Any Given Sunday

Year of Release
1999

Language
English

Director
Oliver Stone

Cast
Al Pacino, Cameroon Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Dennis Quaid

Any Given Sunday, is a power packed movie, with lots and lots to offer to a person who is watching it. It takes us some games of football being played by the club name 'Miami Sharks', managed by Christina Pagniacci (Cameroon Diaz) and coached by Tony D'Amata (Al Pacino).

Its been a rough patch for the team with 4 straight loses in the league and facing an eviction from the Sunday Playoffs. With the caption and quarterback of the team, Jack 'Cap' Rooney (Dennis Quaid), out of the team due to a ruptured disc, the 3rd tier quarterback, Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), of the team gets the nod. Even after they loose the match, the team needs to persist with Willie as the quarterback. But the next game, he performs and delivers the goods and the team wins. But in midst the game, he starts changing plays that the coach asks him to play.

All of this is followed by pressure from Christina to sell the club. The players, the coach and the support staff, everyone is under pressure. All this time, Willie, bathing under the glory of his sudden famedom, starts going over the top and considers himself above the game and the players. The coach tries to explain to him that the game has to be about more that winning and that a leader is all about sacrifice, the times he's got to sacrifice because he's got to win, by example but not by fear.

Willie is too selfish to give importance to everyone in the team, but prefers to shun other players as well, which creates displeasure inside the team and starts itself drift towards loosing games. 'Cap' Rooney, gets ready for the final game before the most important playoffs. This is what the coach has got to say before the match,

"When you get old, things get taken from you.
That's part of life.
But you'll only start learning that,
when you start loosing stuff.

You'll find that, life, gains by inches, just life football. Because in either game, the margin
for error is so small. One half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half a second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it, the inches that we need are everywhere around us. They are there everywhere, every minute, every second. And you have to fight for that extra inch. And when we add all those inches, thats going to make the difference between winning and loosing, between living and dying. In any fight, its the guy who is willing to die, who is going to win that inch. And I know, if I'm going to have a life anymore, its because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch. Because thats what living is. You gotta look at the guy next to you, you look into his eyes and you find a man who is going to sacrifice that inch for you. You'll see a guy who will sacrifice himself for the team because he knows, when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same for him. That makes a team. So, we here win as a team or die as individuals. You decide."

Watch the movie and get to know what happens towards the end, whether the team reaches the playoffs or lays off after the most decisive match for everyone in the team, for the players for better contract and coach to continue coaching.

With power packed performances by Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx, the movie has provided great moments of mesmerizing messages which is applicable for everyone in team activities. Al Pacino, through out the movie remains subtle and his dialogue delivery is impeccable.

Rating: 6.5 / 10