The Gridiron goes HOLLYWOOD: ; Daily Mail Sports staff picks best pigskin flicks - Charleston Daily Mail

EXTERIOR: Crowded stadium, daytime. Closeup: Quarterback's steelyeyes squinting into the hot sun, sweat trickling down his brow.

Grunt, heft, squeeze, thrust.

Closeup: Ball spiraling through the air. Cut to crowd waitingbreathlessly, mouths agape.

Dolly shot: Receiver catches ball, shakes defender, strides intoend zone for game-winning score. Crowd erupts.

Closeup: Scoreboard. Home team wins.

Hollywood reverts to the formula more than the Pythagorean.

The gutsy, game-winning, last-second play: The miracle run. TheHail Mary. The freak deflection.

The names, the faces, the times and places are the onlyalterations when football hits the big screen.

The hero is a pro quarterback-turned-convict. Or a gritty blue-collar Iron Belt high school kid trying to earn a scholarship. Or aterminally ill martyr. Or a mule.

Ever since Harold Lloyd's 1925 silent comedy classic 'TheFreshman,' directors and actors have been infatuated with capturingthe sport on film. They have mixed in women coaches, pass-catchingpooches and reincarnated Rams.

Here are the consensus choices of the Daily Mail Sports staff asthe genre's 10 greatest of all-time.

1. The Longest Yard (1974)

Directed by Robert Aldrich. Written by Albert S. Rudy, TracyKeenan Wynn. Starring Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, James Hampton.

Football player-turned-convict Paul Crewe (Reynolds) organizes ateam of inmates to play against a team of prison guards. His dilemmais that the Warden (Albert) asks him to throw the game in return foran early release - the same crime for which he's imprisoned, andwhich the other inmates won't let him live down.

The words 'Mean Machine' stitched across Reynolds' jersey capturethe setting for our landslide choice as the greatest football movieever. His seemingly never-ending last-play scramble - metaphors forhis mental ambivalence abounding - hasn't been matched in a quarter-century of knockoffs.

This film is equal parts drama, comedy and star vehicle forReynolds, a former Florida State letterman. The players cheat, butthey aren't hokey. Signing up real All-Pros can tend to add thatlegitimacy to a film. After all, what other picture allows us RayNitschke busting heads for Burt?

Watch for a young Bernadette Peters as Albert's secretary.

2. North Dallas Forty (1979)

Directed by Ted Kotcheff. Written by Peter Gent. Starring NickNolte, Mac Davis, Charles Durning.

A semi-fictional account of life as a pro football player,loosely based on Gent's time with the Dallas Cowboys. The 'BallFour' of football brought to the big screen.

Perhaps the most realistic, pro-style playing action of anymovie. Nolte stars as aging receiver Phillip Elliott, with Davis ashis free spirit buddy, quarterback Seth Maxwell. They make like theCowboys of Hollywood Henderson to Michael Irvin, keeping alive the'North' Dallas party reputation. Naturally, it all comes down to theBig Game.

3. Brian's Song (TV movie, 1971)

Directed by Buzz Kulik. Written by William Blinn, Gale Sayers, AlSilverman. Starring James Caan, Billy Dee Williams, Shelley Fabares.

Gale Sayers (Williams) joins the Bears and is befriended by BrianPiccolo (Caan), an over-achieving running back. Although incompetition, and despite racial differences, they become roommateson the road and very close friends through Sayers' injury, withrehab aided by Piccolo. Later, they must deal with Piccolo'smalignant testicular cancer.

The tearjerker was breakout hit for producer Paul Junger Witt,who went on to huge sitcom fame. Some consider this the greatest TVmovie ever. Our staff voters agreed, heaping on the sentimentalityand the strong performances from Caan and Williams. (And in his pre-'My Two Dads' and 'Hang Time' days, Dick Butkus played himself.)

The story stands so strong because, with some touch-up, it's non-fiction. In fact, Sayers was slated to play himself until trainingcamp conflicted with filming. Being remade for TV this year.

4. All the Right Moves (1983)

Directed by Michael Chapman. Written by Michael Kane. StarringTom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson.

Sensitive study of headstrong high school football star StefDjordjevic (Cruise) who dreams of getting out of his small WesternPennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equallyambitious coach (Nelson, installing himself as 'Coach') aims at acollege position, resulting in a clash which could crush theplayer's dreams.

Filmed in the Steel Belt town of Johnstown, Pa., where the sportis truly king, Cruise is in full teen heartthrob glory, released thesame year as 'Risky Business' and 'The Outsiders,' the trio of whichcemented his star status. Action and plot are credible as he triesto escape his father's future in the plant. Watch for Cruise tomention that one of his teammates accepted a scholarship to WestVirginia University.

