“Any Given Sunday” can best be described as a behind the scenes look at the life and death struggles of modern day gladiators and those who lead them.

The film has no individual star that is the main focus, but yet a whole team of them coincidently.

On the field, you have a fiery old-school head coach of the Miami Sharks Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino). He likes to do things his way and is constantly in a battle with not only his players but also the general manager and owner of the team, Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz).

Quarterback Willie Beamen,(Jamie Foxx) is the rising star on the team who is thrust into the starting role after seeing the aging veteran Jack ‘Cap’ Rooney (Dennis Quaid) goes down with an injury. Beamen sees almost instant success which success puts him directly in the spotlight, at which his ego begins to get the best of him. But as his ego grows the amount of his teammates that support him dwindles.

Being put into the star role, he struggles with being a leader of the team and is more focused about himself. He throws away any help and advice that he gets from the veterans on the team or even D’Amato. His selfishness is what turns his team against him and it isn’t until D’Amato’s spine chilling pre-game speech before a game against the Dallas Knights.

This speech changes the dynamic between not only Beamen and his teammates, but also Beamen and D’Amato. It hit home for Beamen who changed his tune after this. He became a team player again and leads the team like he had failed to do previously.

Director Oliver Stone, gives an inside look into a football team that we wouldn’t even dare to imagine. The constant drama and controversy going on is almost unreal. There is never a day where some sort of problem does not arise.

Stone really grips the viewers with the intense football scenes and the constant intense drama. He shows the viewer’s how these players are nearly untouchable by anything. But he also goes into how a players rise can affect not only them but their team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcvyqbhOkOA

For true football fans this movie is a definite must see into the world of a professional football player. One can only imagine what their lives are actually like, but Stone does his best to show the trials and tribulations that these players go through.