He articulates with a touch of sensitivity and years of craft the agony and despair many aging athletes likely experience. The film is held together not only by the competence of its writer but by Nolte's tremendous talents as a character actor and performing. What was it? What are its effects? Why is it being used? Who cares, "the whole thing's numb," Elliot states. Just before a big game that determines the Bulls' playoff fate, Elliot's leg, which is experiencing hellish pain, is given a shot of a mysterious substance. Through Elliot's dissatisfaction, however, he becomes heavily dependent on painkillers, alcohol, and other pills of sorts to keep his mind right. Elliot knows the organization is out to make money and injuries, long-term trauma, and player wellbeing are the least of their concerns. He loathes the way managers and coaches treat their players like cattle, constantly emphasizing their flaws and not their advantages, and justifying their ungrateful, smug comments on poor performance as methods of tough-love. We set our sights on Elliot, who is becoming greatly dissatisfied with the way the NFL operates (his team is the fictional North Dallas Bulls, which mirror the Dallas Cowboys, FYI). Written by a trio of thoughtful and thoroughly ambitious people - Peter Gent, Kotcheff, and Frank Yablans - the film manages to be less entertaining and sensational, like a typical sports film, and more heartbreaking and an often immersing watch. It fully embraces and boldly depicts in element where other screenwriters' knees would buckle under the weight and pressure of the story, especially for the time. It explores where other films would dim their focus. Because we see the lead character in such a vulnerable, often powerless light despite being a very good football player is why North Dallas Forty is so skilled on its feet as a film. The physical pain rather than the heated press conferences or celebratory events in the locker. What we see in the first few minutes of North Dallas Forty are what we never see in sports - the morning after the game. Interrupting this scene's quiet, almost meditative atmosphere are Elliot's loudmouth friends, clearly intoxicated, who want to go out and cause a ruckus with their shotguns. Punctuating this scene are brief little clips from last night's football game, where Elliot was met with several rough, polarizing blows to every part of his body. He lumbers to the kitchen to get a beer before stumbling to soak in a bathtub. Elliot is slow to get up, every move being a slow one that clearly causes a searing amount of pain. It shows the aging and exhausted Phil Elliot (Nick Nolte), passed out in his bed and awoken by a blaring alarm clock. The opening shot of Ted Kotcheff's North Dallas Forty is a tense and memorable one.
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