Alright, I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t know too much about Vince Lombardi before writing this post. I knew he coached base … well, I knew he was a coach … of a sport of some kind. As it turns out, he was the legendary head coach of the Green Bay Packers (alright, so I was off on baseball) from 1959-1967, during which time the Packers won five league championships. Taking on the franchise at a time when the Packers were not taken seriously at all, Lombardi’s fierce disciplinary measures and his famed words of wisdom inspired greatness in run-of-the-mill footballers. And judging by the pages of quotes authored by Lombardi on”brainyquotes.com,” I think it would be safe to assume that the man had just as many insights to offer off the field as he did on it.
This intriguing life story has garnered the attention of producers at ESPN Films, who have decided to make a biopic about the sports icon. And in trying to cast someone fitting for the part of an unwavering, notoriously domineering sports icon, they found the perfect man for the job, the raging bull himself, Robert De Niro.
The unbridled intensity that De Niro so flawlessly exhibited in “Raging Bull” has waned throughout the actor’s career. His most recent turns have included a kind-spirited family man (“Everybody’s Fine”), a slick and quick Hollywood executive (“What Just Happened”), and a good-hearted pirate captain (“Stardust”). But moviegoers know there’s still a bull that can rage, a wrath yet to be unleashed in a sports flick that made “Raging Bull” one of the best boxing movies ever made.
The drama centers on the rivalry that existed between Lombardi and Tom Landry, the opposite-minded defensive coach of the New York Giants who would feud with Lombardi when Lombardi coached the Giants’ offensive squad in 1958 (just prior to his stint with the Packers). At the end of Lombardi’s illustrious nine years with the Packers, he faced Landry’s Dallas Cowboys in the 1966 NFL Championship Game, known as the Ice Bowl for the sub-zero temperatures which the players endured.
I know this sounds like a formulaic story including years of hard work all building up to “the big game,” but ESPN Films has hired Eric Roth (writer of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Munich,” and “Forrest Gump”) to pen the script for the biopic. I really hope you read those parenthetical details. To spell it out, though, hiring Eric Roth is almost a guarantee of superb storytelling, a promise of intricate plot constructions as a means of making grand remarks on our humanity. With Roth on board, perhaps the game of football will be conceived with the same portentousness that Lombardi used to ascribe it. This would be a breath of fresh air for sports-flick fans who are tired of repackaged versions of “Remember the Titans,” as well as a magnificent way for De Niro to revitalize his lately-fading reputation for poignant intensity.
That’s it for this week. Check back with the Reel Deal next Friday for more movie buzz. Until then, stay excited for this biopic, slated for release in the January weekend before the 2012 Super Bowl. Maybe Lombardi’s words of wisdom will fan the flames:
“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.”
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