The Program (1993)

Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently, some turn to drinking, others ... See full summary »

Director:

David S. Ward

Writers:

David S. Ward, Aaron Latham

Stars:

James Caan, Halle Berry, Omar Epps

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Caan	...	Sam Winters
Halle Berry	...	Autumn Haley
Omar Epps	...	Darnell Jefferson
Craig Sheffer	...	Joe Kane
Kristy Swanson	...	Camille Shafer
Abraham Benrubi	...	Bud-Lite Kaminski
Duane Davis	...	Alvin Mack
Jon Pennell	...	Bobby Collins (as Jon Maynard Pennell)
Joey Lauren Adams	...	Louanne (as Joey Adams)
J.C. Quinn	...	Joe's Father
Andrew Bryniarski	...	Steve Lattimer
Leon Pridgen	...	Ray Griffen (as J. Leon Pridgen II)
Michael Flippo	...	Coach Humes (as Mike Flippo)
Jeff Portell	...	Reporter #1
Ernest Dixon	...	Coach Clayton

Storyline

Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently, some turn to drinking, others to drugs, and some to studying.

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Plot Keywords:

angst | attempted rape | american football | football coach | quarterback | 

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Taglines:

Pressure surrounds them. Competition divides them. Talent unites them. A story of what it takes to survive...

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

24 September 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lobos universitarios

Filming Locations:

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$23,004,026 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The, Touchstone Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michigan coaching legend Glenn E. (Bo) Schembechler is in the booth providing color commentary for the Michigan game.

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Goofs

When Camille calls Joe in rehab, Camille hangs up the phone but you can still hear a dial tone.

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Quotes

Darnell Jefferson: Yo, motherfucker! You missed that block on purpose!
Ray Griffen: Hey, *you're* the one who fumbled! Don't blame me!
Darnell Jefferson: This is about Autumn, isn't it?
Ray Griffen: Hey, *fuck* Autumn and *fuck* you! You just can't take a hint, can you *punk*?
[throws water in his face on "punk", and Darnell starts a fight with him]

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Connections

Featured in Sports on the Silver Screen (1997)

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Soundtracks

"If You Don't Know Me by Now"
Written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff
Performed by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (as Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes)
Courtesy of Sony Music
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Getting With The Program

The Program may very well be the best film on college football ever done in that it shows its not quite the way it was when Pat O'Brien was playing Knute Rockne or even when Knute Rockne himself was coaching at Notre Dame.

During the Nineties another classic film about professional football was done, Any Given Sunday. The main theme about Any Given Sunday was that sports was now more business than anything else. But pro football has always been a business. What The Program shows is just how much a business college football is, yet it maintains the fiction that this is amateur athletics.

As is so eloquently put, no one is going to pay for a ticket to see a chemistry exam. Football with its ticket revenue, its alumni contributions, it's TV and radio rights, it's memorabilia rights is a very big business. It brings in money for the colleges, hence the colleges have a vested interest in a winning team. And some will do quite a bit more than others.

James Caan does a fine job as the coach of mythical ESU who is a decent man caught up in the system. He operates his program straining the bounds of ethics. He knows full well that some of his kids are being greased right through college without an education, but football is his life and living and Caan operates the best he can.

His players are a cross section of young America. Craig Sheffer is the very talented quarterback from a white trash background trying hard to rise above it. Omar Epps is the inner city ghetto kid who sees football as his ticket out. Andrew Bryniarski is the defensive player that steroids gave us, something Caan pretends not to notice until it really smacks him in the face. By the way Bryniarski was also in Any Given Sunday.

My favorite in the entire film is Duane Davis who is another kid from the ghetto who both really loves the game, can barely read and write, and who also sees it as a way of rising from poverty. He's a nice kid, but a bad influence on Epps who he constantly tells that The Program will grease him through. Davis just lives for that National Football League contract.

I do love the way Davis psyches himself before a scrimmage. You have to see the film to appreciate. Sad to say his is the saddest of all the stories here. You have to be made of stone to not be moved by seeing him at home, leg in a cast, listening to the final championship game with his mother, knowing the future he foresaw for himself is blasted to smithereens.

Halle Berry and Kristy Swanson are there as love interests to both Epps and Sheffer respectively. There characters are quite a bit more than the usual air-headed cheerleaders cast in these parts.

Another good performance is John Maynard Pennell as Sheffer's second string backup. He romances and talks Caan's daughter into taking an exam for him. When she's caught both are expelled. Caan personally kicks him out of the university and then has to swallow his pride and a good deal more to bring Pennell back when Sheffer has to go into rehab. That's also a classic scene.

The Program is one of the finest, if not the finest film on college football ever done. I think more than sports fans will appreciate this finely crafted piece of cinema.