Movies From the Hat 7 – #44 – Jonathan’s Pick – Everybody’s All American (1988)

This is my 3989th Review

Thanks to Jonathan of Robbins Realm for this recommendation.

“I ain’t doin’ it for what people say, Blue. Let’s race.” – Gavin Grey

Number of Times Seen – Between 3-5 Times (Cable in the 80’s and 90’s and 18 Apr 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A college football star’s life takes turns he doesn’t expect as he tries to always remain legendary in the game and in life.

My Take on it – This is a film that I recall really enjoying as a kid but now that I can understand it all much better, it doesn’t work as well.

This largely has to do with the fact that this is the kind of story that really needs to be explored more deeply and covering nearly 30 years in just slightly over 2 hours doesn’t cut it.

Dennis Quaid is great in the lead role and makes us believe how much football is his whole life and that he wants the glory of it all to never end.

The way this film uses football as an analogy for dreams of youth works extremely well because it’s an easy theme to connect to.

The love theme for this film is amazing, check out the song Until Forever here:

Perhaps there’s a full length director’s cut out there that manages to spend enough time on all of the issues brought up here that don’t have satisfying answers.

Bottom Line – Quaid is great in the lead role as a man who lives for football yet doesn’t want to ever have to let go of it no matter what happens in life. The story is good but it feels as if a premise like this needs to be shown more in depth and the slightly over two hour runtime just doesn’t manage to do it justice.  Great analogy for dreams of youth that can never be held onto forever. The love song for this film is amazing! Maybe there’s a Director’s Cut of this film that includes so much more of their lives, because if so, I’d love to see it.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Filming was stopped for weeks when Dennis Quaid had his collarbone broken by Tim Fox of the New England Patriots during filming. Footage of Quaid rolling in pain on the sidelines of the snow game appears in the finished film. (From IMDB)

Rating –  Globe Worthy (7/10)

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