User reviews

When this movie first came out (late 70's), I was still in high school and very naive as to the behind the scenes machinations of professional football. This movie was ahead of its time in its depiction since no other movie on professional football had ventured into this area exposing drug use, both off the field casual usage and to get players on the field, and indifference of ownership and coaching staff to players feelings and thoughts.

Nick Nolte was exceptional as Phil Elliot, the wide receiver whose character was based on Pete Gent, a wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys who authored the book (North Dallas Forty) the movie was based on. He is a free spirit with little regard for authority but undoubtedly cares about his performance on the field. He cannot play by the rules because he doesn't make them. Mac Davis was great as quarterback Seth Maxwell, the jaded athlete who knows how to "bend" the rules to remain in good standing with the team.

Supporting cast, especially GD Spradlin as the coach modeled after Dallas Cowboys coaching genius Tom Landry, was excellent. If you have 2 hrs and want to catch a well-acted, well-written movie on the reality of professional football, then catch this flick. It preceded such films and Stone's Any Given Sunday, but its content is very relevant to football 30 years later.

I hadn't seen ND40 since it first opened, but I always remembered it as my favorite football movie. Since my friends are sick of me comparing every football movie to it, I decided to make sure I was still right after 20 years. The movie holds up remarkably over the years. Sure, lots has changed--making the movie a humorous period statement. The bad hair, the bad polyester clothes, and cigarettes everywhere. The coach actually has to tell the team to put out their cigarettes five minutes before the big game!

On substance, the movie is still right on the mark. The addiction to pain killers, the crippling effect of the game, and the effect the game has on the players personal lives all ring true today. Although we try to unsuccessfully bury some of those problems today, they sneak out anyway in Bret Favre's pain killers or OJ Simpson's arthritis.

One problem: if Nolte really is the best receiver on the team with the best hands in the league, why isn't he playing? I can hypothesize reasons, but the writer/director could have made the reasons more obvious.

9 stars out of 10

Fine sleeper film, very much a reflection of iconoclastic 1970's. Seldom has corruptive nature of professional sports been on more vivid display than here. Pro football (and others?) comes across as supremely exploitative of players, with millionaire owners collecting the reflected glory. Sure, the money is good as is the lure of easy women, while all the adulation is hard to resist, but the cost comes high as battered and bruised Nick Nolte finally figures out. Emphasis throughout is on obvious physical toll, but inner toll proves equally devastating. Team quarterback Mac Davis's sly character and coaching staff's slimy ploys illustrate that inner rot in sometimes subtle fashion.

Davis's understated performance provides memorable glimpse of intelligent man trapped by own weaknesses. Also one of Nick Nolte's most natural performances in both a brilliant and unorthodox career. His Phil Elliot may not be as clever as Davis, but the love of the game is truer, helping him finally see through the clouds of hype. But where oh where was director Kotcheff when beleaguered non-actress Dale Haddon so clearly needed help. Her one and only expression, paralyzed fear, almost brings down the entire film. Was the casting of this ex-Playboy playmate Hugh Hefner's price for assistance with the production?

Thanks Peter Gent for the gutsy expose' and Frank Yablans for bringing it to the screen intact. (After all those Monday evenings on TV, who could ever think of Tom Landry, Don Meredith or straight-laced Roger Staubach the same way again.) (Then too, fans might check out 1949's "Easy Living", a less caustic but also revealing film on the earlier days of pro football.) All in all, the screenplay of North Dallas is one of the best from the period -- humorous, savvy, and richly ironic -- the final boardroom scene arguably among the most compelling of any on sports. It's also one of the best arguments for getting athletics out of all those cathedrals of cult worship and back into neighborhood sandlots where they belong.

This post Hippie, late seventies, anti establishment film (the establishment in question being corporate sports) has a few problems but is mostly an enjoyable and at times powerful look at by far the most brutal of American athletic obsessions. It is especially good when employing locker room humor and disturbing, locker room detail to get at the pain and raunch that are at the center of football culture. Mac Davis' wonderfully scatological tale of the corruption of a religious QB is alone worth the price of admission. And the stuff involving needles, pills, and agonizing physical discomfort at times borders on the harrowing. As do the scenes on the football field, both in practice and actual games.

