All the Right Moves

Stefen Djordjevic is a high school football star in a struggling steel town in western Pennsylvania, where the local mill shapes nearly every family's future. He hopes a college scholarship will let him leave and study engineering, and his coach, Nickerson, has ambitions of his own for a college job, setting the two on a collision course that threatens the player's plans. A romance with a classmate, Lisa, adds another complication to an already difficult path out of town.

The 1983 drama was directed by Michael Chapman, a longtime cinematographer making the first of the two features he directed, followed by The Clan of the Cave Bear in 1986. Michael Kane wrote the screenplay, and Stephen Deutsch produced. Tom Cruise leads as Stefen, with Craig T. Nelson as Nickerson, Lea Thompson as Lisa, and Charles Cioffi, Gary Graham and Paul Carafotes among the credited cast of 38.

Made for about 6 million dollars, the film took in roughly 17 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6 out of 10 from around 22,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.8 from just over 300 votes. A critics' rating of 5.3 from 23 reviews places it slightly below the audience scores, though all three measures point to a modestly received film.