''All the Right Moves'' is a 1983 American

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by Michael Chapman and starring

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Go ...

, Craig T. Nelson,

Lea Thompson Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress and director. She is best known for her role as Lorraine Baines-McFly in the ''Back to the Future'' film trilogy (1985–1990) and Beverly Switzler in '' Howard the Duck'' (1 ...

Chris Penn Christopher Shannon Penn (October 10, 1965 – January 24, 2006) was an American actor. He was the brother of actor Sean Penn and musician Michael Penn. Noted as a skilled character actor from a prominent acting dynasty, he was typically cast a ...

, and

Gary Graham Gary Graham (born June 6, 1950) is an American actor, musician, and author. He may be best known for his starring role as Detective Matthew Sikes in the television series '' Alien Nation'' (1989–1990) and five subsequent ''Alien Nation'' televi ...

. It was filmed on location in

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, whi ...

, and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Plot

Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic is a

Serbian American Serbian Americans ( sr, / ) or American Serbs (), are Americans of Serb ethnic ancestry. As of 2013, there were about 190,000 American citizens who identified as having Serb ancestry. However, the number may be significantly higher, as there w ...

high school

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

who is gifted in sports and is a B student academically. He is seeking a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

to escape the economically depressed small

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

town of Ampipe and a dead-end job and life working at the mill, just like his grandfather, father, and his brother Greg. He dreams of becoming an electrical engineer right after he graduates from college. Ampipe is a

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

whose economy is dominated by the town's main employer, American Pipe & Steel, a steel mill struggling through the downturn of the

early 1980s recession The early 1980s recession was a severe economic recession that affected much of the world between approximately the start of 1980 and 1983. It is widely considered to have been the most severe recession since World War II. A key event leading to ...

. Stef gets through his days with the love of his girlfriend, Lisa Lietzke, and his strong bond with his teammates. In the big football game against the undefeated Walnut Heights High School, Ampipe appears headed to win the game, when a fumbled handoff in the closing seconds—as well as Stefen's

pass interference In American and Canadian gridiron football, pass interference (PI) is a foul that occurs when a player interferes with an eligible receiver's ability to make a fair attempt to catch a forward pass. Pass interference may include tripping, pushing, ...

penalty earlier in the game—lead to Walnut Heights' victory. Following the game, Coach Vern Nickerson lambastes the fumbler in the locker room, telling him he "quit" the game. When Stefen retorts that the coach himself quit, the coach kicks him off the team. In the aftermath, disgruntled Ampipe fans vandalize Coach Nickerson's house and yard. Stefen is present and is a reluctant participant, but is nonetheless spotted by Nickerson as the vandals flee. From there, Stefen deals with personal battles, including dealing with the coach

blackballing Blackballing is a rejection in a traditional form of secret ballot, where a white ball or ballot constitutes a vote in support and a black ball signifies opposition. The system is typically used where an organization's rules provide that one or t ...

him among colleges because of his attitude and participation in the vandalism. Stefen gets in an argument with Lisa, and his best friend Brian declines a scholarship offer to

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses ** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

and plans to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Frustrated by what Nickerson did, Stefen angrily confronts his former coach which ends in a shouting match out in the street. Lisa decides to talk to Nickerson's wife to try to help. Nickerson realizes he was wrong for blackballing Stefen. He has accepted a coaching position on the West Coast at

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

and offers Stefen a full scholarship to play football there, which he accepts.