Where the film loses its edge, in my opinion, is when it gets up on its soapbox and pushes the very tired trope of the Evil Owners versus the Downtrodden Players. Not only were football players, even in the 1970s, paid way too much to be downtrodden but the speechifying from Nick Nolte and John Matuszak in the film's last third really slows down the action and takes what had been a fairly unpretentious movie into heavy, message laden waters. I also wearied of Nolte's character, modeled on Peter Gent upon whose novel the film is based. There is about him a general, unattractive air of elitism and superciliousness, especially evident at the orgy scene, where you can almost hear him bemoaning the fact that he, the reader of books and dater of intelligent brunettes, must suffer the company of these savages and their blonde bimbos. The character played by Mac Davis, by contrast, based on Don Meredith, is much more appealing in his combination of virtues (a wicked sense of humor and general perceptiveness about the folly of humanity) and flaws (a very elastic morality that easily embraces corruption). Indeed, if this Ted Kotcheff film had concentrated on the always uneasy Davis/Nolte friendship, instead of the evils of corporate sports, it might have had a chance at greatness. As it is, let's give it a B minus.

Phil Elliott (Nick Nolte) is a worn out wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls professional football team in the 70s. It's crazy parties, drugs, sex, and alcohol. Seth Maxwell (Mac Davis) is the popular quarterback. Jo Bob Priddy (Bo Svenson) is a dumb wild lineman. Phil meets Charlotte Caulder (Dayle Haddon) at a party but she's not happy to be there. He rescues her from Jo Bob with a lot of help from Seth. Coach Strother thinks Phil isn't serious enough. Team executive Emmett Hunter (Dabney Coleman) is dating Joanne Rodney but Phil is actually sleeping with her. Johnson (Charles Durning) is the assistant coach. Phil is constantly threatened with the CFL. His body is all worn out and the trainer gives him 'B12' shots. Somebody mysterious is after him.

Based on the novel by Cowboys wide receiver Peter Gent, this has the feel of authenticity. It's not quite a spoof with few outright laughs. Nick Nolte is terrific as the weary player. The story is a bit scattered. It could be even darker and more intense.

Peter Gent wrote the book several years before the movie came out. There are so many parts in the movie that just make you scratch your head and go "Huh? How does that fit in?"....or maybe it's just me after having read the book first.

VERY different ending too.

I liked the movie, but when you know MORE of the story than what's portrayed on screen, it kind of leaves you wanting more.

I gotta say B.A. was portrayed better in the movie than in the book. Seemed like Elliott ALMOST actually got the coach to understand him just a little bit.

I liked Nick Nolte. He did a great job in this movie.

I'd recommend it, but if you REALLY want this story, read the book for more drinking, drugs, sex, and on-field FOOTBALL ACTION.

The opening shot of Ted Kotcheff's North Dallas Forty is a tense and memorable one. It shows the aging and exhausted Phil Elliot (Nick Nolte), passed out in his bed and awoken by a blaring alarm clock. Elliot is slow to get up, every move being a slow one that clearly causes a searing amount of pain. He lumbers to the kitchen to get a beer before stumbling to soak in a bathtub. Punctuating this scene are brief little clips from last night's football game, where Elliot was met with several rough, polarizing blows to every part of his body. Interrupting this scene's quiet, almost meditative atmosphere are Elliot's loudmouth friends, clearly intoxicated, who want to go out and cause a ruckus with their shotguns.

What we see in the first few minutes of North Dallas Forty are what we never see in sports - the morning after the game. The physical pain rather than the heated press conferences or celebratory events in the locker. Because we see the lead character in such a vulnerable, often powerless light despite being a very good football player is why North Dallas Forty is so skilled on its feet as a film. It explores where other films would dim their focus. It fully embraces and boldly depicts in element where other screenwriters' knees would buckle under the weight and pressure of the story, especially for the time. Written by a trio of thoughtful and thoroughly ambitious people - Peter Gent, Kotcheff, and Frank Yablans - the film manages to be less entertaining and sensational, like a typical sports film, and more heartbreaking and an often immersing watch.

