents both sides of the game.
This is all getting appropriately sloppy, and it’s not necessarily by design. And I don’t think Stone was going for some meta-commentary with his sloppy film, either. But when you address both this film and the sport it portrays, it’s impossible to be simple about it. The viewers of both are complicit. I’m okay with Stone’s head-spinning approach because I find it enjoyable, much the same way I’ll still cheer for the horrible Miami Dolphins while also condemning the NFL from time to time. That’s America, and Oliver Stone, for better or worse (especially in the ‘90s) was great at capturing that dichotomy.
One of the worst DVD menu screens of all time.
My basement was the go-to weekend hangout spot in high school and beyond, and I always had a movie on when everyone would fall asleep. This was no big deal until the movie ended and the DVD menu screen came up. Auto-play wasn’t a feature back then (or my DVD player simply didn’t have it), and interactive menu screens were the norm. Any Given Sunday is one my friends and I talk about to this day.
First off, when I recorded this on my new 4K player, it only played through twice, and then the movie started. Not sure if this is more modern technology taking over or what, but I could have used it twenty-five years ago. Anyway, as you can hear, that bland ass hard rock music is terrible, but imagine that blaring on a loop at three in the morning.
Some others that came to mind were Fight Club and Super Troopers:
There are plenty of others I’m just not remembering now, but even though these were annoying years ago, they take me back now. Even though I still watch plenty of physical media, the technology has still made this mostly obsolete. First off, I almost always go to sleep with something streaming playing, so the worst case scenario now is an annoying show or movie auto-playing or a series of previews constantly cycling. As for blu-rays and whatnot, even without auto-play, the vast majority of menu screens these days are still images or maybe a little music from the film. They are much more subdued whereas the early 2000s DVDs wanted you to wake the fuck up and watch a movie.
The modern situation is undoubtedly better. But popping in an old DVD like this and seeing that awful menu screen takes me back to a simpler time. And it also reminds me that this movie needs a 4K upgrade. What the fuck is going on here?
Random Thoughts / Favorite Quotes
I tried to watch the streaming option on Fandango, but it’s the theatrical cut, which I've never seen, and there were so many little differences it annoyed me. Not to mention the three minutes of commercials every five minutes.
It's not that the director’s cut is better, it's just what I'm used to. For instance, the DC has Beamen getting yelled at for not being ready whereas in the theatrical cut he just appears next to Pacino, ready to go. I wasn’t committed enough to stick it out the whole movie and look for differences.
The editing of Stone's films of the 90s should be studied in film school. How coherent films, much less good or arguably great ones, are cobbled together from all that footage and different film stock is a miracle to me.
“Cherubini? What'd he fall off the bench? What's next? Stigmata?”
Love that triple take Pacino gives Foxx.
Can't believe I just found out Jim Brown's name in this is Montezuma Monroe. Still not sure if the full name is said on screen, but that's what he's credited as in the credits.
That caricature of Oliver Stone at the bar is fucking diabolical.
“I don't get strokes, motherfucker, I give ‘em!”
I bet Dick Butkus calling Pacino a f****t was a Butkus adlib.
Met-Rx went all in fast on Willie Beamen.
Pacino says he's glad he's old then pays a prostitute with a check. Consistent.
“Fuck you, coach! I ain't buyin' yo brand!”
I see the DP went to the Last Boy Scout school of cinematography for that rainy night game.
Dennis Quaid wearing a chef's hat while grilling hot dogs is fucking hilarious.
I like what they do with the playoff game having an announcer from each team calling the game, bickering the whole time.
Heston understood the assignment. Show up, bear those bottom teeth, and deliver the hell out of this line: “I honestly believe that woman would eat her young.”