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Customer Review
- Reviewed in Canada on January 7, 2004Football fans will be able to enjoy this film and have that pregame feeling about the start of what is still the longest running weekday "prime-time show" known as Monday Night Football on ABC. Sports history buffs can get a sense of many things, including the peaks, valleys and drama of all the behind the scenes action. After seeing this film, one doesn't get the sense that it was made for cable (TNT originally aired it.... More than once!)
John Turturro plays Howard Cosell, and does a great job. The voice, mannerisms, and dramatizations are worthy of noting during this great performance. The only issue is that it seems Turturro was too young to portray Cosell during any era, especially by the early '80s when the real Cosell looked quite a bit older. Eli Wallach and John Heard were terrific as ABC president Leonard Rothstein and MNF producer Roone Alredge, respectively. These two men turned in great performances and were cast perfectly. You are able to gain a sense of what these men were like, even if you had no idea who they were. The on screen portrayals of fellow broadcasters Don Meredith and Frank Gifford are simple but still pretty good.
The movie does a great job telling the story of how MNF was born. Roone Alredge from ABC truly revolutionized the game by adding flare, more cameras, more angles, and the three-man booth.
One problem is that film lacks real game footage that was true to the era (1970-85.) There seem to be re-creations of the games and their moments, and the uniforms are a bit "off" during some of the game highlights. Colors don't match, and stadium backdrops are not true the game that was going on at that time. For example, take a close look at the Joe Namath shot. (That is not him.) Also, there are a few moments that were supposed to be taking place in the 1970s but some of the extras looked too present-era to pull this off. The catchy "Monday Night Football" theme that was used in the movie for the first broadcast in 1970 was wrong, too. The theme that was played wasn't made popular until about ten years later.
Overall, an excellent film. Football fans should definitely see this. MNF is still one of the greatest additions to the field of sports and entertainment.