We set our sights on Elliot, who is becoming greatly dissatisfied with the way the NFL operates (his team is the fictional North Dallas Bulls, which mirror the Dallas Cowboys, FYI). He loathes the way managers and coaches treat their players like cattle, constantly emphasizing their flaws and not their advantages, and justifying their ungrateful, smug comments on poor performance as methods of tough-love. Elliot knows the organization is out to make money and injuries, long-term trauma, and player wellbeing are the least of their concerns. Through Elliot's dissatisfaction, however, he becomes heavily dependent on painkillers, alcohol, and other pills of sorts to keep his mind right. Just before a big game that determines the Bulls' playoff fate, Elliot's leg, which is experiencing hellish pain, is given a shot of a mysterious substance. What was it? What are its effects? Why is it being used? Who cares, "the whole thing's numb," Elliot states.

The film is held together not only by the competence of its writer but by Nolte's tremendous talents as a character actor and performing. He articulates with a touch of sensitivity and years of craft the agony and despair many aging athletes likely experience. For instance, consider Super Bowl XLVIII, which took place yesterday and ended with the Seattle Seahawks winning 43 - 8 over the two-point favorite Denver Broncos, led by Quarterback Peyton Manning, who is already thirty-seven years old with years of professional experience under his belt. I wouldn't want to feel what that man has felt waking up, especially now, nearing forty with the albatross of having numerous neck surgeries conducted. Watching the Super Bowl last night, I could only imagine how he not just him but many of those players wake up with severe pain in their bodies - pain that will likely carry over to their older years and maybe even cripple them as time goes on. All for a game that will be out of the immediate mindset of even the most heartened-fans in no more than two weeks or so.

On a final note, the promotional poster/home video release images for North Dallas Forty are criminally misleading ones, showing two football players, one dousing himself with water, the other hoisting his helmet while they both lounge in two cowboy boots with two woman grappling to get at them on both sides of the boots. The image at hand denotes a fun sort of rabble-rousing, Animal House-style entertainment which is completely absent from the film. This is not the film you will see, and the marketing campaign has shamefully misrepresented the film to consumers if their sole-exposure to the film is by looking at the film's promotional poster or home video cover.

Starring: Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, and Charles Durning. Directed by: Ted Kotcheff.

IMDB lists "North Dallas Forty" as a comedy...which is simply amazing. It's about as funny as cancer and the film never tries to be a comedy! Instead, it's an indictment about the awfulness of pro football...and how it chews up and spits out the players...leaving them as unemployed cripples.

The film centers around an aging receiver, Phil Elliott. Elliott has had an excellent career but after repeated injuries, he's only able to perform on the field with drugs and alcohol. As for his teammates, many of them do the same, though some seem like they are close to being psychotics and degenerates...all thanks to the environment created by the sport.

The film is hard to watch. Part of it is because the players are shown with little sympathy or nostalgia. Instead, they are jerks who self-medicate to handle the pain or act out like jerks off the field. I do appreciate the film for being no hold barred. However, because of this, the movie is VERY adult...with adult language, nudity and nastiness that kids shouldn't see. However, I do recommend you let your teens see it if they are interested in pro sports careers.

and probably my favorite one! written by pete gent, a former dallas cowboy in the 60's, it gives a great look inside the mentality of professional football ... especially in dallas during the landry years. i enjoyed this film because i played ball at the college level in the early 70's, and i feel it's the most realistic portrayal of the emotional seesaw that a football player goes through.

the film shows what happens in a society where professional athletes are idolized, and the things they can get away with ... but at a cost! it portrays how the professional athlete must constantly look for new ways to achieve a "high", whether on the field, with drugs, sexually, or just by "cutting loose". the problem is that each high gives way to when you either make a mistake on the field, or come down from the "off-the-field" high.

if you were a football fan in the 60's-70's, you can just see the dallas cowboys in this film! mac davis does a wonderful characterization of don merideth, and g.d. spradlin's coach just reeks of tom landry. and nolte does a magnificent job in one of his earliest works.

please, take some time and watch this film. the videotape version is obviously much better than the tv version ... you lose a lot of the reality otherwise. please, if the first-run shelf is empty, take the time to check out this film. you won't be disappointed.