Cast

as Stefen Djordjevic * Craig T. Nelson as Coach Vern Nickerson *

as Lisa Lietzke *

Charles Cioffi Charles M. Cioffi (born October 31, 1935) is an American film and television actor best known as Lt. Matt Reardon in '' Get Christie Love!'' opposite co-star Teresa Graves. Born in New York City, he attended Michigan State University, where h ...

as Pop *

as Greg Djordjevic *

Paul Carafotes Paul Carafotes (born March 23, 1963) is an American actor, known for playing Harold Dyer in the prime-time television drama ''Knots Landing.'' He has starred in films, television, commercials, and on stage. Early life Carafotes was born into an ...

as Vinnie Salvucci *

as Brian Riley *

Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...

as Austin "Shadow" Williams * Sandy Faison as Suzie Nickerson *

James A. Baffico James Angelo Baffico (born January 1, 1942) is an American television soap opera director, producer and occasional script writer. Born in San Francisco, California, has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, an M.A. and B.A. from the Univer ...

as Bosko *

Mel Winkler Mel Winkler (October 23, 1941 – June 11, 2020) was an American actor, perhaps best known as the voice of Aku Aku in the ''Crash Bandicoot'' video games, from '' Crash Bandicoot: Warped'' to '' Crash Twinsanity''. Early life Winkler was bor ...

as Jess Covington *

Terry O'Quinn Terrance Quinn (born July 15, 1952), known professionally as Terry O'Quinn, is an American actor. He played John Locke on the TV series ''Lost'', the title role in '' The Stepfather'' and '' Stepfather II'', and Peter Watts in ''Millennium'', ...

as Freeman Smith

Production

The film was produced by Stephen Deutsch, with Phillip Goldfarb as co-producer.

Gary Morton Gary Morton (born Morton Goldaper; December 19, 1924 – March 30, 1999) was an American stand-up comedian whose primary venues were hotels and resorts of the Borscht Belt in upstate New York. He was born in New York City, the son of Morris Gol ...

of Lucille Ball Productions was executive producer. The production was filmed over seven weeks in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the early spring The recently closed sixty-year-old high school (), the former campus of

Greater Johnstown High School Greater Johnstown High School is a public high school in the eastern United States, located in between the neighborhoods of Moxham, 8th Ward, and Hornerstown in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is the only high school operated by the Greater Johnstown ...

, was used as the location of the film, along with Actress Thompson was inserted as a new student at Ferndale Area High School for three days prior to Cruise was similarly inserted into Greater Johnstown High School, but was recognized immediately. (His only notable film part at the time was in '' Taps'' in 1981; '' The Outsiders'' and ''

Risky Business ''Risky Business'' is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Brickman (in his directorial debut) and starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. Best known as Cruise's breakout film, ''Risky Business'' was a critica ...

'' were yet to be released.) In 2018, Thompson stated she initially did not want the part, as the script required her to participate in two nude scenes, but Cruise persuaded the producers to drop one of the scenes and was naked with her in the remaining scene.

Reception

The film was released to mixed reviews. It has a score of 63% on the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 24 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "''All the Right Moves'' is an uncommonly grim coming-of-age drama that overcomes numerous clichés with its realistic approach to its characters and setting." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a score of 62 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Jay Carr from ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' stated "Cruise is believable as an athlete," and

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it "a well-made but sugar-coated working-class fable about a football star."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' gave it 3 out of 4 and wrote: "Two people finally tell each other the truth. This is, of course, an astonishing breakthrough in movies about teenagers, and All the Right Moves deserves it." Locally, Ed Blank of the ''

Pittsburgh Press ''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second larg ...

'' saw it as flawed, but captured the look of and Marylynn Urucchio of the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Alle ...

'' rated it as elementary Among the unfavorable reviews, ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...

'' called the movie "cliche-riddled" and criticized director Michael Chapman for not taking any risks. Richard Corliss of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' called it a "naive little movie (that) hopes to prove itself the ''

Flashdance ''Flashdance'' is a 1983 American romantic drama dance film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer who aspires to become a professional ballerina (Alex), alongside Michael Nouri playing her boyfriend ...

'' of football."

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1980s sports drama films 1983 films 20th Century Fox films American coming-of-age drama films American romantic drama films American teen romance films Serbian-American culture Films directed by Michael Chapman Films set in Pennsylvania Films shot in Pennsylvania High school football films 1980s high school films 1983 directorial debut films 1983 drama films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films