Barnes & Noble

Football is not an emotionally tender game. Almost nothing in pigskin mythology compares to baseball's halcyon "Boys of Summer" glow, or Lou Gehrig's sad farewell to the Yankees. Football is the sport of trench warfare, and the trenches are no place for crybabies. Unless you bring up Brian's Song. Historically speaking, Brian Piccolo was not a very good player. A stellar running back at Wake Forest University in the '60s, Piccolo rarely stood out during his pro career with the Chicago Bears. But Brian's Song isn't really a story about the game of football. It is the story of the very powerful friendship that developed between Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams), the Bears' All-Pro running back, the superstar behind whom Piccolo rides the bench. Piccolo is white, and Sayers is black, but the two bond; when Sayers suffers a debilitating knee injury, Piccolo supports him through his recovery. Sayers, whose book I Am Third served as the basis for this revered TV movie, is helpless to watch as his friend is stricken with and slowly succumbs to malignant cancer. Veteran TV director Buzz Kulik, whose work here earned a Director's Guild Award, does not hold back on sentiment, giving us lingering scenes of the two friends struggling mightily to overcome their ailments; and the Michel Legrand score can raise a lump in the sternest of throats. Caan and Williams are appropriately sober, but neither is too exuberant in victory or too pitiful in defeat to degrade the movie to schmaltz. Although it is an unabashed tearjerker, Brian's Song remains a profoundly moving story of two brothers in arms; noble warriors who find life's cruelest blows are struck outside the trenches. Pete Segall

All Movie Guide

One of the best known and most enthusiastically reviewed made for television films of the 1970's, this drama was based on the true story of football greats Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo. Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) and Piccolo (James Caan) both joined the Chicago Bears the same year, and while it was obvious from the start Sayers had the talent and drive to be a great player, Piccolo seemed destined to be an also-ran on the team. However, Sayers and Piccolo struck up a friendship which brought out the best in both players, and coach George Halas (Jack Warden) chose them for a special assignment -- they became the first interracial roommates in the history of the NFL. When Sayers suffered a knee injury that threatened to end his career, Piccolo took it upon himself to help his friend through rehabilitation so he could rejoin the team. But when Piccolo began having heath problems, it was a problem too great for Sayers to handle -- his close friend had developed cancer. Adapted from Sayers' autobiography I Am Third, Brian's Song also features Chicago Bears legend Dick Butkus as himself. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 043396048638
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: Dolby Digital, monaural
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español, Korean, Thai
• Time: 1:14:00
• Sales Rank: 1,778

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Brian's Song & Rudy

Features:

DVD MENU