All the Right Moves (1983) * * *

 

Directed by:  Michael Chapman

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson, Chris Penn

If high school football meant as much to my community and school as it did in All the Right Moves, then I missed it.   I'm sure losing a game sucked, but it didn't take on the essence of tragedy as portrayed in this film.   However, the small borough in which I grew up wasn't the depressed Pennsylvania steel town in which All the Right Moves takes place.   In the tiny town of Ampipe, a football scholarship may be the only way to avoid working for the rest of your life in the local steel mill or becoming unemployed during economic downturns.   It is here where All the Right Moves ups the human stakes.   

One can compare All the Right Moves to Friday Night Lights, both of which center on the effect of high school football games on their communities.   Winning and losing isn't just winning and losing.  A Friday night loss can devastate the collective psyche of the town even more so than the players, who stand to have the most to win or lose.   A win can buoy hopes and dreams at least until the next game.  All the Right Moves documents the pressure not only the community places on the shoulders of its players, but the amount the players put on themselves. 

Stefan Djordjevic (Cruise) is one such player.  He is a star defensive back for the local high school football team on the cusp of the most important game of his life against a top-ranked rival.   A win will allow Stefan his pick of schools to attend.   A loss may limit his choices.   Coach Nickerson (Nelson) is also looking for an assistant-coaching position for a college team, so he has the same aspirations as his players.   Stef's team loses a heartbreaker in the final seconds, causing Stef and Nickerson to blow up at each other and the coach to kick Stef off the team.   Later that night, Stef tags along with boosters who dump trash on the coach's lawn and write graffiti all over his house.  Nickerson then further exacerbates the matter by blackballing Stef from being seen by college recruiters.   

Tom Cruise was fresh from the success of Risky Business when All the Right Moves was released.  Even then, he was a star in the making with a mature screen presence and a vulnerability which endears him to the audience.   We root for Stef, who understands the gravity of the mistakes he made, and we can also identify with Nickerson, whose motives are understandable although his actions are wrong.  Stef also has a plucky girlfriend (Thompson), whose wisdom beyond her years allows her to see that loving Stef means allowing him to go away.  

All the Right Moves is very 80's with its heavy synthesizer score and pop song soundtrack, but it doesn't detract much from the story and the intelligent performances.   The resolution is something you don't see much of even today:  Two people working out their problems not with violence, but with honest discussions that force each person to look hard in the mirror and understand the consequences of their actions.   It earns its happy ending, unlikely as it may be, but we are glad to see it happen.