Hollywood's Best High School Football Movies
One sheet poster: Tom Cruise as Stefen Djordjevic in All the Right Moves (1983)
High school football is a religion in many parts of the United States. Here are five outstanding high school football films that are sure to satisfy both movie and sports fans. We begin in Pennsylvania steel country…
All the Right Moves (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1983)
Tom Cruise stars as Stefen Djordjevic, a high school football player who dreams of an athletic scholarship in order to escape a dying Pennsylvania steel town. Craig T. Nelson plays the dictatorial Coach Nickerson, with Lea Thompson as Lisa, Cruise's girlfriend. Cruise is in top form in this highly entertaining film, playing the high school senior who challenges his coach's authoritarian rule on the football field, telling him in one scene, "You're not God, Nickerson. You're just a typing teacher." All the Right Moves expertly captures the mania of high school football in the Keystone State, featuring brutal practices, feverish pep rallies, a drunken, late night raid on the coach's home and some excellent gridiron action. Set in the fictional town of Ampipe, All the Right Moves was filmed at Ferndale Area High School in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Both Tom Cruise and Lea Thompson were secretly sent back to high school in order to get reacquainted with that institution, but the still relatively unknown Cruise was outed on his first day, recognized from his minor role in Taps (1981).
Great line: "Salvucci, he didn't quit. None of us quit. I don't know. We beat those guys asses up and down that field tonight! We got nothing to be ashamed of, right? Isn't that right? Maybe the scoreboard doesn't say it, but we won that game. We held them. It was just a fluke. That's all. It's just a fluke." - Tom Cruise's Stef challenging Coach Nickerson's assessment that the players had quit on him
Director: Michael Chapman
On DVD: All the Right Moves (Twentieth Century-Fox, 2010)
Friday Night Lights (Universal, 2004)
Based on the 1990 nonfiction book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights follows the 1988 season of the Permian High Panthers in football-mad Texas. Billy Bob Thornton heads the cast as head coach Gary Gaines, with Lucas Black (Mike Winchell), Garrett Hedlund (Don Billingsley), Derek Luke (Boobie Miles), Jay Hernandez (Brian Chavez), Lee Jackson (Ivory Christian), Lee Thompson Young (Chris Comer) and Tim McGraw (Charles Billingsley) also appearing. Friday Night Lights, which won an ESPY for Best Sports Movie, superbly captures the essence of high school football in the Lone Star State, where the sport takes on a reverential, mythic quality. The coaches, players and townspeople all forge ahead in one unforgettable season as perennial powerhouse Permian vies for the Texas state football championship. Friday Night Lights spawned a television series of the same name, which began its run on NBC in 2006.
Great line: "Stop reading the news clippings. You're small and you're going to be smaller every week. There ain't going to be no growth spurt between now and the first game. You're going to use your minds! You're going to play with your heart! And that is what you're going to use to win the State Championship." - Billy Bob Thornton's Coach Gaines to his players
Director: Peter Berg, Josh Pate
On DVD: Friday Night Lights Widescreen Edition (Universal, 2005)
Remember the Titans (Buena Vista, 2000)
Based on a true story, Remember the Titans stars Denzel Washington as Herman Boone, a black coach who takes the reins of the football team at Virginia's newly desegregated T.C. Williams High School in 1971. With racial tensions running high, Boone tries to defuse the situation when he offers ousted white head coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) a job as one of his assistants. Boone and his fellow coaches lead their integrated team to an undefeated season and a shot at the state football title. There is both triumph and tragedy in this classic sports movie, with Ryan Hurst turning in an excellent performance as the doomed gridiron warrior Gerry Bertier. Denzel Washington won a BET Award for Best Actor.
Great line: "We will be perfect in every aspect of the game. You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You fumble the football, and I will break my foot off in your John Brown hind parts and then you will run a mile. Perfection. Let's go to work." - Denzel Washington as Coach Boone to his players
Director: Boaz Yakin
On DVD: Remember the Titans Widescreen Edition (Disney, 2001)
Varsity Blues (Paramount, 1999)
Texas high school football comes alive in this film starring James Van Der Beek as Jonathan "Mox" Moxon, an academically gifted student who plays second-string quarterback for West Canaan High School and its legendary football coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight). Mox's father Sam (Thomas F. Duffy) is trying to live vicariously through his son while Mox, who is trying to land a scholarship at Brown University, bristles under Coach Kilmer's authoritarian rule. There's plenty of gridiron action, sexual hijinks and high school intrigue in this sports movie, which also features Amy Smart, Paul Walker, Ron Lester, Scott Caan and Ali Larter. Some of have called Varsity Blues a modified high school version of North Dallas Forty (1979).
Great line: "In America, we have laws. Laws against killing, laws against stealing. And it is just accepted that as a member of American society, you will live by these laws. In West Canaan, Texas, there is another society which has its own laws. Football is a way of life." - James Van Der Beek as Mox
Director: Brian Robbins
On DVD: Varsity Blues (Paramount, 1999)
School Ties (Paramount, 1992)
Set at an elite New England prep school in the 1950s, School Ties stars Brendan Fraser as David Greene, a top quarterback who is brought in from Pennsylvania on scholarship in order to lead St. Matthew's to gridiron glory. David is Jewish, a secret he tries to keep at the WASPish school of eastern blue bloods. Matt Damon, Andrew Lowery, Cole Hauser, Randall Batinkoff, Chris O'Donnell, Ben Affleck and Anthony Rapp play David's less-than-tolerant teammates, with Kevin Tighe appearing as Coach McDevitt and Amy Locane as a high school femme fatale. School Ties features some credible football action, along with a cheating scandal, a love triangle and an especially noteworthy performance by a then-21-year-old Matt Damon as the virulently racist Charlie Dillon. School Ties was shot on location at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts.
Great line: "You're never going to forget this happened. You used me for football, now I'll use you to get into Harvard." Brendan Fraser's David Greene to Peter Donat's headmaster Dr. Bartram
Director: Robert Mandel
On DVD: School Ties (Paramount, 1999)
Written by William J. Felchner
Professional Writer
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