It took me 28 years to finally get around to seeing this high school football drama, but it was well worth the wait and probably for the best, since I appreciate it far more now at 40 than I could've at 12.
I remember when it came out in late 1983, a few months after Tom Cruise became a star through "Risky Business." Despite a solid publicity campaign, "All the Wrong Moves" failed to reap a huge benefit from Cruise's presence. The movie grossed a modest $17,233,166 at the American box office and quickly faded into obscurity.
Then I saw it in the $3 bin at Big Lots and decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did, because it's a diamond in the rough; definitely the best high school sports movie I've ever seen. Rather than the usual sports movie clichés, such as the focus on "the big game," this is a heavyweight drama that's about football on the surface but life at the core.
Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic (played by Cruise) resides in the blue collar town of Ampipe, Pennsylvania, where he plays cornerback for the local high school football team. He resides with his older brother, Rick (Gary Graham), and their father (Charles Cioffi), both of whom work in the local steel mill, as does seemingly every man in town. Stef's and Rick's mother is dead and the three Djordjevic men seem to all have a pretty good relationship with each other. And at a couple of points in the latter half of the movie, the father shows great support in the midst of his son's hardships.
Now a senior, Stef is a moderate college prospect and has realistic expectations. Being a mere 5'10" (178 cm) and white, he has no illusions of making the NFL, and being a B student, he has no illusions of getting an academic scholarship. But he hopes to attain a college football scholarship and earn a degree in engineering. Still, he's uncomfortable with the possibility of being far away from his beautiful cheerleader girlfriend, Lisa (Lea Thompson), a junior who adores him, even though she's not a football fan.
Ampipe's next game is at Walnut Heights, who is undefeated and ranked #3 in the state, as well as located in a much wealthier area. Stef and some of his teammates view the game as an opportunity to impress college scouts and break away from what they see as a dead end town. Ampipe is economically struggling and the steel mill is laying off many workers. And the team's tough, no-nonsense head coach, Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson), is also looking beyond the town, pursing college assistant coaching jobs.
Late in the game, with Ampipe trailing 10-7, Stef intercepts a pass and returns it for a touchdown. But shortly afterward, while disobeying Nickerson's order to go after the ball instead of the receiver, Stef commits a crucial pass interference penalty that contributes to his team losing. In the locker room right after the game, he and Nickerson have an argument that results in Stef's dismissal from the team. Nickerson won't even Stef ride home on the team bus and tells him to ride with the cheerleaders.
Instead, he hitches a ride home with some Ampipe fans, who stop at Nickerson's house and vandalize it. Not realizing what they were going to do, Stef unsuccessfully tries to stop it. Nickerson's daughter hears the vandalizing and tells her father, who goes outside and sees the vandals fleeing. It's initially uncertain whether he got a close enough look at Stef.
But the next week, Stef visits Nickerson at a football practice, apologizing for his role in the argument and asking for re-instatement to the team, which has only one game left. But Nickerson says that he saw Stef at Nickerson's house that night after the game. Stef insists that he did none of the vandalizing but Nickerson doesn't believe that.
The day of the game, Greg and 700 others get laid off from the steel mill. In his ensuing depression, he goes out and gets drunk. While he's gone, Lisa comes over and she and Stef have sex for the first time.
The next few weeks are chaotic for Stef and his teammates. Brian (Christopher Penn), having just accepted a scholarship offer from USC, learns that his girlfriend, Tracy (Paige Lyn Price), is pregnant. They keep the baby and get married. Vinnie Salvucci (Paul Carafotes) gets arrested for armed robbery. And Stef's previous scholarship offers are revoked, leading him to believe that he was blackballed by Nickerson. And though Lisa is bitter about athletes getting scholarships while other deserving students don't, she goes to Nickerson's wife and tries to intervene.
And without revealing the ending, I will say that it has great messages of forgiveness and the selflessness inherent in pure love.
"All the Right Moves" mostly lives up to its title. All of the performances are top notch and both 80s small town high school life and the atmosphere of big time high school football are portrayed flawlessly. I also like that the school has a good mix of blacks and whites and that people of the two races have much positive interaction throughout the movie, both on and off the football team.
In addition, the scenery brings Ampipe powerfully to life and the rock dominated soundtrack, while not one of the best of the genre, further cements the movie's early 80s feel. And don't be turned away if you're not a football fan. The movie actually contains only one game scene. While the surface theme, as I said, is football, many other surface themes could equally be used to teach the same lessons.
The movie is a fairly heavy R, mostly for language and a couple of semi-graphic sex scenes, but if you can tolerate that, it's hard to find a better teen dominated drama than this.
