Watched this movie again for the x100th time on Netlflix. Its 21 years old now and even then it felt like a nostalgia piece. It comes off like some foreshadowing tribute to the Orange Bowl and 20th century Miami-area football more every time I see it with so many homages to South Fla football culture, even some rare, coincidental ones.
Off the top of my head:
- The owner trying to leverage the city into a new stadium because the current one is falling apart, and the city, "...hasn't contributed one penny to the maintenance on that relic."
- Al Pacino as the Don Shula coach with multiple championships but getting old with creeping doubts that the game is passing him by.
- Dennis Quaid as the Dan Marino with a HOF career but on the edge of retirement but who, "...is a god**** hero to the working people of Florida.'
- (weird one) Quaid's house in the movie was actually Dan Marino's house.
- (even weirder one) On the team plane Coach Dmato sits with Willie Beaman and asks what he's listening to. "Trick Daddy," says Beaman. Dmato tries to act hip and pretends to know who he is. Anyone who's seen the Butch Davis story on the 'U Part II' will get the coincidence.
- So many non-traditional, Hollywood-type, helicopter shots of the Orange Bowl from all different angles, night and day...almost like it was a character in the movie itself.
What's also funny is how all of the shots of downtown and Brickell look nothing like today.
Something else I learned was that the league didn't want to give Oliver Stone any rights or concessions to use League images due to the portrayal of football players as normal people with the same problems. It portrayed concussions as not taken seriously either. The NFL told teams not to cooperate w the movies production. I don't know about Oliver Stone's feelings on Miami but it felt like that movie's production really tapped into something.
If you haven't seen it, and you're holed up for a while, its a good watch and a really good football movie. Lawrence Taylor comes off as the freak, you can't take your eyes off him and steals every football action scene. Andrew Byrnyarski (the crazy, face-paint dude from The Program) is in and plays another freak. For someone who watched and loved The Program as a kid, my buddy and I always used to roleplay as Lattimore and Mack as linebackers in grade-school football, I watch Byrnyarski like some hero character who played the same guy in both movies. Tons of NFL players were in it, Terrell Owens, Ricky Watters, Jim Brown (who plays a badass D-Coordinator), Warren Moon, **** Butkus, Johnny Unitas...Saw it in theaters in '99. Tons of older people hated it, but I thought it got better over time.
Off the top of my head:
- The owner trying to leverage the city into a new stadium because the current one is falling apart, and the city, "...hasn't contributed one penny to the maintenance on that relic."
- Al Pacino as the Don Shula coach with multiple championships but getting old with creeping doubts that the game is passing him by.
- Dennis Quaid as the Dan Marino with a HOF career but on the edge of retirement but who, "...is a god**** hero to the working people of Florida.'
- (weird one) Quaid's house in the movie was actually Dan Marino's house.
- (even weirder one) On the team plane Coach Dmato sits with Willie Beaman and asks what he's listening to. "Trick Daddy," says Beaman. Dmato tries to act hip and pretends to know who he is. Anyone who's seen the Butch Davis story on the 'U Part II' will get the coincidence.
- So many non-traditional, Hollywood-type, helicopter shots of the Orange Bowl from all different angles, night and day...almost like it was a character in the movie itself.
What's also funny is how all of the shots of downtown and Brickell look nothing like today.
Something else I learned was that the league didn't want to give Oliver Stone any rights or concessions to use League images due to the portrayal of football players as normal people with the same problems. It portrayed concussions as not taken seriously either. The NFL told teams not to cooperate w the movies production. I don't know about Oliver Stone's feelings on Miami but it felt like that movie's production really tapped into something.
If you haven't seen it, and you're holed up for a while, its a good watch and a really good football movie. Lawrence Taylor comes off as the freak, you can't take your eyes off him and steals every football action scene. Andrew Byrnyarski (the crazy, face-paint dude from The Program) is in and plays another freak. For someone who watched and loved The Program as a kid, my buddy and I always used to roleplay as Lattimore and Mack as linebackers in grade-school football, I watch Byrnyarski like some hero character who played the same guy in both movies. Tons of NFL players were in it, Terrell Owens, Ricky Watters, Jim Brown (who plays a badass D-Coordinator), Warren Moon, **** Butkus, Johnny Unitas...Saw it in theaters in '99. Tons of older people hated it, but I thought it got better over time.
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