3 in a Row: Green Bay Packers (The 1965, 1966, and 1967 Championships) [VHS]

Football's appeal comes from the vicarious joys of seeing huge men racing around a field trying to knock each other's heads off, right? Not for the millions of people who grew up on the Sunday-morning highlight shows compiled by NFL films (which, through the magic of cable, can now be seen pretty much whenever you turn the TV on). The stylized slow-motion storytelling made the violence seem like a vicious ballet--something that Sam Peckinpah, John Woo, and Ringo Lam have also accomplished in their films--but what's a ballet without music? Sam Spence and Tom Hedden composed a series of classic themes that emphasized the relentless power and dangerous beauty of football (complete with marching drums, heroic horns, and dramatic string sections) to complement the highlights, and John Facenda's poetic narrations brought the whole thing together. Facenda possesses the deepest rumble of a voice this side of James Earl Jones, and listening to him narrate highlights form last week's game makes it sound as if the game were a timeless classic played decades in the past. The Power and the Glory is truly an unexpected pleasure. --Randy Silver

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