NORTH DALLAS FORTY is often billed as one of the all-time great sports films (and the best to do with football). But there's a reason our mothers told us not to believe everything we hear.

The biggest problem with NORTH DALLAS FORTY is that it's not really what it wants to be. The film was promoted as a sort of expose on the pressure athletes face to perform not only when it hurts, but when it's dislocated or broken; and to use illegal drugs to numb the pain. That's an interesting angle, to be sure, but it's just one of many explored here. So much of NORTH DALLAS FORTY feels like a run-of-the-mill pigskin picture that's been done a dozen times since. And the dramatic and comedic elements the writers injected mix about as well as oil and water.

To be fair, NORTH DALLAS FORTY was made at a time when the issue of drugs in sport was much more taboo. Three decades later, we all pretty much accept what's going on behind closed dressing room doors. Don't get me wrong. NORTH DALLAS FORTY is a decent film with decent performances, with a beat-up Nick Nolte and holier-than-thou Mac Davis leading the way. Yet there's nothing overly spectacular about it.

Released in 1979, "North Dallas Forty" stars Nick Nolte and Mac Davis as receiver and quarterback for the fictitious North Dallas Bulls professional football team. G.D. Spradlin excellently plays the austere coach who won't tolerate lone wolfs on his team. Charles Durning plays his assistant and Steve Forrest & Dabney Coleman the wealthy owners of the team. Marshall Colt plays the young up-and-coming secondary quarterback who's also devoutly Christian and eventually soiled by other members of the team. Various NFL players are on hand, such as Bo Svenson and John Matuszak.

The film plays like a docudrama and attempts to show the grim reality of professional football and what it takes to be a champion team. It's more of an adult drama than a sports movie and therefore lacks the typical sports movie formula. The plot revolves around the team members preparing for a big divisional championship with the fictitious Chicago Marauders, which takes place in the third act, but the game footage is limited to the last two minutes of the game. After this, there's still 20 minutes left where Nolte's character is confronted by the office big wigs. They have evidence that he was regularly smoking weed in his off-time, which of course was illegal back then. He responds by understandably pointing out that the team docs keep pumping all kinds of drugs into the players on a regular basis so they can play despite pretty serious injuries. What's that compared to smoking a little pot? It's a good scene and effectively shows the idiocy and hypocrisy of the accusations. John Matuszak, who plays O. W. Shaddock, ironically died a mere ten years after this movie was released at the young age of 38 due to an accidental overdose of propoxyphene, a pain-reliever that is now outlawed in the USA and Europe. According to the managerial staff in the movie it's okay to take these kinds of drugs, but by golly you better not be caught smoking a joint! (Don't get me wrong here; I'm not into marijuana, but if it trips your trigger what's that to me?).

The female cast is limited to fairly small roles by Dayle Haddon (Charlotte) and Savannah Smith Boucher (Joanna), both good-lookin' but rather plain and neither curvy enough for my tastes. Being a football movie you'd expect some cheerleader sequences or something. Nope, nada. Needless to say, weak job on the female front.

BOTTOM LINE: This is an okay adult drama about the grim realities of professional football, as well as the perks. The story is moderately interesting but never full-on compelling. Moreover, the characters aren't all that interesting, although Spradlin shines as the coach and Nolte's good as the cynical and burning out protagonist.

The film runs 119 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles, CA.

GRADE: C+

Gritty, realistic look at the win-at-all-cost business of pro football. Nolte is especially engaging as an over the hill wide receiver who rebels against goading coach G.D. Spradlin. Davis, Svenson and Charles Durning all add fine support to this very real story.

A professional football team makes a season-ending push for the playoffs. The film really tries to belabor the point that playing professional football is hard on the body, with Nolte wincing in pain with almost every movement he makes. Similarly, the ills of professional sports are exaggerated to stress the greed and ruthlessness of this cutthroat business. Nolte is fine as the aging wide receiver while Davis is surprisingly effective in his film debut as the quarterback. Also good is Spradlin as the stern coach who seems to be modeled after Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry. The cast features the late Oakland Raider Matuszak as a fierce lineman.

