Film Analysis for Any Given Sunday

What makes a movie recognized as a masterpiece? There are myriads of ways to answer this uneasy question, but all of them will apparently cross at a point of compromise that a good motion picture is always the result of hard labor. The main criterion is naturally the audience’s reaction. The audience’s respond defines the future of a movie and relies upon multifaceted basis. Sometimes positive reaction can result from a simple combination of an entertaining plot and talented director, but more often there are much more factors to contribute to the film’s success. As Louis Giannetti instructs, there is a dozen of categories one should be acquainted with to shoot a good movie. Among them are photography, mise en scenes and movement, editing and sound, acting and drama, story and writing, ideology and critique. Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday is one of the fascinating examples of how different language systems can be synthesized for amazing technical and aesthetic outcomes. This essay is intended to investigate how these language systems are applied for various objectives according to the director’s concept and fiction plan. For that end, discussion will be based on critical opinion and scholar research as well as detailed analysis of the movie itself. Brief Summary of the Motion Picture Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday (1999) is a denunciative reflection of American football politics and business. The face of American football is communicated through the story of professional team, the Miami Sharks. It has a marvelous, glorious past, but those days are gone and now they are in turmoil. The owner of the team, Christina Pagniachi, has inherited it from her father and has a plan to sell the team for more revenues. On this basis, she conflicts with Tony D’amato, the team’s coach, for whom the team means much. The Miami Sharks have lost three games running; in the thirteenth game of the season they lose their two quarterbacks one by one, and have to give a chance to a player from the reserve. Former seventh-round draft pick, Willie Beamen is at first unconfident and nervous, but soon he gains confidence and wakes up famous. Thus, “Steamin” Willie Beamen becomes one of the central characters of the narration. Besides, he becomes the participant of central conflict, the conflict between generations. The team’s coach, Tony D’amato, has thirty years of experience in the game, but Willie, being arrogant and narcissus, refuses to follow his conservative strategy, as he has his own vision of the game and the victory is his only goal. His pride is so strong that he rejects his longtime girlfriend in a rude way. However, after the team revenges him by cutting his car up in two, he begins to reappraise his own behavior. He makes an attempt to return Vanessa back, and refuses his former behavioral patterns during the last, decisive game. The team wins, and relationships between characters improve. Still, business is business and everyone chooses his own road at the end. In the epilogue, D’amato leaves the team for another one in Mexico and takes Willie with him, thus bowling Christina out.