SummaryA semi-fictional account of life as a professional football player. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s.
Directed By:Ted Kotcheff
Written By:Peter Gent, Frank Yablans, Ted Kotcheff, Nancy Dowd, Rich Eustis
North Dallas Forty
Metascore
Generally Favorable
80
User score
Generally Favorable
7.6
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
89% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
11% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
90
It's not exactly news that pro football is just big business with the cleats showing. But North Dallas Forty brings the news home in fresh, funny and powerful ways. It's a bitter comedy of Sunbelt manners that packs a substantial emotional wallop. Director Ted Kotcheff, who stays faithful to the spirit of the novel by Peter Gent (an ex-Dallas Cowboy), captures the vulgar, born-again spirit of nouveau riche Dallas society, but he never condescends. The cogs caught in this corporate wheel always remain sweatily human - this is a locker-room satire with soul. [6 Aug 1979, p.55]
90
What distinguishes this screen adaptation of Peter Gent’s bestseller is the exploration of a human dimension almost never seen in sports pix. Most people understand that modern-day athletes are just cogs in a big business wheel, but getting that across on the screen is a whole different matter. And in large measure, that success is due to a bravura performance in the lead role by Nick Nolte.
User score
Generally Favorable
50% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
50% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Feb 2, 2020
10
One of the all-time great football flicks. Nolte is PERFECT as the QB. And Jo-Bob? Spooky.
Apr 17, 2023
9
North Dallas Forty is a fantastic movie showing the dangers of football. It is my favorite football movie. My one thing is that it is a slow-moving film something that if you don't have a lot of patience I don't think you can handle this movie.
88
The locker room scenes are totally authentic.
80
Despite its seriousness, the film is also among the funniest sports movies ever made. [01 Feb 2009, p.E4]
80
The central friendship in the movie, beautifully delineated, is the one between Mr. Nolte and Mac Davis, who expertly plays the team's quarterback, a man whose calculating nature and complacency make him all the more likable, somehow.
70
Authentic, if unsurprising, look at the brutal, exploitative, drug-ridden world of top-level American football through the honest, if bleary, eyes of an over-the-hill pro, superbly played by Nick Nolte who attended several colleges on football scholarships. [02 Nov 2003, p.8]
50
Something of a mess, both in terms of the wayward plot which rambles all over the place, and in terms of the rather muddled juggling of audience sympathies.
Nov 29, 2024
6
Movie is mostly on point satire of pro football, Well peformed, with some insight of the battle between players and owners. But the low budget shows, especially during the big game, where it's obvious that there are no fans in the stands.
Production Company:
- Frank Yablans Presentations
- Paramount Pictures
- Regina Associates
Release Date:Aug 3, 1979
Duration:1 h 59 m
Rating:R
Tagline:"Wait till you see the weird part." [USA Theatrical]
Awards
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Nomination
