The Program

source: The Program

Trailer—The Program

The Program

Way too many stories going on in this look at a college football program with Caan as their hard nosed coach. None of the youngsters do anything outstanding and Ward's script lacks polish. The football sequences are exciting, while the treatment of steroid use looked a little overdone to me.

"The Program" is a movie about a ficitonal university and its football program. The coach, as you'd expect, is under extreme pressure to produce a winner and, as you'd also expect with such a program, this means to win at most any cost. Through the course of this soap opera-like story, again and again, you see the ways that many of these players behave in self-destructive and selfish ways...which is odd since the film ALSO seems to want you to root for the team at the same time! I appreciate how the story is pretty much a warts and all production...with drinking, sexual assaults and the like...things you sadly hear about various college teams on the news. But at the same time, it makes for a story that you feel disconnected from as well because in most cases you don't want to root for the guys. An unusual story in this regard....and something that makes this a film mostly for football fans OR folks who hate football...but no one in between.

No other football movie has made that remark more truthful than this one. I think this movie touches on an interesting topic but never probes any further. College football must have some dirty little secrets and this movie shows what a few might be. If they had put a little more emphasis on characters this would have been great. Although being a great football fan the action was pretty good anyway.

What were the producers thinking? One of the lamest films about college football proved to be one of the most poorly acted ones. Sure, Omar Epps and James Caan were solid, but the list of no-names dotting the cast list was too much to overcome in this rather lame effort. Fortunately, Oliver Stone made a better, more lucent film in Any Given Sunday. Sadly, football films will prove to be the most difficult of all the sports to turn into a movie.

During the course of high school and college, we always come across numerous stereotypes. The 'jock' stereotype is possibly the most recognized. This movie transcended that and only focused on the brotherhood and comradery that arises from playing an organised sport. Not only did I enjoy this movie to a great extent I thought it to be both hilarious and dramatic. I believed the quality of acting in this film to have been superb, as well as the football scenes.

You do not have to be a great fan of college football to appreciate this film but I suspect watching it might offer you a change to become a fan. Visually, the movie is quite lovely. It has a lush warm tone that is unaffected but effective. I like this film. I like the story. I like the way the film is executed. I find the story and characters credible and interesting. The contrast of themes or counterpoint of themes works well. The then young actors seem realistic. They are multidimensional. In fact, this is one of the best football movies. Dialogue is playful intelligent, and perceptive. The film uses multiple points-of-view and varies them in interesting ways. There are subjective reaction shots and asides that give the narrative great interest. I love the helmet camera images.

The Program is an extremely pumped up look at college football and at individual players on a college team. Speaking from experience as a college player, most of the things in this movie are grossly exaggerrated (no teammates I played with ever wanted me to spit in their mouth). However, there are a few revealing moments in this movie that capture life on a college football program. Standard performances, directing and screenplay are adequate in this film, but its true enjoyment will be by those who have participated in organized football, especially college. A rating of 7 out of 10 was given.