5. Rudy (1993)

Directed by David Anspaugh. Written by Angelo Pizzo. StarringSean Astin, Jon Favreau, Ned Beatty, Charles Dutton.

Rudy Ruettiger (Astin) only wanted to play football at NotreDame. However, his grades were low. The only thing lower was hisathletic ability. But his drive, spirit and heart prevailed inmaking his dreams come true.

The movie has the feel that helps its classic story of overcomingobstacles jump off the screen. Likely one of the few movies thatgrown men will admit can make them cry.

The real Rudy Ruettiger can be seen as a fan in the stands at theend of the movie. The crowd scenes were filmed at halftime of a realFighting Irish game against Boston College in 1992. You can seeEagle fans in the stands.

6. Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Directed by Warren Beatty, Buck Henry. Written by Harry Segall,Elaine May. Starring Beatty, Julie Christie, James Mason, JackWarden, Charles Grodin, Dyan Cannon.

Joe Pendleton (Beatty) is preparing to lead the Los Angeles Ramsto the Super Bowl when he's in an accident. But an eager angelplucks him to heaven only to discover that he wasn't ready to die,and that his body has been cremated. A new body must be found, andthat of a recently murdered millionaire is chosen. His wife,accountant and murderers, are confused when he buys the Rams to playfor them.

Another tearjerker. A remake itself of 1941's 'Here Comes Mr.Jordan' (Joe was a boxer back then), 'Heaven' was remade last yearas 'Down To Earth'starring Chris Rock. He was a comedian named LanceBarton in that one.

It airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on ESPNClassic.

7. The Waterboy (1998)

Directed by Frank Coraci. Written by Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler.Starring Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, JerryReed.

Bobby Boucher (Sandler) is a dimwitted waterboy for a powerfulLouisiana college team. After being ridiculed by the redneck coach(Reed) and fired, he becomes the water technician at a nearby schoolwhere the football program is as disgusting as its water. When hisnew coach (Winkler) taps into Bobby's anger, Boucher becomes thebest linebacker ever. But he has to keep his gridiron career asecret from his overprotective mom (Bates).

It's silly, completely unbelievable and over the top. But it'salso very funny.

As with all of his films, Sandler uses a lot of his friends inthe movie. The climactic Bourbon Bowl game was filmed at theUniversity of Central Florida, and the crowd was moved around tomake it seem as if the stadium were full.

8. Remember The Titans (2000)

Directed by Boaz Yakin. Written by Gregory Allen Howard. StarringDenzel Washington, Will Patton.

Herman Boone (Washington) is hired as the first black coach atT.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., with racial tensionbecause of integration at an all-time high. Boone and former headcoach Bill Yoast (Patton) work together to make the black playersand white players come together as a team.

Based on a true story, the movie is sometimes overly sentimental.But the underlying message of unity makes it a winner. MarshallCoach Bob Pruett coached against T.C. Williams during his prepcoaching days.

9. Semi-Tough (1978)

Directed by Michael Ritchie. Written by Dan Jenkins, WalterBernstein, Ring Lardner Jr. Starring Burt Reynolds, KrisKristofferson, Jill Clayburgh.

Marvin 'Shake' Tiller (Kristofferson) and Billy Clyde Puckett(Reynolds) share their girlfriend 'B.J.' (Clayburgh). Along the way,the script, adopted from Jenkins' best-seller, mocks '70s self-helpand numbered-step programs ... as well as pro football.

Burt removes all doubt about his status as the movies' greatestfootball star with his second starring role in our top 10. Post-'Bandit' but pre-'Cannonball Run,' he shares screen time with theunlikely duo of Paul Hornung and Brian Dennehy. Oh, and Ed 'TooTall' Jones gives a much better performance than his later role in'Necessary Roughness.'

10. Any Given Sunday (1999)

Directed by Oliver Stone. Written by Daniel Pyne, John Logan.Starring Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, JamesWoods, LLCool J.

Veteran Coach Tony D'Amato (Pacino) struggles with his personaland professional life while trying to hold his Miami Shark teamtogether. Star QB Cap Rooney (Quaid) has been knocked out and cockyWillie Beamen (Foxx) takes his place and becomes an instant star.Tony is in a constant battle with the team owner (Diaz) to keep theteam in Miami.

A rough look at modern pro football, it gets the typical Stoneover-the-top treatment.

The movie is based on the book 'You're Okay, It's Just ABruise'by Rob Huizenga. Look for plenty of cameos, such as Barry Switzer,Johnny Unitas, Dick Butkus, Warren Moon, Pat Toomay, Y.A. Tittle,Terrell Owens, Irving Fryar, Ricky Watters, Charlton Heston anddirector Stone himself.