High-school coach and athlete both hope to use the Big Game as their ticket out of a small Pennsylvania steel town. The drama spun around this situation is modestly, even humbly, understated. (That the teen hero is a hard-nosed cornerback, not quarterback, and the coach is up for a job as mere defensive backfield coordinator at Cal Poly, is indicative.) Michael Chapman, Martin Scorsese's frequent cinematographer, here in his first directorial role, makes eloquent use of locale, weather, color, to show what the characters want to get out of. Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson. (1983) — Duncan Shepherd
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