North Dallas Forty (1979) movie review - Sneak Previews with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel

This is a great find!

North Dallas forty is a very underrated movie,one of the best sports movie of all time

Wow, I didn't know these 2 went back this far. This was a great movie; much more so for football fans which Siskel & Ebert don't seem to be from the remark that this film could be about any other industry

I saw the Muppet Movie back in 1979, but I didn't see ND40 alas. Oh well. :-0

Wow, what they said about North Dallas Forty is even more true of the NFL now. That movie sounds like it was way ahead of it's time. There was some good dialogue in the these clips. Interested in seeing the movie now.

"they're the team!,we're just the equipment".

One of the best pure sports films ever made.

Dave Meggyesy's "Out of their League" is an amazing book about a progressive intellectual who happened to be a linebacker for Syracuse and the Cardinals in the NFL. Can't recommend the book enough.

When there is a best sports movie list. I have not seen this on any list. Damn shame.

Great movie, does better than the book,.Next to it, or better. ?
Try James Cann in RollerBall

What reality when the pain got the worse that’s when I felt the most secure. And later he says, no i ain’t ever loved anybody. Wow. And people thought it was about football. lol. This movie is more prevalent than ever right now. But way over most sports fans heads. Lol

If they had only known how much worse it was going to get for football players, with brain injuries that the owners knew about and covered up.

One of the best sports films, somewhat forgotten today unfortunately.

One of the best sports movies ever. The beginning of the movie where Nolte is stumbling out of bed in excruciating pain is as real as it gets. I worked in a bank on the ground floor and I believe upstairs had a few doctor's offices. One morning, I remember seeing Earl Campbell getting on an elevator and he had to be helped on by 2 people. Prime example of the costs of playing pro football.

The book on which this film is based was written by a guy who played for Dallas in the mid to late 1960s, which is when they started to become successful. It is interesting that I recently happened to see a segment on the 1971 Super Bowl champion Cowboys where Bob Lilly, Duane Thomas and Roger Staubach each explained what they were paid and how Tex Schramm manipulated them to accept pay levels that were unbelievably low in comparison to other players on other teams…. This movie is very true to life….

This film hasn't aged well. It was cheaply made, and that is reflected in the football sequences, which come nowhere close to emulating the real NFL, even in the late 70's. The game sequence in the third act was filmed in an empty stadium. They tried to hide that by darkening the background. They failed. The plot also doesn't make a ton of sense. Nolte's character has the "best hands in football" (per his exacting, demanding head coach), yet they keep him on the bench? He catches the touchdown that would have saved the team's season, and the next day they terminate his contract for smoking pot? Like, huh?? No winning team in professional sports behaves that illogically.

It’s still the best football movie ever made. Nothing has come close to it.

I DIDN'T LIKE IT

Saw it at the theater when it came out, and watching now on Pluto. I remember the movie being great, and now I remember correctly.

Did they already do dog of the week? Look at that little rascal behind him at the end:)

Great movie 🎬

My favorite movie of all time. I played college football in the 90s and it held up then and I’ll bet it holds up today in 2023

Best sports movie ever

One of my all time favorites. Saw it as a 10 year old.

They could have shown The ‘Tooz’ with his locker room scene, but there would have been a lot of words ‘blanked out’.

Siskle & Ebert hadn't invented the 👍 thumbs up move yet.

Everyone knows this wasn’t fiction. They knew the players being represented by the actors. It exposed the dirty underside of pro football. It’s why you don’t see it anymore.