Leatherheads (2008) on Netflix
PG-1320081h 54mComedyDramaRomance
Pro football struggles for survival in 1925. Dodge Connelly, captain of the Duluth Bulldogs, recruits war hero Carter Rutherford. Reporter Lexie Littleton looks into Carter's war record.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.0/1034,789 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes53%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1925, professional football is fighting for attention in the United States. Dodge Connelly, who leads the Duluth Bulldogs, has a squad better known for brawling than for its play, and the team's backer has walked away. To fill the stands and keep the sport going, he talks Carter Rutherford into joining. Carter is a Princeton football star and a celebrated war hero, credited with forcing a group of German soldiers to surrender. His name brings crowds and money to the league. Lexie Littleton, a newspaper reporter, is given the job of checking whether Carter's war record is genuine, and she begins spending time with both men.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Leatherheads (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In 2007 a Writers Guild of America arbitration denied George Clooney a screen credit for Leatherheads, favoring the original writers, longtime Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly and his former magazine colleague Duncan Brantley. Clooney then resigned his full WGA status to go "financial core," leaving him a member with only limited rights.
- George Clooney said the NFL refused to let the production use the name "Duluth Eskimos" for its fictional team, and that the reason given was that the script had the characters drinking alcohol.
- Leatherheads is loosely based on the life of Johnny Blood, who played 14 seasons for the Green Bay Packers and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The film's "Duluth Bulldogs" name was a combination of two historic teams, the Duluth Eskimos and the Canton Bulldogs.
- George Clooney said his "major overhaul" of the 17-year-old script, turning it into a screwball comedy, left only two of the original scenes intact.
- The George and Ira Gershwin song "The Man I Love" is sung in Leatherheads even though it did not exist in 1925; it was part of the 1927 score for the Gershwin antiwar musical satire Strike Up the Band.
