NORTH DALLAS FORTY (1979) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Ted Kotcheff
Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, Dayle Haddon,
Charles Durning, Bo Svenson, John Matuszak,
Steve Forrest, G.D. Spradlin, Dabney Coleman
Nick Nolte plays Pete Elliott, a veteran wide receiver with a professional football team that's not called the Dallas Cowboys but might as well be. Elliott's riding the bench, not because he can't run and catch - he's as good at that as anybody - but because he's a free spirit and not considered a "team player." It's one of Nolte's great physical performances - you can feel every twinging muscle and aching joint. It's agonizing just to watch him get out of bed. But he loves to play the game - it's what he excels at - so when Sunday comes around, he takes a needle in his ruined knee and trots back onto the field to get banged up all over again. The script and the novel it's based on are by Peter Gent, a former Cowboys wide receiver who knows all about the game and the toll it takes on its players. (He also has something to say about the big-money owners and executives who actually control things.) One glaring omission, maybe because it wasn't talked about much back then: For all the damage these guys sustain, nobody once mentions head injuries.