'ND40' is my favorite of all the sports movies I've seen. It's both a dark and funny look at professional football, succeeding on both levels, with special emphasis put on the way the pro machinery chews up players and spits them out. There's no doubt who the fictional North Dallas Bulls are supposed to correspond to in real life, and the Dallas Cowboys were none too happy with either the book or the movie. For the rest of us it is first-class entertainment.

The movie abounds with great performances. Nick Nolte is superb as the aging wide receiver, weary in spirit and broken of body. His independence and declining skills are threatening his usefulness to the team. G.D. Spradlin gives one of his usual excellent performances playing the team's amoral head coach. It's the type of role he seems almost to have a patent on.

Some actors in this movie, I suspect, are doing the best work of their careers. Mac Davis plays the fun-loving quarterback who is serious about keeping his position both with the team and the ladies, and knows all the tricks, whether it's before, during, or after the game. Steve Forrest is the millionaire owner who wants nothing in the world more than a Super Bowl championship team. And Bo Svenson and former pro player John Matuszak are a couple of linemen who play by the same rules on the field and off.

It's a complex movie with so much going on in some scenes (just like a football game) that it deserves to be seen more than once. One small quibble: the big game was obviously not filmed before an audience. That doesn't detract too much from the overall picture, but a viewer is aware of it.

Seen this movie a few times on TV and it is a superb football film. Nick Nolte is excellent as the gruff and rough guy with lots of problems on and off the football field. Being in the 70's makes it even better and more realistic. Made in a time when men where men and sports meant more than money, a lot more. Sex, booze, knocking heads and blood & tears is what make these players happy! Good, fun all round film with great thought put into the story especially when entering Nolte's problems with team management/owners. As we all know deep rifts and problems occur between sports players and club owners but we never get to really know the truth and what goes on in the boardroom and player meetings. This film gives us a little make look at what could or should I say happens! I enjoyed this film very much,love the music, great characters and a good story. A winner all around.

This movie is the best "football" film ever made. Along with "The Natural" - baseball, and "One-on-One" - basketball, these are an outstanding trilogy of the three best pictures representing our primary American sports, and all have interesting multi-dimensional stories as well. Pete Gent was a maverick in his NFL career, but it would seem his alter-ego, Phil (Nick Nolte), while possessing this same nature, is significantly more accomplished in his pro career (even if on the coach's "secondary list" in the film). Gent played six years, 48 games, with only 68 overall receptions and four touchdowns. These numbers and his yardage (his average per catch was pretty good) would comprise a good single season's stats.

The primary "athletes" in the film - played by Nolte, Davis, Matuszak and Svenson are realistic, interesting, tough and bawdy. Matuzsak's distinguished career was as a defensive end, and Svenson also possesses more of the physical characteristics of a defensive lineman. The fact, though, that they played offensive linemen in the film was obviously a necessity to the drama - both off- and on-field, where all four prime leads had to be on-screen simultaneously. As I mentioned in commenting on "One-on-One," where the great G. D. Spradlin was the basketball coach - coupled with this film, he wins the award of the "all-time horse's ass coach" hands-down. Durning was hilarious as the vacuous assistant coach. Anyone familiar with Gent and Tom Landry can see that Spradlin's coach Strothers is modeled - at least in part - from the latter. Although similar in appearance, and more "professorial" than most coaches, and probably often a bit distant -- Landry did not seem to possess the extremely negative traits displayed by Strothers. In the film, with the level of talent Nolte's "Phil" possessed, it is unlikely he'd have been as neglected by the coach as depicted, even in view of Strothers' compulsive devotion to his computerized statistics, and distaste for Nolte's persona. I suspect that this relationship has similarities to Gent's with Landry, but, again, Gent in real life was not as productive or talented as Nolte on film.

Steve Forrest was excellent as the smarmy, wealthy team owner, and Dabney Coleman as his even smarmier, completely unctuous younger brother. {Has anybody, EVER, in the history of the motion picture industry (t.v., too), done "smarmy" or "unctuous" as well as Dabney???} This one's a "10" for both sport and drama.

When I watched this movie again I did not realize how little football is actually in this film. This film shows the reality of the football business, and price one pays both physical and mentally in pro sports. I would call this film more a drama then a comedy. The personal side in Elliots life drags in this film, and kills it.

