Themes: Fighting the System, All Washed Up, Football Players
Main Cast: Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, Charles Durning, Dabney Coleman, Dayle Haddon
Release Year: 1979
Country: US
Run Time: 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In a society in which major league sporting events have replaced Sunday worship as the religion of choice, North Dallas Forty appears like a desecration at the altar. In this film, directed by Ted Kotcheff (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz), the National Football League is revealed to be more about the money than the game. Nick Nolte is North Dallas Bulls pass-catcher Phillip Elliott, whose cynicism and independent spirit is looked upon as troublesome by team coaches Johnson (Charles Durning) and Strothers (G.D. Spradlin) and team owner Conrad Hunter (Steve Forrest). Elliot, at the end of his career and wise to the way players are bought and sold like cattle, goes through the games pumped up on painkillers conveniently provided by the management. His teammates include savvy quarterback Maxwell (Mac Davis) and lunk-headed defensive lineman Jo Bob Priddy (Bo Svenson), who deal with the impersonality and back-biting of the game through off-field diversions. When the Bulls management benches Elliot after manipulating him to help train a fellow teammate, Elliot has to decide whether there is more to life than the game that he loves. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
North Dallas Forty cynically revealed the underbelly of professional football, examining the fallout when the attitudes and drugs of the early-1970s counter-culture meet the greedy and violent world of the NFL. Nick Nolte is perfect as the complicit but not totally amoral wide receiver with an out-of-order body. Country singer Mac Davis also turned in a fine debut performance as the slick quarterback with too much to lose. With Dallas and his previous film, Who'll Stop the Rain, Nolte gained acclaim for his portrayals of tough but troubled heroes. Director Ted Kotcheff had a moderate string of hits in the 1970s, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Steve Forrest - Conrad Hunter; Bo Svenson - Jo Bob Priddy; G.D. Spradlin - B.A. Strothers; Savannah Smith - Joanne; Marshall Colt - Art Hartman; Guich Koock - Eddie Rand; John Matuszak - O.W. Shaddock; Alan Autry - Balford; Deborah Benson - Mrs. Hartman; Jim Boeke - Stallings; John Bottoms - Vip; Walter Brooke - Doctor; Jane Daly - Ruth; Rad Daly - Conrad; Stanley Grover - March; Cliff Frazier - Monroe; Boyd Matson - Sportscaster
Credit
Dorothy Jeakins - Costume Designer, Ted Kotcheff - Director, Sheldon Kahn - Editor, Thom Noble - Editor, Jay Kamen - Editor, Jack B. Bernstein - Executive Producer, John Scott - Composer (Music Score), Alfred Sweeney - Production Designer, Paul Lohmann - Cinematographer, Frank Yablans - Producer, Arthur Jeph Parker - Set Designer, Larry Jost - Sound/Sound Designer, Debby Porter - Stunts, Ted Kotcheff - Screenwriter, Frank Yablans - Screenwriter, Peter Gent - Screenwriter, Peter Gent - Book Author
The film's setting is a 1970s era professional football team based in Dallas, Texas named the North Dallas Bulls[1], which closely resembles the Dallas Cowboys. Nolte plays the aging wide receiver, Phillip Elliott, who is struggling to stay competitive and relies heavily on the use of painkillers. Backed up by quarterback Seth Maxwell, played by Davis, both players give insight into the drug, sex, and alcohol-fueled party atmosphere of teams of this era, all under the watchful eye of iconiccoach B. A. Quinlan, played by G.D. Spradlin.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Peter Gent, a former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver in the late 1960s, the film's characters closely resemble real-life team members of the era, with Seth Maxwell often compared to quarterback Don Meredith, Quinlan to Tom Landry, and Elliott to Peter Gent himself. Upon hearing/reading/seeing the book or movie, Don Meredith came out with another of his classic lines: "If I'd known Gent was as good as he says he was, I would have thrown to him more."
