I’ve been writing pop culture pieces on this site for
nearly two years and it’s sometimes felt a bit shoehorned in surrounded by
pieces about LeBron James, Corey Kluber or Johnny Manziel.
But as much as I love films and TV, I work in sports and
I’m also a pretty big sports fan, so it made sense to start a new series here that
examines a different sports film each month. They’ll run the gamut of different
eras, different sports and I’ll try to mix it up with films I’ve seen many
times and some I’ve never seen before.
To kick it off though we’ll open with a film that’s not
just one of my favorite sports movies, but one of my favorite movies in
general.
“Jerry Maguire” doesn’t really jump out as the
quintessential sports film. Like “Raging Bull,” another film that will hopefully
be discussed in this space, it kind of transcends the genre but it still feels
very much like a sports movie.
In the case of “Jerry Maguire,” it’s a hard film to
categorize because it possesses elements of not just sports movies, but drama,
comedy and romance. If you had to pigeon-hole it into a category, you could say
it’s a romantic dramedy about people who work in sports. It certainly has a lot
to say about sports in America and the most surprising thing watching it again
is that even though it is nearly 20 years old (it was released in the fall of
1996) the film’s depiction of the professional sports world doesn’t feel dated
at all.
Sure, the salary figures negotiated for self-centered
wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) are quaint by today’s standards,
but everything else surrounding the disillusionment of sports agent Jerry
Maguire (Tom Cruise) is spot on and, if nothing else, has only gotten worse.
We meet Jerry at a low moment as the cynicism and
superficiality of working in a business fixated on contract extensions,
endorsements and branding has gotten to him. His job forces him to lie for the
benefit of his clients when they’re arrested or urge them to come back too
quickly from an injury and his conscience has become too difficult to ignore. The
greed-obsessed world Jerry inhabits is an accurate reflection of the real life
version and it’s gotten more perverse today, stretching beyond the professional
realm as the NCAA cashes in on marketing the Final Four and College Football
Playoff.
“Who had I become? Just another shark in a suit?” Jerry
laments in the film’s opening scenes and this moral crisis leads to him penning
a professionally suicidal “mission statement” emphasizing fewer clients and
more personal attention.
Most films have their main character embark on a journey
that culminates with some sort of epiphany. In “Jerry Maguire,” that happens
before the opening credits have even finished.
It’s a credit to the originality of writer/director
Cameron Crowe’s screenplay that he has Jerry stumble upon a revelation so early
in the film, but all it does is set the stage for deeper conflicts to resolve
as the story progresses.
Little of this works without Cruise in the lead role. Cruise
has been a star for more than 30 years, but by my count, this is one of only a
couple performances in his career, along with maybe “Rain Man,” where he plays
a modern regular average Joe.
Because he’s Tom Cruise he’s never anything less than
likable here, but it’s rare for Cruise to play someone this flawed and display this
much vulnerability. After losing his most important client on the eve of the
NFL Draft and breaking up with his fiancee, Jerry whines to Rod while drinking
in an airport lounge, “What are you doing with me, Rod? I’m finished. I am fucked. You see this jacket I’m wearing?
You like it? ‘Cause I don’t really need it because I am cloaked in failure!”
It’s a very funny moment because Jerry is completely pathetic at this point,
but also because it’s rare we see Cruise play someone in this sorry a state.
The contrast between Jerry and Rod is one of the most
interesting in the film as the pair possess contrasting limitations. Jerry has
realized at the film’s onset how he wants to move forward with his professional
life but is unable to figure out how to have any sort of intimacy or connection
in his developing relationship with Dorothy (Renee Zellwegger), a single mother
accountant who follows Jerry when he’s fired from his agency. Rod is a model
husband and father, but possesses an inferiority complex that keeps him from
reaching his potential on the football field.
Cuba Gooding Jr. won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this
performance and the way he and Cruise play off each other is fantastic. Both
see the missing piece in each other’s life and their relationship develops from
a professional one to genuine friendship, leading to a great payoff in one the
film’s final scenes when Rod finally receives his new contract. A line like
“You are my ambassador of quan,” would sound ridiculous in any other context,
but here it somehow packs an emotional wallop.
And it’s one of a host of other great lines as “Jerry
Maguire” has got to be one of the most quotable films of all time – “Show me
the money,” “you complete me,” “you had me at hello,” “help me help you” and
the list goes on and on.
“Jerry Maguire” came out when Crowe was at the peak of
his creative success, coming several years after “Say Anything” and “Singles”
and a few years before “Almost Famous,” which is one of my two or three
favorite films of all time. A former teenage Rolling Stone reporter in the 1970s, Crowe would seem an unlikely choice
to pen a believable behind-the-scenes depicition of professional sports, but he
has a knack for creating likable, three-dimensional characters regardless of
the space they inhabit through small touches you don’t see in other films.
Early on here, after receiving a verbal commitment of
support from a client, an elated Jerry is driving along the highway scanning
the radio for a song that can fit his current mood. It’s an opportunity for
Crowe to employ his musical knowledge, from The Pretenders’ “Angel of the
Morning” to Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” but it’s also a relatable moment for
anyone who has tried looking for a song to sing along to on the radio at the
top of their lungs.
Another part of Crowe’s success in achieving authenticity
is in the number of real-life sports figures that make cameos, like Warren
Moon, Troy Aikman, Mel Kiper Jr. and Al Michaels, giving the sports world he
creates a lived-in feel. Crowe also finds room for appearances by associates
from his rock and roll past, like his former boss, Rolling Stone founder Jann
Wenner, as the head of Jerry’s agency, and recently deceased Eagles frontman
Glenn Frey as the Arizona Cardinals general manager.
The whole film culminates in typical sports movie fashion
with “the big game,” in this case Rod’s appearance
on Monday Night Football.
Rod scores a game-winning touchdown but suffers a seemingly life-threatening
injury. When he wakes up after several tense minutes, he can’t contain his
joyful emotions and breaks down in tears after the game speaking with his wife,
Marcie (Regina King, whose profile has blown up since appearing here with roles
on “The Leftovers” and “American Crime”).
Seeing Rod’s bond with his family is the wake up call
Jerry needs to repair his relationshp with Dorothy. His big speech to her that
culminates with “you complete me,” has always seemed a little cheesy, but on
closer examination it’s a perfect summation of the film’s message: any kind of
success you experience won’t feel complete without people you love to share it
with.
It’s a lesson Jerry has learned by the film’s end and as Bob
Dylan’s “Shelter From the Storm,” kicks in it’s impossible to not walk away
smiling as we get one final encapsulating quote from Jerry’s mentor Dicky Fox:
“Hey, I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be
honest, I’ve failed as much as I’ve succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my
life. And I wish you MY kind of
success.”
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