Gavin Grey is the best football player the LSU Tigers have ever seen. He leads them to victory and a national championship in the late 1950s, and then goes on to become an outstanding running back in the NFL for the Washington Redskins. But what happens when the gas in the tank runs out and you are faced with the rest of your life?

Dennis Quaid turns in one of his most memorable performances as the fictional "Grey Ghost", who is different than other clichéd athletes we have seen in movies, in that Gavin knows that he's only popular as long as he can score touchdowns.

Joining Quaid in the cast are Jessica Lange as his girlfriend and eventual wife, Babs; Timothy Hutton as "Cake", Gavin's cousin who has a crush on Babs; and John Goodman as Gavin's best friend and teammate Lawrence, who misses the big leagues because of an injury and gets into trouble with a gambling addiction.

The story spans Gavin's career from the late 1950's through the early 1980's, and while both Quaid and Lange look a little old to be playing college students in the early scenes, they both do a great job of portraying a married couple who must fight through the trials and tribulations of marriage, as well as the price of fame.

I suppose what I enjoyed the most about Everybody's All-American was the fact that the characters seemed "real". Unlike most movie heroes who don't foresee their fate, yet manage to overcome it in the end, Gavin Grey knows that the cheers are going to fade away, yet he can still not deal with it when the moment arrives. Gavin's redemption doesn't come with another winning touchdown, but with an acceptance that his glory days are over, and any future victories will have to be those he makes with his family and friends.

THE DVD

Video:
The movie is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. For a film that was released theatrically back in 1988, the transfer here is a pretty good one, with only the slightest hint of grain apparent on the picture, and the occasional noticeable dirt from the film print. Naturally, the film doesn't have the "sharp" look of a more recent film, but it holds up favorably when compared to other DVD releases of movies from this time period.

Audio
The only audio track available here is in English 2.0 Dolby. Given the limitations of the audio track, it sounds quite good, with no noticeable scratchiness or popping evident. Since a great deal of the movie includes period songs from the various eras, it's perhaps a shame that a remastered 5.1 Track wasn't created, but for 2.0, this sounds pretty good.

Extras:
Included as extras on this DVD are a feature-length Commentary Track with director Taylor Hackford and writer Thomas Rickman. The track is exactly what one would hope for…with little of it spent restating the obvious action on-screen and most of it telling stories from the set, background information and the director and writer's intentions and ideas.

Commentary is also available for the seven Deleted Scenes also in the bonus section, the seventh of which contains multiple deleted scenes revolving around a subplot that would have added some interesting material to the movie (I won't spoil it for you, but it involves Gavin shortly after he leaves football for the final time).

Other bonuses include two Behind The Scenes Featurettes, one of them a 6-minute clip entitled "A Football Story" and the other a 4-minute segment simply entitled "Behind The Scenes". Both featurettes are quite similar in content, and even reuse some of the same footage and comments from the cast and crew.

Finally, there's a 40-second anamorphic Theatrical Trailer for the film.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Not your typical sports movie, Everyone's All American tries to avoid the melodramatic tones of a Rocky or a Rudy and tell the story of an athlete from a realistic and very human perspective. Even if you're not a football fan, the performances here are worth taking a look at, and the DVD is being released at a reasonable price…which gives even more reason to add this one to your collection.