Max’s Drive-In Movie – North Dallas Forty

North Dallas Forty Header

This 1979 sports movie was based on the 1973 novel of the same name by former NFL Dallas Cowboys player Peter Gent. The film offers a gritty and realistic look at pro football. It hits on the physical and emotional toll, corruption, and the commercialization of the game. You get a glimpse into 1970s football with the players, coaches, groupies, and owners. It’s listed as a comedy but it’s more a drama.

I saw this movie in the early nineties and liked it immediately. It has a very realistic feel. I’m a Nick Nolte fan and he was his normal grumpy self in this. You don’t have to be a fan to watch this movie. Seldom has the corruptive nature of professional sports been on display than here. Pro football comes across as supremely exploitative of players, with owners reflecting in the glory. The MLB was basically the same at the time as well.

It really gives an insight into what happened behind the scenes in football and it’s not pretty. Nolte plays an aging talented wide receiver who loves the game and has left himself on fields throughout the league. He hurts constantly but management is more worried about what he does in his own time than on the field.  He loves the game but not the business. The movie was not allowed to use real NFL football names. In this movie…the Cowboys are the Bulls.

Players were treated terribly by coaches, managers, and owners. They were not paid well unless they were a star player. Now they pay the players so much they take good care of them but during this era, everyone was expendable except stars and this movie shows that better than most.

Mac Davis played Seth Maxwell who was modeled after quarterback Don Meredith. Nick Nolte played Phillip Elliot who was wide receiver and author Peter Gent. The other players resemble Gent’s Cowboys of the late sixties down to the Tom Landry type of head coach. John Matuszak, a real NFL football player was in this movie as well.

After reading multiple books on the 1970s Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers…this movie is very true to form for those years. In the end, the movie leaves you wanting more.

Plot

It’s a sports drama film based on Peter Gent’s semi-autobiographical novel. The story revolves around Phil Elliott (played by Nick Nolte), a veteran wide receiver for a fictional professional football team, the North Dallas Bulls. The movie explores the brutal realities behind professional football, including the physical pain, drug use, and pressure players endure to stay on the field.

Phil is disillusioned with the sport’s business-like nature, the corruption within the team, and the manipulation by management and coaches. His relationships with teammates, including his best friend Seth Maxwell (played by Mac Davis), highlight the personal cost of sacrificing health and integrity for success. As Phil struggles to maintain his individuality and cope with the harsh demands, he faces a moral dilemma about whether to keep playing or walk away from the game.

The film provides a gritty and realistic portrayal of the darker side of professional sports, contrasting the glamorous public image of football with the physical and emotional toll it takes on the players.

Quotes

  • Maxwell: You had better learn how to play the game, and I don’t mean just the game of football.

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  • Coach Johnson: Douglas! The reason we drafted you was because they said you were fast and smart. At this point, I’d be delighted if you’d be at least one of those things!

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

41 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – North Dallas Forty”

  2. Hey Max! For me & my high school football teammates this was our ultimate sports movie! When this came out a number of us got together when it premiered on HBO & we all must’ve watched it 10 times each. I was a sophomore in ’79. Time moves on & newer more recent sports movies gets the attention now but for my money this is one of the top 5 all-time sports movies. “Now that’s concentration Elliott”, the Tom Landry style coach said as Nick Nolte’s character gets mugged catching a pass in the practice gym during a practice. They used smelling salts to bring ’em too after hanging onto the ball.

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      2. So baseball wasn’t your sport? The football coach tried to get me to play football…I said no thanks…I saw their practice while I practiced for the high school baseball team…and it did NOT look appealing lol.

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      3. Well Max…I don’t wanna be that guy talking about the ‘good old days’…”when I was an athlete”…lol. At 60 now I look back. I played baseball & football for 11 or 12 years through high school & a little of basketball until my sophomore year. I walked on at Boise State & played 1 season for a baseball program that was dumped the year before with the remaining players trying to convince the AD Gene Bleymeir to pick us back up…I was supposed to play football also. I ‘woosed’ out & didn’t play football. Then I joined the Coast Guard & later took tennis lessons & became a tennis instructor/coach/player in Cincy & the ‘bay area’ not winning anything…lol. Back in the day bruh. I love baseball & football equally.

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      4. Well you were a good athlete period. I played football with friends…man we were rough…no pads and full tackle but it was fun. That is pretty cool going from baseball – football to Tennis!

        Football and I have a strange relationship. I love watching games from the 70s and 80s…it was different…the hits and everything…but at the same time I feel guilty because of CTE…now a flag gets thrown for touching a quarterback…I get the new rules…I do…but that doesn’t mean I have to like them lol.

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      5. Well Max…I don’t talk about this except maybe my brothers & my teammates from back then but I’ve had severe migraines (treated by the V.A. & currently in remission) since ’06 & other symptoms of ‘CTE’ my brother thinks that I had 3-5 concussions way back then. Most folks who played football as long as I did will have some issues…that’s a fact & yes, I’d do it again. I loved playing it that much.

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      6. Yea from what I’ve read…it’s the everyday hits…that add up. I hope it stays in remission! It’s really rough unless you are a kicker.
        In baseball my injury was much less…Someone cleated me with metal cleats in the leg…I still cannot feel that spot but that is nothing compared to migraines.

