Bud Talley Pic was a senior at Wake Forest when I was a freshman there. His last year at Wake was one for the ages. He led the nation in rushing & scoring. (As it was put in the original movie: "I mean I led the ENTIRE nation!") He even did the place-kicking.....scoring all 20 points in a 20-7 win over ACC Co-Champ Duke that year. Pic & QB John Mackovic (who led the ACC in total offense that year) led the Deacs to a 5-5 record. That may not seem like much to some people, but Wake Forest had gone 1-19 the previous two years.Anyway, the original movie is one of the best movies I have ever watched. It is unbelievably heart-breaking at the end....particularly for all of us who knew Pic. And with less than 4,000 students, everyone knew everyone else at Wake Forest....at least a little bit. I have a DVD copy which I watch from time to time, and which still moves me to tears. I encourage anyone who wishes to see "Brian's Song"...and that should be everybody...to do whatever you have to do to find the original version, and skip this inferior remake. The original movie portrays Pic & Sayers the way they really were.

tornadomediaman I've seen both versions and the original is vastly superior. A lot of it is in the details which can never be recaptured. First of all, the original used many actual players, coaches, and team personnel from the Bears. Secondly, they filmed the training camp sequences on location at Rensselaer, IN's St. Joseph's College where the Bears used to train. The office that George Halas uses is the actual office the real George Halas used on campus! They used archival game film - none of this fake announcer stuff and re-enactments. I've heard some give credit to the new version for focusing more on the cancer element of the story. The heart of the story is not the cancer but the friendship between Piccolo and Sayers - a white rural man and a black man fighting for the same job in the 1960's. Some complain about the "racism" in the original version but to ignore that would be to ignore slavery in the Civil War - it's the racial element that made their friendship and their story so transcendental. Let me remind you that a racial comment is not necessarily a racist comment. There's a powerful scene in the original in which Gale Sayers is brought to tears from the laughter when Piccolo tries to call him a "n****r". They both realize the foolishness of the gesture and at that moment, their friendship takes an important step. We can't do that today, because someone might get offended. But if you're really honest with yourself, you can see where a word of such unspeakable hatred actually got turned on its ear and two men saw each other not for the color of their skin but for the content of their character. The new version didn't accomplish anything new - it just changed the movie to a story about cancer. The original is so much more than a football movie as it speaks to some very sensitive racial issues that Americans were grappling with in the 1960s - much of which was still living in defacto segregation.If you read Gale Sayers' book, I Am Third, which is the inspiration for this movie then you'll agree that the original version got it right.

genius00345 This is one of the very few films that has made my eyes water with tears. The actors are great and deliver their lines with precision and all the emotion they have. Phifer and Maher may not really play football in life, but you wouldn't know it just by watching this movie. The film is also educational, as it teaches about the race boundaries of the time period and also about the medical world at that time. If you enjoyed Friday Night Lights, you'll also love Brian's Song! Anyone who loves a good sports movie should watch Brian's Song...as well as anyone who loves a tear-jerker. I rate Brian's Song with a 10 out of 10!

Paul Manijak This remake and I have no idea why they remade it, is good but not as powerful and less sad as the original. If ABC wanted to open the story again to a new generation why didn't they just show the classic film. The new version missed too many opportunies to break the audience into tears as the original did and still does so well. Sorry to say to younger generation this version is no classic and if want to view finer acting and have more tears watch the original thou the style of filmmaking has changed...meaning the classic has the 70's look, the 1971 film it still one of the best tv films made... Sorry, it's true.