"North Dallas Forty" can rightfully take its place among the greatest of sports based movies. It's an intelligent, unflinching look into the world of professional (American) football, and the assortment of characters that inhabit the world. There's no need for flashy filmmaking here; the drama is strong enough to carry the story, along with some completely authentic performances. People unfamiliar with this movie will note that there's not necessarily a lot of game action; the concentration is on the action taking place off the playing field.

The pivotal character is Phillip Elliott (Nick Nolte), a weary seen-it-all veteran of the game, a top notch receiver conscious of all the punishment that his body has taken over the years. Phillip knows the game very well, but he's not too interested in playing a different sort of game, with the hard-driving coaches (G.D. Spradlin and Charles Durning) and the greedy team owner (Steve Forrest). Fortunately, he does have one good friend: star quarterback Seth Maxwell (singer Mac Davis).

This is scripted by director Ted Kotcheff ("First Blood"), producer Frank Yablans, and author Peter Gent, who wrote the semi-fictional novel on which the movie is based. Based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s, it takes its time telling the story, contrasting the more philosophical and low key nature of Phillip with gung-ho defensive players like O.W. Shaddock (real life football star John Matuszak) and Jo Bob Priddy (amusing live wire Bo Svenson). We feel completely sympathetic towards Phillip, and can also practically feel the pain that he experiences after every game. There are several key emotional scenes, especially towards the end.

Nolte is excellent in the lead role, and as one can see, the supporting cast is full of rock solid actors (also among them is Dabney Coleman as Forrests' younger brother). Nolte and Davis have very fine chemistry and one can buy them as friends. Dayle Haddon, as a love interest for Nolte, isn't terribly effective because she comes off as just too aloof.

Compelling material, even for people who aren't necessarily football fans.

Eight out of 10.

Listening to the Colin Cowherd Show on ESPN and Kyle Turley was on. He was getting into the drug use in the NFL and now wants the NFL to pay-up.

I saw this in 1979 with two friends I worked with at a hot dog place. They were both going to USC to play football. This movie was an insight to the reality of sports...and it was 1979. Nothing has changed! Why is this movie so significant? If you listen to Turley's arguments, he acts as if this is something new. Like anything else, nothing is new. You want women, money, and a lifestyle that says, "Live for today" then you can't whine about the consequences. The NFL sees you as a product. That's news to you?

Every professional athlete should have to watch this movie before signing any contract. You show this to any high school athlete, and like the guys I saw it with going to USC, they will say, "So...that's not gonna happen to me." Great movie!

Phillip Elliot is a wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls. He is approaching the end of his career and ravaged with injuries, which he needs medication to cover the pain enough to play. The coaches want 100% to win games and win the season, but do the owners see the people inside the uniforms?

Written by ex-player Peter Gent this film wanders between love for the game and admiration for the players and the flip side where the players are overpaid little boys in men's bodies who are seen as disposable by club owners. This wandering happens for most of the film, mostly due to the fact that the plot seems to be wandering all over the place with little to do. When it actually focuses on the dealings of the club owners and the sacrifices the players have to make, it is pretty interesting – even if it does what many other sports films have done better.

The central point about owners seeing the players as just another piece of equipment owed by the club is pretty well made, but it is confused by the plot wandering a little bit. The ending is designed to back up this central point, but the circumstances come out of nowhere and the ending doesn't really ring true and isn't as strong a conclusion as it should have been. The film also struggles to condemn either the sport or the players, seeming to be annoyed with bosses more than anything else. The players are clearly childish and irresponsible, violent men but yet the film weakens on that point after hinting at it, likewise the film condemns part of the game but then happily indulges in big game action near the end of the film.

Nolte is pretty good, but he also seems a little unsure about whether his character loves the sport or hates everything about it except the game. Support players simply play victims or childish thugs. The reason for Haddon's love interest is beyond me but Durning and Spradlin give good support as coaches.

Overall this is an interesting film, which is strongest at the start and end, the middle section lacking structure and focus. The message it is trying to get across applies much more today than it did back then, but has been made better and in more enjoyable total films than this. Still an interesting watch for the most part though.