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      7. Everything adds up in our age group Max…lol…no Dr. has directly attributed that to the 11 years of football. I was a drinker, copenhagen ‘dipper’ for years & years (baseball) & stuff & that could’ve brought that on. I have a specific diet now & take 1 med from the V.A. with supplements & live much healthier than I did up to 52…we live & learn right? Your Dodgers have a huge game tomorrow Max. Game 5 in Chavez Ravine.

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      8. Yes we do Carl…I’m trying to get healthier now.
        Oh yea…I will admit…I expected the last 3 years out of them so it was a surprise last night. It will be interesting to see if they can win this one. I felt bad for Sophie.

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      9. I really relish sportsfans like Sophia…when I was in my ‘salad days’ with the old WKNR (50,000 watts version) in the late 90’s & early 2000’s I got to know a lot of sportsfans like her & they’re for real. I worked with Roxy Bernstein when I was at ‘Sportsbyline’ for a year (’97-’98) & I always listen to ’em when I can on the radio (ESPN) & he’s done a great job calling this series…I watch a little also. What a classic rivalry Max. I wish that this was the NLCS…Mets fans wouldn’t like that…lol. This could be a rematch of that classic NLCS from ’88. 36 years later of course.

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      10. Oh wow…you have been around a lot of sports. Yea Sophie is a huge fan and it’s great to see that in baseball.
        Oh yea…that 88 NLCS… that Dodger team was the opposite of this one…great pitching and no hitting lol. People ask me what pitcher I would take if my life depended on it…I always tell them two….Sandy Koufax OR…Orel H in 1988. He was untouchable.

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  3. I remember the name and knew it was a football movie but that was about all. Not a football fan but it might be interesting nevertheless like you say. times sure have changed now in pro sports, in terms of the pay and how the players get treated.

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    1. Yes they have changed…but yes Dave…it’s a good movie first…forget the sport… it’s pretty sad as well to see how things were done. It gives you a reason to understand why players from all leagues wanted more pay.

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      1. oh yeah, a really good sports movie is one where you don’t have to be a fan of the game to still get the story in the film and be pulled in (‘Moneyball’, ‘Bull Durham’ two good baseball examples). I saw ‘Rudy’ some years back and it was pretty good.
        I sometimes think the balance has tipped too much to the favor of the players, but since most pro sports tend to pay out about 50% of the revenue in salaries, really it hasn’t. If teams are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars annually then it’s fair the players making the product should take home a good chunk of that.

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      2. I liked Rudy as well…now that name means something else lol.
        Oh yea…it’s way too much in the players way BUT…the owners have the prior owners to blame somewhat for that…if they would have treated players fairly it might not have gone this far so fast.

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      3. I’d be happy to see players take big pay cuts… IF owners cut the price on cheap seats to games to $3 or so and you didn’t have to pay to watch games – any sport – without having to pay so much, to get specialty streaming services which still seem to have blackouts.

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      4. Well the question will be this…will streaming places that all of this is going to…well they pay as much as cable? I doubt it…so I believe they will have to take a pay cut.

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  6. Ummmm, American Football- I can’t really comment other than it is pretty much a mystery to me. I can watch the highlights on our Sky programme- aka ‘the Greatest Hits’ package- but the rules, much less the finer points are over my head. (I hear references in songs etc and if I’m intrigued or befuddled enough by the term I’ll look them up and try to understand a bit more. Eg ‘Those 5A bastards run a shallow cross’ from ‘Speed Trap Town.’ Somehow the explanations leave me none the wiser.🙄)

    Having said that the football game in the movie MASH was a frikkin’ hoot.

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    1. I’ve watched it all of my life and I don’t know all of those rules. I like football…but it’s like music…it’s a different game now than it was in the 1970s…it was fun to watch then…now I stick with baseball.
      Oh yea…running from everyone on the field. I forgot about that scene. After the Gunshot….”Hot Lips you incredible nincompoop it’s the end of the quarter. “

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      1. The MASH scene that sticks in my mind is the opposition star player stuck at the bottom of a heap of tacklers is about to be tranquillised- and they swab his arm! Somehow it works on two different but both funny as hell levels.

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      2. Sometimes I get the TV series mixed up with the movie…the first 3 years were great. I need to watch the movie again… I really like Robert Altman.

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      3. When VHS rental stores like Blockbuster started up suddenly there seemed to be a store or franchise on every corner. Our local was the Movie Man, we signed on and the very first flick we rented was MASH.

        (There was this odd curtained-off dimly lit section down the back, I wonder what it was…)

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      4. Hmmm…. that place is where you where gloves and shoe covers.
        When VHS came out and then DVD’s…I bought the same movie with both first. I’m giving it away (I’m going to post it this month) but An American Werewolf in London…I never get tired of that movie and nurse Alex Price.

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      6. No…you joined me on that bench! Mine is not fond of scary movies as much as I am. I love them and that one has a quality that many don’t have….a comedy horror that is not a parody…

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  7. Having grown up in Germany where American football and baseball weren’t popular I’ve never been able to relate to the two. If based on what I’ve seen I had to pick between the two, I’d go with football, even though I find it a bit rough. That said, I’ve watched several movies with Nick Nolte and generally like him as an actor. Plus, “North Dallas Forty” sounds like an intriguing picture, so I could see myself enjoying it.

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    1. My heart is in baseball but this is a good movie…you won’t like football too much after this film lol. They treated the players terrible.

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    1. He died in the past few years….I remember him well as a kid. He had a few specials doing music.
      Nick Nolte…I like that guy…grumpy and great.

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