The Michigan Daily-Thursday, September 13, 1979-Page 5 NOR TH DALLAS FORTY: Football studs need love too By ALISON DONAHUE Traditionally, Hollywood sports films have almost always portrayed the athlete stereotypically. as either the dumb jock or the dedicated stoic. These films gave us a superficial look at the lives of our heroes, and rarely did we pect to relate to them as fallible human beings. North Dallas Forty is different. This football film, directed by Ted Totchkeoff and based on a bestselling hovel by former Dallas Cowboy Peter fent, presents athletes in such a freshingly realistic light that those x1 scorn jocks or even football in general may come away with a new tound respect for them. While combining comedy and pathos, North Dallas focuses on today's big usiness approach to the management pro football, and the heavy pressures uts on the players. Nick Nolte plays il Elliot, an aging wide receiver for e North Dallas Bulls (read Dallas cowboys). He finds himself continually odds with his bosses' scientifically (alculated and emotionally numb ap- (roach to handling the team. THE BULLS' thin-lipped head coach, G. D. Spradlin) 'uses computer echnology and a philosophy of Puritan *gidity to run the team much like real e Dallas Coach Tom Landry. His method is tied up with the big business entality that ultimately governs the tulls. Nolte's Elliott is a very talented eceiver, but he's been beaten up rough the years of playing and has ten labelled as having an attitude roblem. This makes him less than in- pensable in the eyes of the coach, end the main conflict is that Nolte ebels against his leaders hypocritical tance, which demands a high morale from the players. These players know at they are not cared about as human eings, but only as statistics on a com- puter print out sheet. Those who last saw Nick Nolte as the suntanned glamorous golden boy in The -:Deep will neither recognize his ap- pearance nor expect his fine acting in North Dallas Forty. He is heavier, older-looking, and his carriage is that of a beaten down tnan, one who has been brutally damaged by the unsym- pathetic system he's forced to work within. Singer Mac Davis (in an ad- _ mirable acting debut), plays Elliot's buddy Max (read Don Meredith),a sur- vivor who understands and accepts the system's hypocrisies and tries to con- ,;;ince Elliot to do the same. e )We see this when the two attend a ~ lavish team party, an orgiastic festival .i:tn which male fantasies come to life. The jocks smash furniture, drink out of a;giant goblets, and toss glamorous women around like rag dolls. Max tells -lliot that the point of all this self- :jndulgence is to bolster the players' 'ytenuous confidence, which,'1f course, .. influences how they play ball. Elliot's :.- behavior as he cruises through the hysteria is a mixture of amusement and - mild disgust. -r+. a ALTHOUGH AT FIRST it seems that Nolte's character is the only one we can ,,relate to in this world of scheming cor- :'!porate sports monguls and frenzied * gridiron lackies, the film gradually pulls away from the worn out theme of ; the lone heroic victim of the system as it reveals that other players, even the rnost seemingly happy-go-lucky, are lsuffering in various degrees from y working under unfair rules that they do ot dare challenge for fear they will lose their chance to play ball. t r/ I'r The film creatively presents the foot- ball players' characters, but it falls short in its presentation of the love relationship between Elliot and his in- dependently wealthy girlfriend Charlotte (Dabne Coleman). Even though Elliot gallantly protects her from the rowdy jocks at the team party where they meet, Charlotte remains cool toward him. Oddly enough, it's af- ter he comes to visit, plops down on the couch, and begins to snore that she warms to him. North Dallas Forty tries to make her out to be a tough, independent woman, but her character is hardly convincing, since she whiles away the hours reading, knitting, and worrying about her hard- driving man. The film-makers are to be admired for not making this romance the focus of a film about football players, but it's a pity they didn't try hard enough to make the female charactereas realistic as the males in the picture. The validity of The North Dallas For- ty's statement that its football players are helpless victims of an unfair system is arguable, although it certainly is plausible in light of the way big business seems to have a hand in everything these days. But the film does not derive its major credibility from its theme, nor the filmmakers cinematic expression of it, which is not particularly innovative in the technical sense. This picture's primary strength is that we can relate to the football players as human beings. They are neither saints, nor slobs, but imperfect people trying to cope with what society dishes out. Without North Dallas Forty, how would we learn that we all have so much in common? Sir Christopher Wren laid the first stone of St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1675 on the site of a 13th century church that had been gutted in the great fire of 1666. The cathedral was finished in 17.10. Of the 52 London churches Wren built, St. Paul's is considered the finest. University of Michigan Department of Theatre and Drama AUDITIONS FOR The First Showcase Production of the Season Wole Soy inka's THE LION AND THE JEWEL an African drama directed by Janice Reid Friday, Sept. 14 Saturday, Sept.15 7-11 Rm. 2528 1 - 5 Rm 2528 Frieze Bldg. Frieze Bldg. Actors ,Dancers ,and Singers Needed Auditions by Appointment Only. See Sign Sheet Outside of Room 1502 in the up Frieze Building. Read all Instructions Carefully. s _- ® 'I- t Come Celebrate Briarwood Movies' First Rocky Horror Anniversary Q rr ¢ Q , gS 's'r! 9 - Most of these