LEATHERHEADS
An old-fashioned football romance with charm, wit, and adult-era excess.
Should You Watch It?
LEATHERHEADS is a well-made, highly entertaining romance with the feel of a classic Hollywood comedy. Its clever dialogue, colorful period setting, and love triangle give it an easy charm. George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, and John Krasinski make the story lively as a football coach, a reporter, and a football hero compete for one another’s attention.
The film’s entertainment comes with some costs. It includes foul language, football violence, fistfights, heavy drinking and drunken brawling, smoking, dishonesty, and bribery. It also does little to glorify God, though it ends with healthier rules for football and romance ending in marriage rather than sex.
If you and your teenagers can handle those concerns, LEATHERHEADS is worth the trip.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAt the dawn of professional football in 1925, crusty player and coach Dodge Connelly persuades college-football star Carter Rutherford to turn pro and capitalize on his popularity.
Lexie Littleton, a sassy reporter, is sent to uncover damaging facts about Carter, a celebrated war hero. As she investigates, she becomes a sports reporter—and Dodge and Carter find themselves competing for her attention.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means LEATHERHEADS succeeds as polished, enjoyable entertainment. The movie’s greatest strength is its feeling of being a classic old Hollywood film modernized with rich color, sound, and detail.
The dialogue is often clever, with streams of corny comebacks reminiscent of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Some viewers may find the old-school dialogue corny, while others will find it fun. The period romance and comic energy make the film quite entertaining.
The Worldview
LEATHERHEADS is primarily concerned with entertainment, money, football advancement, and success in the newsroom. It does little to glorify God. Its period setting also treats drinking and smoking lightly, while its characters engage in dishonesty and bribery.
Still, the film offers some worthwhile moral movement. The hero’s flaws are exposed and eventually faced. The ending introduces rules against dirty play and dangerous football techniques, calls for better public examples, and removes an unethical promoter from the game. The film glorifies an earlier period when football had few limits, but it concludes with a more moral approach to the sport. Romance also ends with marriage rather than sex.
The film’s treatment of heroism has a useful lesson: people do not always set out to do something heroic. Sometimes they simply do the right thing at the right time. Yet human heroes have flaws, and the true hero is God. As David declared, “the battle is the LORD’s” (1 Samuel 17:47).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Generally pagan, slightly mixed worldview where God and righteousness don’t matter and where making money on football and winning advancement in the newsroom serve as primary motivations, but near the end a more moral approach to the game, calling for rules and good public examples is instituted, with an unethical promoter tossed out of the game; five light obscenities and three profanities; there is ample football violence and there are several fistfights but they are old-school with little blood and comic lines interspersed; there is romantic interest, including kissing, but no sex; brief locker room upper male nudity; there is heavy alcohol use including drunkenness and drunken brawling (during Prohibition); some smoking; and, dishonesty and bribery.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film shows how a person’s hero story can grow beyond the truth. Why is it important to tell the truth about both people’s strengths and their flaws?
Proverbs 12:22 · Ephesians 4:25The film ends with rules restraining dirty play and dangerous football techniques. How can good rules protect people and promote righteousness?
Romans 13:3–4 · Micah 6:8The characters seek money, recognition, and advancement. What should guide our ambitions instead?
Matthew 6:19–21 · Colossians 3:23–24The film treats drinking and smoking as part of its period setting. How should Christians think about habits that can control or harm them?
1 Corinthians 6:12 · Ephesians 5:18The Final Word
LEATHERHEADS offers four-star entertainment: a charming romance, clever dialogue, and old-Hollywood style. Its language, violence, drinking, smoking, and moral compromises call for discernment, but its closing movement toward rules, responsibility, and marriage gives the film a healthier finish. For teenagers and adults, this is WORTH THE TRIP — TEENS AND ADULTS.
