Oliver Stone’s (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) Any Given Sunday was a movie I saw in the theaters in 1999. While I saw bits and pieces on cable television over the years, my second watch of this film wasn’t until 2019. So first, it doesn’t feel like this film is 20 years old. Second, except for a few technology pieces (mainly cell phones), it felt like this movie could have been released this year and still give the same message with a nearly identical look and feel. The movie holds the test of time; sometimes, that’s one of the best things you can say about a film. Unfortunately, that is the best thing about this movie.

Being a Stone film, it will not follow anything traditional in tone or nature. However, Stone always seems to take his movies up a notch, for better or worse. In Any Given Sunday, he risks trying to portray the National Football League (NFL), its successes, its problems, its players, its coaches, its management, and other stakeholders. With the success of other football films (prior and since) such as Remember the Titans, Gridiron Gang, We Are Marshall, Invincible, Friday Night Lights, Rudy, and The Longest Yard, to name a few, Any Given Sunday tries to put the NFL on notice for some of its antics and tactics. At the same time, when you think that Stone will aim at some of the significant issues (namely, how injured players play hurt and how doctors clear them to do so), he pulls back and makes this more of a character study.

Al Pacino (Heat, Scarface) stars as Tony D’Amato, a scratchy-voiced miser of a person who also coaches the Miami Sharks professional football team. Just three years prior, he won the (equivalent to) Super Bowl, but as we know, in this multi-billion dollar industry, success is measured by wins and losses rather than what has been done in the past. We are introduced to the Sharks midway through a game with the Minnesota Americans. The Sharks are 7-5, losers of three straight, and falling out of the playoff hunt. Veteran star quarterback Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid – The Rookie, Frequency) is knocked out of the game, opening the door for backup quarterback Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx – Collateral, Ray). Nevertheless, the team goes on a playoff run, and the underlying story is when Cap is cleared and ready to come back, will he have his job, or will the young upstart by Coach D’Amato’s call?

While this is our story, we see what else the film could be. If you follow the game at all, you know that injured players will often do whatever it takes to get back onto the field, that doctors face ethical dilemmas on whether to clear players often, that overnight success can quickly change a person, that individual athletes often have their agendas that are different than the team’s, that sports news outlets such as ESPN like to both self-promote and create conflict to generate stories that they can sell on tv, that owners are more interested in revenue than they are in wins and losses, to name a few. We get about four games on the field, all filled with drama.

Any Given Sunday feels like two films in one. When you think we have a drama-filled sports movie, bits and pieces are inserted that make us feel like we are watching an overdone documentary. These transitions are inconsistent in length, spot, tone, etc. The ever so simple, fundamental story of the star player getting hurt, the backup coming in and taking the team to new successes, almost gets lost in the minutia of the production deluge.

Other football movies out there tell much better stories, including each of the films mentioned in the second paragraph. Any Given Sunday is a convoluted look at various aspects of the sport that Stone tries to present through a lens that we usually don’t get to see. But it didn’t work. And, at nearly three hours, it was about an hour and a half too long. The best parts of the story are the relationships between Coach D’Amato, Cap, Willie, and team owner Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz – There’s Something About Mary, Gangs of New York). Numerous side characters add to the drama, including disgruntled running back Julian (LL Cool J – S.W.A.T., Deep Blue Sea) and team doctors Harvey Mandrake (James Woods – Ghosts of Mississippi, Salvador) and Dr. Ollie Powers (Matthew Modine – Wind, Pacific Heights).

Plot 8/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 8.5/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 7.5/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 7.5/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 9/10
80.5%

B

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