Any Given Sunday «««
R, 162m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Al Pacino (Tony D’Amato), Cameron Diaz (Christina Pagniacci), Dennis Quaid (Jack “Cap” Rooney), James Woods (Dr. Harvey Mandrake), Jamie Foxx (Willie Beaman), LL Cool J (Julian Washington), Mathew Modine (Dr. Ollie Powers), Jim Brown (Montezuma Monroe), Charlton Heston (AFFA Football Commissioner), Aaron Eckhart (Nick Crozier), John C. McGinley (Jack Rose), Lauren Holly (Cindy Rooney), Lela Rochon (Vanessa Struthers), Ann-Margret (Margaret Pagniacci). Screenplay by John Logan and Oliver Stone. Directed by Oliver Stone.
Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday is the equivalent of an exciting football game. There are so many things going on all at once that one may wish he or she were watching it on video or digital video disc so they can rewind to see what they missed.
The film runs close to three hours, about the same amount of time it takes for a football game to finish and before it is over, we will have watched five quarters but with different teams playing against the movie’s Miami Sharks coached by a hot tempered, focus driven Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino).
The script, co-written by Stone and John Logan, is a character study of not one but several individuals, all of whom go through some period of self-doubt before realizing in the end they have what it takes to get the job done. Every actor and actress in this film has at least one memorably dramatic moment.
We meet people like Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), a money hungry owner who lives with the fact her late father would have preferred a son over a daughter. Throughout the film, she consistently reminds D’Amato how he once had the “intensity” to win a game and questions whether or not he still has it.
We’re introduced to pro football players, both new and old, like Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), an up and coming athlete who keeps changing D’Amato’s plays at the last minute and whose signature trademark is he barfs on the field just before the start of the next play. And Jack “Cap” Rooney (Dennis Quaid), a 39-year-old quarterback who physically doesn’t have many games left in him but who still wants to be out on the field mentally.
At the center of it all is Pacino’s D’Amato who sits in bars shortly after the Sharks have lost another game. Sometimes, he is seen nursing a drink, listening to an obnoxious sports reporter (John C. McGinley) on TV bash his coaching tactics.
Pacino brings both warmth and intensity to the role, who has “given up his wife and children for these men.” His best scene, perhaps the most pathetic, is where he talks drunkenly on the phone to his ex-wife one night telling her how they have grandchildren. He accidentally drops the phone and we hear the voice “If you would like to make a call, please hang up and dial again.”
At one point, Pacino reminded me of his earlier role as Cuban gangster Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), another movie Stone scripted, because of the expensive suits he wears here and the cigars he smokes. I don’t pay much attention to professional football but I can probably picture a head coach like Pacino’s D’Amato giving foul mouthed motivational speeches in the locker rooms shortly before the big game, trying to be a friend or mentor to various players off and on the field and having run-ins with the team’s owners.
Everything seen here though has been borrowed from other movies about the sport. I just knew sooner or later Diaz’s character would make an appearance in a locker room full of half-naked men. There are scenes of fellow players mocking an athlete for his inability to dance in the shower (as a result, the guy brings in his pet baby alligator that causes everyone to start dancing).
Athletes attend parties where drugs and alcohol are the usual cocktails served and opposing coaches like Dick Butkus throw temper tantrums on the field and threaten referees. There is even an opposing coach who is reminiscent to former Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry which I thought was a nice touch. Team doctors (James Woods and Matthew Modine) lie and give players clean bills of health or more pain killers because they don’t want to risk taking away the athlete’s lifelong dreams.
The best shots, however, are on the field as though I could actually hear the crunching, sickening sounds of players colliding with one another as the plays are called. I think I could safely assume that bones were being broken.
Stone has never been a stranger to stirring up controversy. His best movies are when he has something to say no matter how outlandish those theories or commentaries may be. I found it to be no surprise that Stone has a thing or two to say about the NFL in Any Given Sunday. There is one scene where Beaman mentions how there aren’t a lot of African American football coaches in charge that might cause one to stop and wonder.
Watching the film I found that Stone’s idea of football is it is a kill or be killed sport as he demonstrates midway through the film with shots of the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959) as D’Amato discusses Beaman’s attitude on the field. Stone incorporates the same trick editing shots and black and white flashbacks he used in JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994) and Nixon (1995). What is annoying here though are the scenes sometimes get in the way of the action and dialogue. I suppose his reason for the shots is to prove football is a frantic, fast paced sport.
Football is an exciting often entertaining sport that also requires a lot of concentration. Stone should have taken note how Coach D’Amato and Willie Beamen never let their minds stray from the game.
