Le lion de papier

A fairly good adaptation of George Plimpton's book. A young Alan Alda did pretty well playing Plimpton. But as another commenter pointed out, it was most interesting to see pro football in the days when the coaches were the bosses, the players did what they were told, and no thuggishness or criminality was tolerated. Football was tough, and masculine, and that was okay. No strutting, no trash talk. Ah, those were the days.

This is simply a fun movie. Alan Alda portrays Plimpton believably. I was left constantly thinking, "How would I survive a professional football training camp?" Definitely not as well as Plimpton did. I would have quit after the first day.

Another interesting thing about this film is to see all of the cameos from real people and players from 1968. Players from Alex Karras, Frank Gifford, and even the late Bill McPeak pop up in this movie.

Oh and lest we forget. Ms. Hutton is gorgeous!

If you are a fan of Pro football, this is a must. Before Alan Alda shot to fame in the TV series MASH, he was in Paper Lion. Many Football movies have been made, some good, some bad. Longest Yard and Brain's Song rank as two of the best, with Paper Lion a close third. One of the best scenes doesn't take place on the Football field. When Plimpton (Alda) explains his idea to Vince Lombardi, Lombardi laughs and replied " Have you thought about the AFL?" Giving him a dirty look, Alda leaves. This shows the bad blood that existed between the NFL and AFL at the time. One year after this movie was filmed, the merger of the AFL and NFL was announced.

Just watched this movie on TCM. My husband highly recommended that I watch this movie to get a fill for what the players go through for training camp. He thought I'd love the movie since I just adore Alan Alda & he was right! I loved the whole movie & especially how well Alda portrayed George Plimpton. Perfect Casting! Lauren Hutton was also a delight in her movie debut. Highly recommend that women who have husband who are football junkies to watch this movie.

PS: My husband is a big KC Chiefs fan & said that this movie would have been a lot funnier if Plimpton had tried out for the Chiefs, because he says Hank Stram was the funniest coach in football at the time & would have made a great addition to the movie.

This is a competent film version of reporter George Plimpton's ill-fated attempt to be a NFL quarterback. Although Alan Alda does a good job as Plimpton, the real joy of this film is in the way it unintentionally documents the sense of community shared among the teammates (many of those used in this film were actual football players, including Alex Karras of "Webster" fame) before money, egos, and greed corrupted the sport.