People are voting emotionally.

Overrated and overhyped

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Blistering performances.

Along with other reviewers I consider this movie a now-forgotten gem and under-rated. It's biggest liability is an honest but overly dramatic approach to racism in the US during the 1950's and 60's. It is an emotional exploration of the personal evolution of a college and pro football star during that era- from success to near tragedy. Quaid. Lange, Hutton, and Goodman, and the supporting cast all excel in their roles. This is an engaging film and in my opinion one of Taylor Hackford's best directorial efforts.

The saga of a football player is the basis of this film based on a Frank Deford novel. The story covers twenty-five years as the lead character played well by Dennis Quaid goes from absolute Mr. Touchdown USA in college to the pro ranks with a last place team. The game of football is now a business and his profession. Jessica Lange is his sweetheart who marries her gridiron hero and quickly learns being the homecoming queen means little after the magical college days are gone. Although the central part of the film concerns Football this film is much more as it highlights various events of the late 50's into the 60's always keeping tabs on Quaids gridiron exploits. Good support from John Goodman as Quaids devoted college teammate and eventual business partner. Carl Lumbly as Blue a Football player as talented as Quaids character who could have gone for the brass ring in the pro game but opted instead to make things better for his race and achieve something more for himself than scoring touchdowns and hearing cheering crowds. Timothy Hutton is cast as Quaids cousin. An individual who possesses academic skills equal to that of Quaids athletic skills. In the end who has achieved the greater success? A great character study set during a time when the game produced heroes people really believed in even though their idols private lives were not always perfect like they may have imagined.

Superbly acted film about a rocky relationship between a Sugar Bowl all-american (Quaid) and the Magnolia Queen (Lange). The story takes us through over 25 years of triumph and tragedy with great support from Hutton and an especially good performance from John Goodman. Look for "Seinfeld's" Wayne Knight here.

I started to watch this movie on HBO non commitedly but soon found myself engrossed. Nothing else was on so I kept watching. I was struck by the brilliant performance of Dennis Quaid and my heart broke for his character Gavin. I have rarely felt this kind of emotion when viewing a film and was overwhelmed with it. I had never before thought of Dennis Quaid as anything other than the funny guy from Undercover Blues and I was taken aback at his acting. I wept at the end and I felt every kind of emotion it is possible to feel. I cannot even express in words how I was blown away by this superb film and all of the actors involved in it.