I remember when it came out in late 1983, a few months after Tom Cruise became a star through "Risky Business." Despite a solid publicity campaign, "All the Wrong Moves" failed to reap a huge benefit from Cruise's presence. The movie grossed a modest $17,233,166 at the American box office and quickly faded into obscurity.
Then I saw it in the $3 bin at Big Lots and decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did, because it's a diamond in the rough; definitely the best high school sports movie I've ever seen. Rather than the usual sports movie clichés, such as the focus on "the big game," this is a heavyweight drama that's about football on the surface but life at the core.
Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic (played by Cruise) resides in the blue collar town of Ampipe, Pennsylvania, where he plays cornerback for the local high school football team. He resides with his older brother, Rick (Gary Graham), and their father (Charles Cioffi), both of whom work in the local steel mill, as does seemingly every man in town. Stef's and Rick's mother is dead and the three Djordjevic men seem to all have a pretty good relationship with each other. And at a couple of points in the latter half of the movie, the father shows great support in the midst of his son's hardships.
Now a senior, Stef is a moderate college prospect and has realistic expectations. Being a mere 5'10" (178 cm) and white, he has no illusions of making the NFL, and being a B student, he has no illusions of getting an academic scholarship. But he hopes to attain a college football scholarship and earn a degree in engineering. Still, he's uncomfortable with the possibility of being far away from his beautiful cheerleader girlfriend, Lisa (Lea Thompson), a junior who adores him, even though she's not a football fan.
Ampipe's next game is at Walnut Heights, who is undefeated and ranked #3 in the state, as well as located in a much wealthier area. Stef and some of his teammates view the game as an opportunity to impress college scouts and break away from what they see as a dead end town. Ampipe is economically struggling and the steel mill is laying off many workers. And the team's tough, no-nonsense head coach, Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson), is also looking beyond the town, pursing college assistant coaching jobs.
Late in the game, with Ampipe trailing 10-7, Stef intercepts a pass and returns it for a touchdown. But shortly afterward, while disobeying Nickerson's order to go after the ball instead of the receiver, Stef commits a crucial pass interference penalty that contributes to his team losing. In the locker room right after the game, he and Nickerson have an argument that results in Stef's dismissal from the team. Nickerson won't even Stef ride home on the team bus and tells him to ride with the cheerleaders.
Instead, he hitches a ride home with some Ampipe fans, who stop at Nickerson's house and vandalize it. Not realizing what they were going to do, Stef unsuccessfully tries to stop it. Nickerson's daughter hears the vandalizing and tells her father, who goes outside and sees the vandals fleeing. It's initially uncertain whether he got a close enough look at Stef.
But the next week, Stef visits Nickerson at a football practice, apologizing for his role in the argument and asking for re-instatement to the team, which has only one game left. But Nickerson says that he saw Stef at Nickerson's house that night after the game. Stef insists that he did none of the vandalizing but Nickerson doesn't believe that.
The day of the game, Greg and 700 others get laid off from the steel mill. In his ensuing depression, he goes out and gets drunk. While he's gone, Lisa comes over and she and Stef have sex for the first time.
The next few weeks are chaotic for Stef and his teammates. Brian (Christopher Penn), having just accepted a scholarship offer from USC, learns that his girlfriend, Tracy (Paige Lyn Price), is pregnant. They keep the baby and get married. Vinnie Salvucci (Paul Carafotes) gets arrested for armed robbery. And Stef's previous scholarship offers are revoked, leading him to believe that he was blackballed by Nickerson. And though Lisa is bitter about athletes getting scholarships while other deserving students don't, she goes to Nickerson's wife and tries to intervene.
And without revealing the ending, I will say that it has great messages of forgiveness and the selflessness inherent in pure love.
"All the Right Moves" mostly lives up to its title. All of the performances are top notch and both 80s small town high school life and the atmosphere of big time high school football are portrayed flawlessly. I also like that the school has a good mix of blacks and whites and that people of the two races have much positive interaction throughout the movie, both on and off the football team.
In addition, the scenery brings Ampipe powerfully to life and the rock dominated soundtrack, while not one of the best of the genre, further cements the movie's early 80s feel. And don't be turned away if you're not a football fan. The movie actually contains only one game scene. While the surface theme, as I said, is football, many other surface themes could equally be used to teach the same lessons.
The movie is a fairly heavy R, mostly for language and a couple of semi-graphic sex scenes, but if you can tolerate that, it's hard to find a better teen dominated drama than this.