Any Given Sunday (1999)

A behind-the-scenes look at the life-and-death struggles of modern-day gladiators and those who lead them.

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writers:

Daniel Pyne (screen story), John Logan (screen story)

Stars:

Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz

3 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Al Pacino	...	Tony D'Amato
Cameron Diaz	...	Christina Pagniacci
Dennis Quaid	...	Jack 'Cap' Rooney
James Woods	...	Dr. Harvey Mandrake
Jamie Foxx	...	Willie Beamen
LL Cool J	...	Julian Washington
Matthew Modine	...	Dr. Ollie Powers
Jim Brown	...	Montezuma Monroe
Lawrence Taylor	...	Luther 'Shark' Lavay
Bill Bellamy	...	Jimmy Sanderson
Andrew Bryniarski	...	Patrick 'Madman' Kelly
Lela Rochon	...	Vanessa Struthers
Lauren Holly	...	Cindy Rooney
Ann-Margret	...	Margaret Pagniacci
Aaron Eckhart	...	Nick Crozier

Storyline

When a devastating hit knocks a professional football legend and quarterback Cap Rooney out of the game, a young, unknown third-stringer is called in to replace him. Having ridden the bench for years because of a string of bad luck stories and perhaps insufficient character, Willie Beaman seizes what may be his last chance, and lights up the field with a raw display of athletic prowess. His stunning performance over several games is so outstanding and fresh it seems to augur a new era in the history of this Miami franchise, and forces aging coach Tony D'Amato to reevaluate his time-tested values and strategies and begin to confront the fact that the game, as well as post-modern life may be passing him by. Adding to the pressure on D'Amato to win at any cost is the aggressive young President/Co-owner of the team, Christina Pagniacci, now coming into her own after her father's death. Christina's driving desire to prove herself in a male dominated world is intensified by her focus on the...

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Plot Keywords:

nudity | male objectification | man wearing a jock strap | male in underwear | man wrapped in a towel | 

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Taglines:

Life is a contact sport.

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Genres:

Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong language and some nudity/sexuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 December 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gridiron

Filming Locations:

Joe Robbie Stadium - 2269 NW 199th Street, Miami, Florida, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,584,625, 26 December 1999, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$75,530,832

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$100,230,832

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Ixtlan, Donners' Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

162 min 156 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

3-Time Super Bowl winning NFL guard, Mark Schlereth reported that Al Pacino was seen walking around the Denver Broncos training camp in 1998. He observed Head Coach, Mike Shanahan during the training camp that would lead to the Shanahan (and the Denver Broncos) first Super Bowl championship.

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Goofs

During the entire game in Texas Stadium, the film's lighting package is clearly visible rigged in the ceiling above the field.

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Quotes

Christina Pagniacci: [in passing a player in the locker room exposed in all his manhood] Don't stiffen on me.

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Crazy Credits

During the end credits, we see D'Amato accepting an award and telling of his future plans with the league.

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Alternate Versions

Although billed as the "Director's Cut" and boasting 6 minutes of added footage, the U.S. DVD version is actually shorter than the U.S. theatrical release, which ran 162 minutes. Even with the added footage, home video versions run a mere 157 minutes. Among scenes/shots cut from the DVD incarnation...

• Some locker room footage during halftime of the first game.
• A voiceover phone call between Cindy and Christina following the first game is re-cut.
• Tony's drunken barroom speech about giving everything for his players, prominently featured in the trailer, is entirely removed.
• The second game is re-cut.
• Game 3 begins with a Kid Rock song in the theatrical version. The DVD opens game 3 with a Black Sabbath song, and the game is heavily edited, with much of the football action rearranged or cut entirely.
• A beach football game between the players and bikini-clad beauties is trimmed.
• A brief bit in which Rooney antagonizes Willie during practice is cut.
• The final game is slightly re-edited, with a new scene of a player losing an eye added, as well as more footage of Caps's comeback montage, but other plays are cut in slightly different ways.