If he had, Any Given Sunday’s dramatic impact could have been as hard hitting as the ones the players take on the field.
©12/22/99
R, 162m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Al Pacino (Tony D’Amato), Cameron Diaz (Christina Pagniacci), Dennis Quaid (Jack “Cap” Rooney), James Woods (Dr. Harvey Mandrake), Jamie Foxx (Willie Beaman), LL Cool J (Julian Washington), Mathew Modine (Dr. Ollie Powers), Jim Brown (Montezuma Monroe), Charlton Heston (AFFA Football Commissioner), Aaron Eckhart (Nick Crozier), John C. McGinley (Jack Rose), Lauren Holly (Cindy Rooney), Lela Rochon (Vanessa Struthers), Ann-Margret (Margaret Pagniacci). Screenplay by John Logan and Oliver Stone. Directed by Oliver Stone.
The film runs close to three hours, about the same amount of time it takes for a football game to finish and before it is over, we will have watched five quarters but with different teams playing against the movie’s Miami Sharks coached by a hot tempered, focus driven Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino).
The script, co-written by Stone and John Logan, is a character study of not one but several individuals, all of whom go through some period of self-doubt before realizing in the end they have what it takes to get the job done. Every actor and actress in this film has at least one memorably dramatic moment.
We meet people like Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), a money hungry owner who lives with the fact her late father would have preferred a son over a daughter. Throughout the film, she consistently reminds D’Amato how he once had the “intensity” to win a game and questions whether or not he still has it.
We’re introduced to pro football players, both new and old, like Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), an up and coming athlete who keeps changing D’Amato’s plays at the last minute and whose signature trademark is he barfs on the field just before the start of the next play. And Jack “Cap” Rooney (Dennis Quaid), a 39-year-old quarterback who physically doesn’t have many games left in him but who still wants to be out on the field mentally.
At the center of it all is Pacino’s D’Amato who sits in bars shortly after the Sharks have lost another game. Sometimes, he is seen nursing a drink, listening to an obnoxious sports reporter (John C. McGinley) on TV bash his coaching tactics.
Pacino brings both warmth and intensity to the role, who has “given up his wife and children for these men.” His best scene, perhaps the most pathetic, is where he talks drunkenly on the phone to his ex-wife one night telling her how they have grandchildren. He accidentally drops the phone and we hear the voice “If you would like to make a call, please hang up and dial again.”
At one point, Pacino reminded me of his earlier role as Cuban gangster Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), another movie Stone scripted, because of the expensive suits he wears here and the cigars he smokes. I don’t pay much attention to professional football but I can probably picture a head coach like Pacino’s D’Amato giving foul mouthed motivational speeches in the locker rooms shortly before the big game, trying to be a friend or mentor to various players off and on the field and having run-ins with the team’s owners.
Everything seen here though has been borrowed from other movies about the sport. I just knew sooner or later Diaz’s character would make an appearance in a locker room full of half-naked men. There are scenes of fellow players mocking an athlete for his inability to dance in the shower (as a result, the guy brings in his pet baby alligator that causes everyone to start dancing).
Athletes attend parties where drugs and alcohol are the usual cocktails served and opposing coaches like Dick Butkus throw temper tantrums on the field and threaten referees. There is even an opposing coach who is reminiscent to former Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry which I thought was a nice touch. Team doctors (James Woods and Matthew Modine) lie and give players clean bills of health or more pain killers because they don’t want to risk taking away the athlete’s lifelong dreams.
The best shots, however, are on the field as though I could actually hear the crunching, sickening sounds of players colliding with one another as the plays are called. I think I could safely assume that bones were being broken.
Stone has never been a stranger to stirring up controversy. His best movies are when he has something to say no matter how outlandish those theories or commentaries may be. I found it to be no surprise that Stone has a thing or two to say about the NFL in Any Given Sunday. There is one scene where Beaman mentions how there aren’t a lot of African American football coaches in charge that might cause one to stop and wonder.
Watching the film I found that Stone’s idea of football is it is a kill or be killed sport as he demonstrates midway through the film with shots of the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959) as D’Amato discusses Beaman’s attitude on the field. Stone incorporates the same trick editing shots and black and white flashbacks he used in JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994) and Nixon (1995). What is annoying here though are the scenes sometimes get in the way of the action and dialogue. I suppose his reason for the shots is to prove football is a frantic, fast paced sport.
Football is an exciting often entertaining sport that also requires a lot of concentration. Stone should have taken note how Coach D’Amato and Willie Beamen never let their minds stray from the game.
If he had, Any Given Sunday’s dramatic impact could have been as hard hitting as the ones the players take on the field.
©12/22/99
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