''My All American'' is a 2015 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

sport film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme (arts), theme. It is a production in which a sport or a sports-related topic is prominently featured or is a focus o ...

based on the life of college football player

Freddie Steinmark Freddie Steinmark (January 27, 1949 – June 6, 1971) was an American college football player for the University of Texas Longhorns. He inspired his teammates by his faith after his diagnosis of bone cancer and subsequent leg amputation during ...

. The film was written and directed by

Angelo Pizzo Angelo Pizzo () is an American screenwriter and film producer, usually working on films based on a true story, and usually about athletics. He is best known for '' Hoosiers'' and '' Rudy.'' Biography Early life and education Pizzo grew up in Blo ...

. It is based on the book ''Courage Beyond the Game: The Freddie Steinmark Story'' (2012) by Jim Dent. The film stars

Finn Wittrock Peter L. Wittrock Jr. (born October 28, 1984), known professionally as Finn Wittrock, is an American actor who began his career in guest roles on several television shows. He made his film debut in 2004, in '' Halloweentown High'' before returning ...

Sarah Bolger Sarah Lee Bolger (born 28 February 1991) is an Irish actress. She starred in the films '' In America'' (2003), '' Stormbreaker'' (2006), ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' (2008), '' The Moth Diaries'' (2011), '' The Lazarus Effect'' (2015), '' Emelie ...

Robin Tunney Robin Tunney (born June 19, 1972) is an American actress who made her film debut in '' Encino Man'' (1992), and later rose to prominence with headline parts in the cult films ''Empire Records'' (1995) and '' The Craft'' (1996). Her performance in ...

and

Aaron Eckhart Aaron Edward Eckhart (born March 12, 1968) is an American actor. Born in Cupertino, California, Eckhart moved to the United Kingdom at an early age. He began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Australia for his hi ...

. ''My All American'' was released on November 13, 2015, by Clarius Entertainment. The film received negative reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, grossing only $2.2 million on a $20 million budget. That year a second biography was published of the football star, '' Freddie Steinmark: Faith, Family, Football''.

Plot summary

Taking place in the 1960s, ''My All American'' recounts the life of a young Freddie Steinmark and his dream of playing football in college. He is a strong-willed athlete with a big heart. During his time on the high school football team, he meets Bobby, his best friend and teammate, and his longtime girlfriend Linda. Despite Freddie's athletic abilities, he is smaller than most football players and is limited by his size. But his high school football coach tells Freddie that the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

is interested. The Longhorns’ head coach, Darrell Royal, allows Freddie and his best friend Bobby to play collegiate football, and Linda also enrolls at the university. Freddie and his peers face a variety of obstacles at the university and on and off the field. Bobby’s older brother dies fighting in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

overseas, and Freddie begins to feel pain in his knee. Despite these challenges, Freddie and the Texas football team persevere, upending the team’s losing streak to win a slot in the

1969 Cotton Bowl Classic The 1969 Cotton Bowl Classic featured the Texas Longhorns versus the Tennessee Volunteers. Background In the 1951 Cotton Bowl Classic, the Volunteers upset the Longhorns 20–14. In the 1953 Cotton Bowl Classic, Texas beat Tennessee 16–0. Thi ...

. But, Freddie is diagnosed with cancer, and has to have his leg amputated. He still supports the team.

Cast

as Linda Wheeler *

Darrell Royal Darrell K Royal (July 6, 1924 – November 7, 2012) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi State University from 1954 to 1955, the University of Washington ...

as Gloria Steinmark, Freddie's mother *

Michael Reilly Burke Michael Reilly Burke (born June 27, 1964) is an American actor. He played Rex Van De Kamp on the unaired pilot of ''Desperate Housewives''. Steven Culp replaced him before the pilot aired. He also appeared in The WB series ''Charmed'' in the ep ...

as Fred Steinmark, Freddie's father * Rett Terrell as Bobby Mitchell * Juston Street as James Street * Mackenzie Meehan as Nurse Fuller * Kaci Beeler as Casey Addison, The Reporter * Chace Oldmixon as Fred Akers, Defensive Backs' Coach

Production

On May 7, 2014, it was announced that Wittrock had been cast in the role of Freddie Steinmark, and

had been cast in the role of coach

was announced as writer of the screenplay and was slated to direct the film. On May 16, 2014, it was announced that

and

had been cast in the roles of Linda Wheeler and Freddie's mother Gloria Steinmark, respectively.

Filming

Production of the film began on June 24, 2014, and ended on July 16, 2014. The filming was based in Texas. Scenes were shot in 7 different cities ranging from

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

Release

The film was originally scheduled to be released on October 9, 2015, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

by Clarius Entertainment It was pushed back to November 13, 2015.

Home media

''My All American'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the

on February 23, 2016 by

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast. UPHE is the home video distributor for all of the ...

. The film made $2,962,371 in home media sales.

Reception

Box office

The film opened alongside ''

Love the Coopers ''Love the Coopers'' (titled ''Christmas with the Coopers'' in the UK and Ireland) is a 2015 American Christmas comedy-drama film directed by Jessie Nelson and written by Steven Rogers. The film stars an ensemble cast, including Alan Arkin, Joh ...

'' and ''

The 33 ''The 33'' (; "") is a 2015 biographical disaster-survival drama film directed by Patricia Riggen and written by Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten, Michael Thomas, and José Rivera. The film is based on the real events of the 2010 Copiapó mining ...

''. In its opening weekend, it was projected to gross $2–4 million from 1,565 theaters. The film grossed $520,000 on its opening day and $1.4 million in its opening weekend, finishing 11th at the box office.

Critical response

''My All American'' has received generally negative reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, the film has a score of 32%, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's consensus reads, "''My All American'' has a genuinely moving real-life story to tell, but writer-director Angelo Pizzo fumbles it into manipulative, melodramatic tearjerker territory." On

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

, the film has a score of 34 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Dan Callahan gave the film a negative review saying, "Even for those who love inspirational sports films might have to flinch from 'My All American', a movie so square, conservative and humorless that it winds up playing like a brutally straight-faced ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'' parody of gridiron schmaltz".

References

External links

* * * {{Texas Longhorns football navbox 2015 films 2015 biographical drama films 2010s high school films 2010s sports films American biographical drama films American independent films Films based on biographies 2015 drama films 2015 independent films Films scored by John Paesano Films set in 1969 Films set in Austin, Texas Films set in universities and colleges Films shot in Texas Films shot in Dallas Films shot in San Antonio High school football films Texas Longhorns football 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language biographical drama films English-language independent films English-language sports films