Wednesday, august 22, 1979
daily nebraskan
Football flick more than instant replay
By L. Kent Wolgamott
At last we have a sports movie which, in the words of
one of its characters, sees through the game.
North Dallas Forty delivers a well-placed body block
on big-time football in general and on the Dallas Cowboys
in specific.
And rather than celebrating artificial victories on the
field of battle, the movie explores the victory of a good,
but controversial athlete.
Based on the novel by Peter Gent, a former wide re
ceiver with the Cowboys, the movie details eight days in
the life of a wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls, Phil
Elliott (read Peter Gent).
Portrayed with great style by Nick Nolte, Elliott is an
aging end with the best hands and worst attitude in the
league.
NOLTE S FLABBY body and brilliant performance as
he works out injuries are sharply contrasted with the
stunning physiques of real life pro football players in the
Aim.
Elliott's belligerent attitude, which provides much of
the film's irreverent humor, also is contrasted by the
mechanical winning-is-everything attitude of his coach
B.A. (here read Tom Landry), played with cold calculat
ion by G.D. Spradlin.
B.A. believes in God and in his computer, which gives
maximum performance figures and shows that Elliott has
a childish attitude.
Equally childish, but much more valuable to the Bulls
is star quarterback and Elliott cohort, Seth Maxwell.
This good-ole-boy (here read Dandy Don Meredith)
takes the same drugs as Elliott, smokes dope and drinks
Jack Daniels, but he has to play every Sunday and there
fore is a valuable property.
Mac Davis is a natural Maxwell and proves to be a fine
actor in his rookie performance.
ALSO MAKING his first movie is Oakland Raider John
Matuszak as O.W., an offensive guard and fellow hell
raiser with Jo Bob (Bo Svenson) who in the words of
Elliott, is here to remind us that the biggest and the mean
est make all the rules.
Completing the line up is Charles Durning as a foul
mouthed assistant coach who kicks the appropriate butts
so the sanctimonlus B.A. can remain above the fray.
Other interesting characters include a reserve quarter
back, (here read Craig Morton-Roger Staubach) who
reads the Bible before games and is led down the primrose
path to sin by Maxwell and the owner of the Bulls, (here
read Tex Schramm) played by Steve Forrest.
THE SCREENPLAY written by Director Ted
Kotcheff, producer Frank Yablans and Gent, deviates
little from Gent's novel which shows a man struggling
with survival in a business which began as a game.
His internal struggle is the basis for the film and
director Kotcheff shows us the triumphs and turmoil of
the locker room and its relation to the board room.
The movie's crushing climax successfully delivers more
insight into the world of sport than Howard Cosell has in
all his appearances and, again in Elliott's words, it got
pretty ugly.
North Dallas Forty shows the public a portion of the
ugly business side of big-time football which the NFL
would just as soon see left uncovered. -
For football is much more than a game played on the
field on Sundays and images are easily crumbled .
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page 49
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