revelations occur during the climatic championship game. As the tension increases, the players' vulnerabilities surface. Bo Jim, the super-macho dumb stud who gleefully laughed as he whirled an hysterically frightened woman over his head at the party, now complains tear- fully in the huddle, "I hurt." Another player who swaggered con- fidently through the same party finds his facade of nonchalance crumbling after witnessing the coaches' injustices during the game. He finally confronts one of them in the locker room, and bit- terly chastises the man and his colleagues for their lack of respect for the players. ALTHOUGH THE FILM reveals a lot about the business angle of pro football, some may find it valuable for its in- sights into what makes football players tick. How can they enjoy smashing into each other in one day of play, surviving only to shoot themselves full of pain killers to enable them to face the next? The film offers some obvious ex- planations. We see from the party that some players use their jock status as a way of maintaining their masculine self-images. When Max tells Elliot that he got hurt playing and the more it hurt, the more secure he felt, we see an element of martrydom found in the "pure" athlete. North Dallas Forty also presents a reason for the nen's.desire to play that is more fundamental than the lure of money, sex and glory. These men play because they have a tremendous amount of energy which they need to burn off: At the party, one player relen- tlessly pounds his fist into a tabletop, in order to impress a potential female conquest; in the locker room, another rams himself repeatedly into a coke machine because he has nothing better to do. THEY NEED FOOTBALL so badly that they cover up their anxiety about being seriously injured, fumbling a play, growing old, or anything that may take them out of the ball game, and they do it with humor, like Davis' raun- chy down-home oneliners and Nolte's off-the-cuff sarcasm. beginners: interm: Thurs 9/13 Fri 9/14 7:45-8:45 5:00-6:00 call for times 668-7731 DANCE SPACE E. William and State I I 5th Avenue at Liberty St. 761-9700 Formerly Fifth Forum Theater The story of Antonio, who uncov- ered her husband's secret lives, one by one . . . and began to live them herself- I , NOW SHOWING i 11 1 J. I i I This Friday and Saturday WITH SHOWS AT 12:00 MIDNIGHT AND 2:00 AM! THAT'S RIGHT 2:00 AM (after the bars close!) I Laura..ArntoneIli arcello Mastroianni Thur, Fri 6:10. 8:05, 10:00 Adults $1.50'til 6:30 (or capacity) Sat. Sun 2:10. 4:05, 6:10, 8:05, 10:00 I, _ Now Playinu at Butterfield Theatres WEDNESDAY IS "BARGAIN DAY" $1.50 UNTIL 5:30 MATINEES DAILY AT STATE 1-2-3-4 Doors Open 12:45 P.M. MONDAY NIGHT IS "GUEST NIGHT" Two Adults Admitted For $3.00 I I 1 D.W. Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION (SPfCIL Seing at the Michigan Theater) 1915 L State 123.4 231 S State 662-6264 -ANN ARBOR 1-54 570593 1:05-4:05-7:05-9:35 A nme ago in a galaxyfa rf~r away pAR. MARS ..._ ~ (Upper level) _.. I So, you think Thsyou know Arts.? S ThisMonday, Sept. 17, at 8 p.m., the Daily Arts and Entertainment staff will hold its first mass meeting for prospective writers. The meeting will take place in the offices of the Daily, 420 Maynard, right behind Bar- bour and Newberry dormitories. There are openings available right now for entertainment critics and feature writers, and we ask that prospective writers come to the meeting armed with an applicable writing sample (criticism or feature). ARTS WORK is challenging and educational, and, of course, the perquisites include freebies and the chance to rub shoulders with the gracious Arts editors. We stress that writers have their own ideas and be willing to take the initiative when it comes to locating an area of interest and beginning a story. The more widely varied the interests of our writers, the better the Arts page we can put out. That's Monday night at 8 at the Daily. Write it on your memo board. A fine tinted print and accompaniment by organist DENNIS JAMES of the film's original score at the Michigan Theater makes this showing of A Birth Of A Nation the closest you can get to the way it used to be shown in the Golden Age of the silent screen. Audiences aware of someof its distorted, even vicious, representations of blacks and history, are still moved by some of this cinematically influential film's beautifully lyrical and powerfully dramatic scenes. With LILLIAN GISH and HENRY B. WALTHALL. I. 1 l(PG) Dolby Stereo 1154:157:20-9:55 i CINEMA GUILD TONIGHT AT 7:00 only $1.50 MICHIGAN THEATER (Liberty Street) THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Pro fessional Theatre Program 1979-80 Best of Broadway Series USHER APPLICATION Name Address Telephone 1. You must choose your series in order of preference. 2. Return Usher Application to: Usher Best of Broadway Series, Professional Theatre Program, Michigan League Bldg., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109. 3. You will be notified by mail. MUST INCLUDE A STAMPED, SELF-ADDRESSED ENVELOPE. ~a.... - - La P'L.3. I C t ma. ALAN A LDA N(Upper" THE SEDUI1 TION Leve) OF JOE TVNAN 1:00-4:00-7:00-:30 120 -4:00-7:15-9:50 I campus 1214 5. Univ. ity 668-6416 -ANN ARBOR Mon.-Tue.-Thur.-Fri. 8 P.M. F ROBERT DE NIRO BEST PICTURE St-Sun SWINNER Wed. 5 1:3 ACADEMY 4:00 AWA I I ir- The Am Abr Film Cooperstive Presents at Not. Sd..-$1.50 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 (Don Siegel, 1968) COOGAN'S BLUFF 7 only-NAT. SCI CLINT EASTWOOD has said of Siegel, "He's one of the few directors in the business who's not afraid to yell 'Cut' and "Print' after the first take.' East- wood is k ernwhnv Inwman who follows an escaoed killer from dusty Arizona 302 0 h tinaw 434-1782 -YPSILANTl Fri.-Mon.-Tue.-Thur. GREASE-7:00 FEVER-9:00 I rm +4; ==Y? I I