Al Pacino's Fast-Paced Football Movie Is A Classic That Sports Fans Can't Miss

When Oliver Stone's football epic "Any Given Sunday" was released during the 1999 awards season, it felt like football cinema had come to an end. Stone's 162-minute supra-drama seemed to incorporate every possible football story into one movie, telling multiple tales inside an enormous ensemble made up of some of the hottest Hollywood stars at the time. Al Pacino was at the center of the film, playing Tony D'Amato, the coach of the fictional Miami Sharks. The Sharks used to be unassailable champions, but have fallen on hard times recently and are now struggling to make the playoffs. 

On the field, a once-star quarterback "Cap" Rooney (Dennis Quaid) has to face that he may be aging out of the game, and sees the rise of the cockier but far more capable Willie "Steamin'" Beamen (Jamie Foxx). Willie frequently improvises on the field and strays from plays, angering the other members of the team, especially J-Man (LL Cool J), another veteran. Regardless, Willie becomes a superstar. Meanwhile, another teammate (Lawrence Taylor) is wrestling with drug addiction, and faces the fact that another football injury may leave him disabled or dead. 

Cameron Diaz plays the cutthroat team owner who butts heads with Tony over how the game ought to be played, and how the team ought to be marketed. James Woods plays the team doctor, a slimy character who fudges many diagnoses. Lauren Holly plays Tony's wife, although she cares more about his wealth and fame than him as a person. Tony has a girlfriend in the form of a sex worker named Mandy (Elizabeth Berkley). Jim Brown and Aaron Eckhart play team strategists, and Ann-Margret plays the mother of the Diaz character. 

"Any Given Sunday" is every football movie rolled into one. 

Football fans will also spot the innumerable cameos from a dozen different football luminaries, including Dick Butkus, Terrell Owens, Johnny Unitas, and many others. To avoid the gross overcommercialization of modern American football, Stone wisely made all the teams in "Any Given Sunday" fictional. The Miami Sharks are at the center of the film, but one will hear mention of teams like the Chicago Rhinos, the California Crusaders, and the Los Angeles Breakers. Stone also avoided using the name and iconography of the National Football League, calling it instead the American Football Franchises of America. The name itself is meant to comment on the fact that football long ago ceased being a sport, and is now just a massive business which only happens to have a sport in the middle. 

That, of course, leads to a lot of wistfulness in the central drama of "Any Given Sunday." Tony and Cap long for an earlier time when the sport seemed more pure. Willie, meanwhile, finds that the system is working just fine, so long as it brings him wealth, fame, and sex. Football, Stone argues, has become a numbers game, and human lives are regularly put at risk to keep this grinding machine going. Tony may remember the old days and holds virtues like loyalty dear, but he is also depicted as a helpless cog in a noisy machine that he hates as much as he values. 

One can see echoes of Stone's 1987 Reagan-lambasting film "Wall Street" in "Any Given Sunday," as both are films about money-based sub-cultures. "Any Given Sunday" is unique, however, in that Stone sees bright souls and shimmering survivors within the mess. 

Stone ultimately argues that there are good people in the money-choked game of professional football. But the tragedy is that the world is too aggressive for anyone to notice, and players' values have altered to fit what the world provides. And nothing will be undone by the end, making "Any Given Sunday" feel like a small glimpse — a "Sunday in the life of" drama that peers — into a world that will continue to evolve out of control. It's poetic.

One can also see Stone's well-documented interest in combat all over "Any Given Sunday." There is a lot of war-like language used on football fields, and many parallels drawn between soldiers and players. There are several shots throughout the film of players miming throwing hand grenades, being blown up in explosions, or being mowed down by automatic weapons fire. The players are miming combat for fun, but Stone, in his inimitable style, also adds explosion and gunshot sound effects, blending them with the cheers of the crowds. Football is the pop version of war — it's secular combat. It's not lost on Stone that football is an outlet for humanity's warlike tendencies. And because "Any Given Sunday" is so widely ambivalent about modern football, one can argue as to whether or not war-like outlets are healthy. 

The film was released during awards season, but it didn't snag any Oscar nominations. Indeed, many critics bristled at how over-wrought, melodramatic, and long "Any Given Sunday" was. Many felt that the film was reduced to abstract platitudes about individualism without ever cohering into anything meaningful or emotional. Eventually, Stone recut the movie, removing 12 minutes, but adding six others, producing a slightly tighter 156-minute version. It's not dramatically different, but it is better.