North Dallas Forty (1979)
Directed by Ted Kotcheff
A semi-fictional account of life as a professional football player. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s.
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What critics compared North Dallas Forty to
Football films used to do this (North Dallas Forty, Brian's Song), but now mostly stick closely to their inspirational clichés (Remember the Titans, The Blind Side).
Though the film wants desperately to be a smart, cynical sports drama along the lines of the scathing "North Dallas Forty" or the recent documentary "Go Tigers!" (as opposed to the more formulaic and sentimental but crowd-pleasing "Remember the Titans") it does some surprisingly dumb things that undermine its best intentions.
Based on a true-story book by H.G. Bissinger, this one is slightly more ambitious, intent on doing with high-school football what North Dallas Forty did at the pro level — that is, scrape beneath the surface glamour in search of some realistic grit.
I can't think of any movie since North Dallas Forty that looks so unflinchingly at the masochism of professional sports.
Like many “unauthorized” films that feature American pro football, Him is obliged to omit any trademarks connected to the real-world NFL (see also: North Dallas Forty, The Last Boy Scout, Any Given Sunday).