Legendary cinematographer Michael Chapman (TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL) made his directorial debut with this working-class coming-of-age film. Tom Cruise plays a high school athlete who hopes that football can save him from a dead-end life in the mill town where he lives. Craig T. Nelson is the coach with an agenda of his own who comes into conflict with his star player. Chapman places the compelling human drama against a naturalistic, richly detailed backdrop, and Lea Thompson is excellent opposite Cruise in the film’s tender and thoughtful love story.

Director Howard Deutch and screenwriter John Hughes followed up PRETTY IN PINK with a similar story that reverses the genders: This time Eric Stoltz is the have-not, Lea Thompson is the rich girl he has a crush on, and Mary Stuart Masterson is the best friend he doesn’t realize really loves him.