North Dallas Forty

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North Dallas Forty
Theatrical release poster by Morgan Kane
Directed byTed Kotcheff
Screenplay byPeter Gent
Ted Kotcheff
Frank Yablans
Based onNorth Dallas Forty
by Peter Gent
Produced byFrank Yablans
StarringNick Nolte
Mac Davis
Charles Durning
Dayle Haddon
Bo Svenson
John Matuszak
Steve Forrest
G.D. Spradlin
Dabney Coleman
Savannah Smith Boucher
CinematographyPaul Lohmann
Edited byJay Kamen
Music byJohn Scott
Production
company
Regina Associates
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • August 1, 1979 (New York)
  • August 3, 1979 (Los Angeles)
[1]
Running time
119 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$26.1 million[2]

North Dallas Forty is a 1979 American sports film starring Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, and G. D. Spradlin set in the decadent world of American professional football in the late 1970s. It was directed by Ted Kotcheff and based on the best-selling 1973 novel by Peter Gent. The screenplay was by Kotcheff, Gent, Frank Yablans, and Nancy Dowd (uncredited). This was the first film role for Davis, a popular country music recording artist.

Plot[edit]

In the late-1970s, Phil Elliott plays wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls professional football team, based in Dallas, Texas, which closely resembles the Dallas Cowboys.[3][4]

Although considered to possess "the best hands in the game", the aging Elliott has been benched and relies heavily on painkillers. Elliott and popular quarterback Seth Maxwell are outstanding players, but they characterize the drug-, sex-, and alcohol-fueled party atmosphere of that era. Elliott wants only to play the game, retire, and live on a horse farm with his girlfriend Charlotte, an aspiring writer who appears to be financially independent due to a trust fund from her wealthy family and who has no interest whatsoever in football.

The Bulls play for iconic Coach Strother, who turns a blind eye to anything that his players may be doing off the field or anything that his assistant coaches and trainers condone to keep those players in the game. The coach is focused on player "tendencies", a quantitative measurement of their performance, and seems less concerned about the human aspect of the game and the players. One player, Shaddock, finally erupts to assistant Coach Johnson: "Every time I call it a 'game', you call it a 'business'. And every time I call it a 'business', you call it a 'game'." The coaches manipulate Elliott to convince a younger, injured rookie on the team to start using painkillers.

Elliott's nonconformist attitude incurs the coach's wrath more than once, and at one point, the coach informs Elliott that his continuing attitude could affect his future career with the Bulls. In the final game of the season, Elliott catches a touchdown pass with no time left on the clock to get North Dallas to within one point of division rival Chicago, but the Bulls lose the game due to a mishandled snap on the extra point attempt. In a meeting with the team owners and Coach Strother, Elliott learns that a Dallas detective has been hired by the Bulls to follow him. They reveal proof of his marijuana use and a sexual relationship with a woman named Joanne, who intends to marry team executive Emmett Hunter, the brother of owner Conrad Hunter. It is loosely implied that Emmett might be gay, and it is why she went to Elliott for her sexual needs. Although the detective witnessed quarterback Seth Maxwell engaging in similar behavior, he pretends not to have recognized him. They tell Elliott that he is to be suspended without pay pending a league hearing, and Elliott, convinced that the entire investigation is merely a pretext to allow the team to save money on his contract, quits the team, telling the Hunter brothers that he does not need their money that bad.

As he is leaving the team's headquarters in downtown Dallas, Elliott runs into Maxwell, who seems to have been waiting for him. Elliott informs him that he quit, prompting Maxwell to ask if his name came up in the meeting. Elliott deduces that Maxwell knew about the investigation the entire time. As Elliott walks away, Maxwell briefly reminisces about their time together on and off the football field. Maxwell prompts Elliott to turn around and throws a football to him, but Elliott lets it hit him in the chest and fall incomplete as he shrugs and throws his arms out to his sides, signifying that he truly is done with the game.

Behind the scenes[edit]

Part drama, comedy, and satire, North Dallas Forty is widely considered a classic sports film, giving insights into the lives of professional athletes.[5]

Based on the semiautobiographical novel by Peter Gent, a Cowboys wide receiver in the late 1960s, the film's characters closely resemble team members of that era, with Seth Maxwell often compared to quarterback Don Meredith, B.A. Strother to Tom Landry, and Elliott to Gent. Of the story, Meredith said, "If I'd known Gent was as good as he says he was, I would have thrown to him more."[6]

Cast[edit]