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Connections

References Rocky (1976)

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Soundtracks

Sole Sunday
Written by Khujo (as W. Knighton), Big Gipp (as C. Gipp), André Benjamin (as A. Benjamin) and David Sheats (as D. Sheats)
Produced by David Sheats (as Mr. DJ)
Performed by Goodie Mob featuring Outkast
GOODIE MOB and OUTKAST Appear Courtesy of LaFACE RECORDS

User Reviews

Not quite a touchdown, but at least Stone is back

Oliver Stone is one of the most, if not THE most, passionate filmmakers working today. He's also a talented filmmaker, which a lot of people seem to forget. When both his talent and passion are at full strength, the results are impressive(SALVADOR, PLATOON, JFK, NIXON). When the passion is still there, but the talent is tripped up by his passion and ambitions, he makes flawed movies which are still powerful(WALL STREET, TALK RADIO, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, HEAVEN AND EARTH). But when he goes outside of his passions, for either experiments(NATURAL BORN KILLERS), or to make "mainstream" movies(U-TURN), he misses wide. NATURAL BORN KILLERS, to me, was a worse film, but U-TURN was, in a way, even more dispiriting, because the former you could at least excuse as an experiment gone wrong, whereas the latter screamed "Cash-in!" You felt after watching Stone was too tired to fight anymore.

Well, as ANY GIVEN SUNDAY proves, Stone, like his on-screen alter-ego, Tony D'Amato(Al Pacino), may look tired, but he's still got fight left in him. Many have seen football as war, so it's appropriate Stone has long wanted to make a movie about football. And as Spike Lee did with HE GOT GAME, Stone wants us to see not only the glory of the actual playing(as well as how tough it is to earn that glory), but also the corrupt forces which are pervading it today. After all, we decry flashy players, and then complain about those who are too boring, we talk about tradition out of one side of our mouth and demand the game be updated out of the other side, we call white players who exhibit boorish behavior "colorful" while calling black players who exhibit similar behavior "punks"(and that's putting it mildly), we complain about players who are overpaid while thinking nothing of owners who spend lavishly on themselves and move teams around, we complain about football being too dominated by TV yet sit around like couch potatoes every Sunday and Monday night, we react with horror when players get hurt badly and get addicted to drugs, yet we yell at them to murder each other on the field and call those who don't chicken(to put it mildly), and so on.

This is a wide canvas to cover, and yet Stone does a pretty good job of it. Especially good is how the relationship between D'Amato and his new quarterback Willie Beamon(Jamie Foxx) encompasses a lot of that canvas. There are two scenes in particular which stand out; one where D'Amato sits with Willie on the plane and tries to talk to him, but can't think of anything which doesn't sound patronizing from Willie's point of view(like music, where D'Amato thinks the fact he's mentioning black jazz musicians is supposed to mean something), and the scene at D'Amato's house, where Beamon talks of how, in the past, "playing for the team" was code for "Know your place, boy," and have things really changed? Willie has to learn that playing for the team really does mean, as quarterback, getting them to respect you so they'll play for you, and Tony has to learn that tradition can't be stodgy, that it has to accept change.

Stone is less sure in other aspects. Cameron Diaz does a good job as the team's owner, but her character is a little too one-dimensional at times. It would have been more interesting to have here not just talk in terms of money, but that the game, to her, really is more interesting the way Willie plays it(maybe I'm biased, but I'm a fan of more pass-oriented games). And while I don't think Stone is as misogynist as he's been charged with in the past, certainly it's evident here. It's one thing to say there are groupies in football, it's another thing to delight in showing them. There are sympathetic woman here, particularly Ann-Margaret as Diaz's mother, who shows what being a football wife costs, and Lela Rochon as Willie's girlfriend, who is unwilling to have that happen to her(the scene at the party, where she feels both isolated from Willie and the other wives, is nicely drawn). Finally, Stone can't resist the ROCKY-type cliches near the end.

But though it's flawed, there's still a lot of power here. Except for Lauren Holly, who I'm not a big fan of, the acting is all around excellent, particularly Foxx. I was particularly impressed with how well the athletes did as actors, particularly Jim Brown(though he's an actor, so this isn't surprising) and Lawrence Taylor. And, of course, all the football scenes are terrific and feel real. It's always good when you see on screen what you can't see watching the game on TV, and Stone accomplishes that here. Call it not quite a touchdown, but a film which convinces us Stone still has fight left in him.