Oliver Stone's latest film, Any Given Sunday, is yet another success for the prolific director. As a voyage into the realm of professional football, it reveals Stone's vision of what is truly important to the game and how commercialization has eaten away at its purity and glory. The film focuses on the head coach, Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) of the fictional Miami Sharks, who, as he gets older, is trying to regain the feelings that football used to give him.
At the opening, the Sharks are engaged in grueling play with another team that results in the injury of the team's legendary but aging starting quarterback, Jack Rooney (Dennis Quaid). He is quickly replaced by the second-string quarterback who, in turn, is injured. Finally the third-string, seventh-round draft pick, Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), is put into play. As the team is huddling, discussing the next play, the mighty warrior lets out his fear and anxiety as he vomits, starting what becomes a tradition for him. The Sharks lose the game.
In the next game, the coach throws Beamen back out onto the field, as Beamen is the team's last quarterback. After being trampled for the first part of the game, Beamen finally becomes sick of letting the other team have its way with him and aggressively brings the Sharks back into the game. Beamen's on-field success immediately catapults him into the spotlight, and begins to increase arrogance both on and off the field.
In games, he changes the coaches' plays. Outside the stadium, he makes music videos. His newfound popularity goes directly to his head, and he begins to make comments about the other players' ability behind their backs. Soon, he has managed to alienate the entire team, which has begun to lose again. When the coach finally pulls him, replacing him with the old and partially injured Rooney, he finally realizes the value of teamwork and cooperation. Rooney reinjures himself after scoring a touchdown in a playoff game, so the Tony is forced to put Beamen back in the game. Now knowing he needs to work with the other players, he manages to lead the team to victory.
While the film is deeply engrossing, Stone hits the viewer over the head with his central themes and messages. This film is clearly designed to convey Stone's opinion of football. Most prominent is the idea that the team is more important than the individual. Stone seems to think the sport has lost this core and historical value, hence the title of the film. On "Any Given Sunday," a hero will rise or fall as opposed to an entire team. He also touches on a lack of ethics due to the pursuit of money by the management, such as encouraging injured players to return to the field after being pumped full of pain-killing drugs.
Al Pacino delivers a typically good performance as the coach. While he is not in one of his traditional mob roles, the personality he develops for D'Amato is familiar to that of the various loners he has played before. He is able to convince the audience to feel sorry for him and the sacrifices he has made to be a coach of a pro football team. Convincing the audience of this is of central importance to the film, as it allows the viewer to see football as meaning more than a source of money. Convincing a skeptical viewer of this is something that is not easy to do. Most people believe that being a football coach would be a great and luxurious life, not something that requires any real or significant sacrifice. Al Pacino manages to convince us that he has indeed sacrificed a lot for something noble. Overall, Pacino delivers a solid if uninspired performance.
The directing is excellent. Stone manages to maintain, and even enhance, the excitement of a football game, while at the same time giving each game its own story line and fitting that game into the bigger picture. The games are filmed with cameras on the field, in the middle of the action using quick cuts and first person views to enhance the excitement of the game play. Stone manages to draw convincing performances out of all of his actors/actresses and use them to effectively forward the plot.
The themes in the film were too strongly presented, but, unlike all too many films, at least it has a point other than to make money (which it will also do). The film was entertaining and gave a different perspective on football that fans and non-fans alike should find entertaining. This is definitely a film worth seeing.
