Review of North Dallas Forty (1979) by Ashley H — 23 Apr 2016

Wide receiver Phil Elliott (Nick Nolte) plays for a 1970s era professional football team based in Dallas, Texas named the North Dallas Bulls, which closely resembles the Dallas Cowboys. Though considered to possess "the best hands in the game", the aging Elliott is struggling to stay competitive and relies heavily on painkillers. Elliott and popular quarterback Seth Maxwell (Mac Davis) are outstanding players, but they also characterize the drug-, sex-, and alcohol-fueled party atmosphere of NFL teams of that era. Elliott wants only to play the game, retire, and own a home with his girlfriend Charlotte (Dayle Haddon), who appears to be financially independent, and has no interest whatsoever in football. The Bulls play for an iconic coach B.A. Strother (G.D. Spradlin) who turns a blind eye to anything that his players may be doing off the field or anything that his assistant coaches and trainers condone to keep those players in the game. The Coach is focused on player "tendencies", a quantitative measurement of their performance, and seems less concerned about the human aspect of the game and the players. As one player (John Matuszak) finally erupts to a coach (Charles Durning): "Every time I call it a game, you call it a business. And every time I call it a business, you call it a game." Elliott's non-conformist 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 with the Bulls. After the Bulls lose their final game of the season in Chicago, Elliott learns that a Dallas detective has been hired by the Bulls to follow him. They turn up proof of his marijuana use and a sexual relationship with a woman who intends to marry team executive Emmett Hunter (Dabney Coleman), brother of owner Conrad Hunter (Steve Forrest). When they also drag Charlotte's name into it, Elliott, convinced that the entire investigation is merely a pretext to force him off the team, he needs to make a decision of what he wants to do with his life...

Part drama, comedy, and satire, the semi-fictional "North Dallas Forty" is widely considered a classic sports film, giving insights into the lives of professional athletes. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Peter Gent, a Dallas Cowboys wide receiver in the late 1960s, the film's characters closely resemble real-life team members of that era. Source novelist and co-screenwriter Peter Gent once explained the story behind why the title 'North Dallas Forty' was chosen. In an email interview, Gent said: "I was shocked that in 1964 America, Dallas could have an NFL franchise and the black players could not live near the practice field in North Dallas, which was one of the reasons I titled the book 'North Dallas Forty.' I kept asking why the white players put up with their black teammates being forced to live in segregated south Dallas, a long drive to the practice field. The situation was not changed until Mel Renfro filed a 'Fair Housing Suit' in 1969."The film opened to good reviews, some critics calling it the best movie Ted Kotcheff made behind Fun with Dick and Jane and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. 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." Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "'North Dallas Forty' retains enough of the original novel's authenticity to deliver strong, if brutish, entertainment". Newsweek magazine's David Ansen wrote, "The writers -- Kotcheff, Gent and producer Frank Yablans -- are nonetheless to be congratulated for allowing their story to live through its characters, abjuring Rocky-like fantasy configurations for the harder realities of the game. North Dallas Forty isn't subtle or finely tuned, but like a crunching downfield tackle, it leaves its mark." However, in his review for the Globe and Mail, Rick Groen wrote, "North Dallas Forty descends into farce and into the lone man versus the corrupt system mentality deprives it of real resonance. It's still not the honest portrait of professional athletics that sport buffs have been waiting for." 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. Much of the strength of this impression can be attributed to Nick Nolte ... Unfortunately, Nolte's character, Phil Elliott, is often fuzzily drawn, which makes the actor's accomplishment all the more impressive." The social comments in "North Dallas Forty" are a plenty and by showing the players as pieces of equipment manipulated into performing on the field and then discarded when they are used up we are overthrown by the brutal truth of the sport. The drug use to even be able to get out of bed and the constant exposure to injuries that the management don´t care about leaves a foul taste in your mouth. Nick Nolte shows his talents as a character actor and the role as the rebel Elliot fits him like a glove. I reckon the problem with "North Dallas Forty" is the genre mix in the film and maybe the screenwriters should´ve chosen to either go full on drama or full on comedy. The end result is a bit wobbly, but still entertaining and interesting most of the time with the focus on the ugly sides of football.