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Muddled overall, but perceptive and brutally realistic, North Dallas Forty also benefits from strong performances by Nick Nolte and Charles Durning. Football fans will likely find it fascinating.
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All Critics (24) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (4)
Profanely funny, wised-up and heroically antiheroic, North Dallas Forty is unlikely to please anyone with a vested interest in glorifying the National Football League. Aug 29, 2016 | Full Review…
Profanely funny, wised-up and heroically antiheroic, North Dallas Forty is unlikely to please anyone with a vested interest in glorifying the National Football League.
Gary Arnold
Retains enough of the original novel's authenticity to deliver strong, if brutish, entertainment. Aug 1, 2008 | Full Review…
Retains enough of the original novel's authenticity to deliver strong, if brutish, entertainment.
Richard Schickel
The football scenes are brutally real; the locker room scenes are totally authentic. Mar 21, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
The football scenes are brutally real; the locker room scenes are totally authentic.
Roger Ebert
The production is a most realistic, hard-hitting and perceptive look at the seamy side of pro football. Mar 14, 2007 | Full Review…
The production is a most realistic, hard-hitting and perceptive look at the seamy side of pro football.
Variety Staff
Something of a mess, both in terms of the wayward plot which rambles all over the place, and in terms of the rather muddled juggling of audience sympathies. Jan 26, 2006 | Full Review…
Something of a mess, both in terms of the wayward plot which rambles all over the place, and in terms of the rather muddled juggling of audience sympathies.
Geoff Andrew
The leading man, Nick Nolte, has a physical authority and a clowning, irreverent manner that lend the film some semblance of continuity, even when it's about to flounder. May 9, 2005 | Full Review…
The leading man, Nick Nolte, has a physical authority and a clowning, irreverent manner that lend the film some semblance of continuity, even when it's about to flounder.
Janet Maslin
The movie boasts some fine performances -- by Nolte, Mac Davis as the Bulls' quarterback and John Matuszak as a fired-up lineman -- but it's too concerned with celebrating the mating and bonding rituals of overgrown adolescents. Jul 19, 2019 | Full Review…
The movie boasts some fine performances -- by Nolte, Mac Davis as the Bulls' quarterback and John Matuszak as a fired-up lineman -- but it's too concerned with celebrating the mating and bonding rituals of overgrown adolescents.
Richard Corliss
It's not damning with faint praise to say this is the best pro football movie ever -- and by yards. Aug 29, 2016 | Full Review…
It's not damning with faint praise to say this is the best pro football movie ever -- and by yards.
People Staff
Pro football fans may be disillusioned by this excellent, honest, and often brutal expose of the play-for-pay game. Mar 14, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
Pro football fans may be disillusioned by this excellent, honest, and often brutal expose of the play-for-pay game.
It relies upon your belief in the inherent nobility of the sport... If you believe that, this is the greatest sports movie ever made. If you don't, it's a wallow in self-pity. Mar 14, 2007 | Full Review…
It relies upon your belief in the inherent nobility of the sport... If you believe that, this is the greatest sports movie ever made. If you don't, it's a wallow in self-pity.
Film4 Staff
The best football movie ever made. Jun 10, 2006 | Rating: A | Full Review…
The best football movie ever made.
Robert Roten
Raucous football tale with effective Nolte. Nov 1, 2004 | Rating: 3/5
Raucous football tale with effective Nolte.
Steve Crum
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