A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I just discovered this film on Netflix instant viewing and decided to give it a shot. I was introduced to the original film in high school when our gym teacher showed it in class, and I'm eternally grateful for that... the original version of Brian's Song is an amazing film and you should check it out if you get the opportunity. (It happens to be on instant viewing at the moment as well.) At first I didn't think I was going to like the film since it seemed so different from the original; it was hard to get used to the new actors as Pic and Sayers since I had James Caan and Billy D. Williams in my head as owning those roles for so long. I'm glad that I gave the movie a chance, though, because by the end I was absolutely loving it.There are a number of differences between this movie and the original, though I don't think that the remake suffers for them. The tone of this film is much more serious and toward the end is much more focused on Pic's illness, but I think that this serious tone helps to show that even someone who jokes around and takes life as lightly as Pic can be overwhelmed. It helps to add humanity to the film which it would have otherwise lacked, and the actors all do a wonderful job of bringing the characters and their pains to life.Some reviewers and commenters have said that this remake shouldn't have been made and that ABC should have just shown the original again to introduce it to younger audiences but I disagree. All too often, older movies just don't hold up well in the eyes of a younger generation. I know when I was young I'd much rather watch a new movie than some old film that came out when my parents were young; I think that this remake did a good job of honoring the 30th anniversary of the original while introducing the story to young people who might not have known about it otherwise. Once they've seen this film it might be easier to introduce them to the original as well.I scored this remake 8 out of 10 because I liked it but not as much as the original movie. The original would be a straight 10.

This movie is based on the true story of two players, in particular, who played together for the Chicago Bears in the late nineteen-sixties. One player was white (Brian Piccolo) and one player was black (Gayle Sayers). These two individuals both were running backs and they soon became the NFL's first racially integrated roommates. They eventually became very good friends and knew each others family well. One of these two players was injured and didn't know if he would ever play again - well, his friend stepped in and gave him all the motivation needed to get back on the field. The motivator friend later became very ill and his roommate was by his side through it all.

It takes a lot to make me cry - I'm one of those people who can sit through a sob story with barely more than a lump in her throat and then shrug it off a few seconds later. Not with this movie though, because even though I finished watching it about half an hour ago, the thought of it brings tears straight back to my eyes. This is such a brilliant film about courage I think, more than the friendship by itself, and how that courage sustained a friendship most people wouldn't have through such an ordeal that simply didn't seem like it would ever get better.Sean Maher, is, without a doubt, brilliant in this film. In the beginning of the film I thought "yay, hot guy to tide me over in case this film is crap" but as it progressed, I was steadily becoming more aware of him as a character - a wholly believable character and by the end of the film I was crying for him, for his friendship, and for life in general. He had me so convinced that I can't help but be amazed. Although I knew what was coming by the time the film reached it's climax, it still shocked me because I was so distraught.I recommend this film to EVERYBODY, no matter what your film choices are. You just can't help but be touched by this film, and it's characters. It's not hard to believe that these characters are based on real people, and that the situations they face are real too.

Because they're so different. James Caan and Billy Dee Williams WERE Pic & Gale. These two new guys, well, they just don't cut it. It'd be like re-casting "Star Trek" with total unknowns as the Enterprise bridge crew. Oh, wait. That already happened, and IT actually worked. This remake, however, didn't.The main reason the original "Brian's Song" was so good was the way that Billy Dee Williams (Sayers) & James Caan (Pic) interacted, with Pic bouncing racist remarks off Gale left & right. This new, PC version waters the racism down almost to the point of non-existence.Also, scenes that made the original so funny were completely omitted; for example, early in the film, the Piccolos & Sayers were at a pizza parlor, & Brian described a play gone wrong, ending with, "So, anyway, all the linemen go this way, and it's like I am lookin' at a team portrait of the Los Angeles Rams....Hey, Deacon! Merlin? How's the family, Rosie?" Then Gale pipes up, "It's like, I'm roomin' with a colored player again!" Again, I'm sure this scene was omitted due to its racial undertones, but it took away from the humor of the film.I found this new version to be much darker, focussing more on Brian's illness and the consequences than on the relationship between he & Gale Sayers, which was the main thing that made the original so special. If you can find the original on VHS or DVD, get it. But, stay away from the remake.