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Studio:Universal Studios

Director:Josh Pate

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Jay Hernandez, Derek Luke, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund

Running Time:118 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review

Based on the non-fiction bestseller by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights looks at high school football in the harsh light of reality, finding heart and hardness while stirring our emotions. Actor-director Peter Berg is Bissinger's cousin; he knows the material well, and understands how an obsession with winning turns high school kids into somber, over-pressured gladiators--expendable soldiers in a community war against shame and obscurity. The fact-based story focuses on the 1988 football season of Odessa-Permian high school in West Texas, and as a fast-paced sports movie, Berg delivers the goods with a rousing, frenetically styled crowd-pleaser. But there's darkness in this tale of weary underdogs, including an abusive father (well-played by country music star Tim McGraw), threatening townsfolk, an injured star running back (Derek Luke), a tormented quarterback (Lucas Black), and the melancholy coach (Billy Bob Thornton) who takes his team to the finals. Berg's film could use less flashy cutting and more drama to support its gridiron intensity, but Friday Night Lights offers a refreshing alternative to the conventional sports movie. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

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Reviews

- fascinating, moving sports film

I don't like American football. I don't understand how it works. And yet I was completely won over by this film.

High school sport is huge in America, particularly Texas. In the dustblown oil city of Odessa, on the flat, arid Texas plain, it's the only game in town. This film makes absolutely clear the kind of pressure that's put on high school kids - they are reliving their parents' dreams and aspirations. The bland country singer Tim McGraw makes a huge impression in this film - a superb portrayal of a drunken abusive ex-player, who says to his son something like "This is it - you have one year - everything's downhill from there on". And that sums up the film: a bunch of 17 year old kids must carry all the hopes and fears of an entire town - to a climactic battle in the Houston superdome that even if you don't know anything about American football will still leave you with your heart in your mouth.

The story's told in snatches of conversation, radio commentary, little telling scenes. It takes you a while to work out who the characters are, but don't worry - you'll get there. You are given just enough detail to work with and no more than you need. Lucas Black stands out as the strong, silent kid with too much responsibility, but all are good.

I just can't believe how good this rather unpromising film was. I'm still thinking about it two weeks later. The ending - well, read the captions carefully. There's a lovely, ironic twist to look out for.

It's based on a true story, apparently. It feels like it. It really is one of the best American films I've seen in ages... if you're at all interested in the fact that America really is a foreign country, watch this film.

- Winning one for the Gipper, or whatever

Ever wonder why those midwestern universities - Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc - seem to be so obsessed with football? Watching FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, based on the book of the same title by H.G. Bissinger about the 1988 season of the Odessa (Texas) Permian Panthers high school team, we learn that the fixation is acquired early in life, especially if the town has nothing else going for it but prairie grass or, in the case of Odessa, stinky oil wells.

Billy Bob Thornton, as the Panthers' head coach Gary Gaines, gives what may have been the first Oscar-worthy performance of the 2004 film season. Odessa expects the Panthers to win the state championship, and no excuses for failure are acceptable. As Coach Gaines admonishes his players:

"You have the responsibility of protecting this team and this school and this town."

Yes, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is about football (and contains some of the best gridiron action you'll ever see outside of the real thing), but, in a larger arena, it's a commentary on the almost crushing pressure on teenage athletes to win the Big One for town, school, friends, and family. It could just as well be about baseball, basketball, or ice hockey.

At the outset, Gaines builds his offense around a single, star running back, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke). But after Miles is seriously injured early on and lost to the team for the season, the burden falls on senior quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) and the fumble-prone running back, Don Billingsley (Garret Hedlund). Winchell's focus is hindered by the realization that going off to college will force him to leave behind his dependent mother. On the other hand, the hapless Billingsley is constantly browbeaten by his abusive father Charles (CW singer Tim McGraw), once himself a player on a champion Panther squad, who can't understand why Don is so inept and fears that his son may squander the only chance he'll ever have for the memory of a fleeting glory in an otherwise unremarkable life. However, Derek Luke provides the film's undeniably most powerful scene - worthy a Best Supporting nod by itself - when he emotionally breaks down under the realization that he can no longer do the only thing he's good at, i.e. play football.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is undoubtedly a Guy Flick. While my wife wasn't exactly bored in the cinema seat, she can't understand why I'm rating the film so highly. It's partly because of Billy Bob's superb performance, but also because it's lean and hard-hitting film about boys being shoved into manhood by pressures beyond their control. In another era, the film would have been about young men forged in the hell of armed combat. Here, it's just west Texas.

- A stellar yet somewhat troubling motion picture

There can be no doubt that Friday Night Lights is a remarkably good motion picture, but I have to admit that I have mixed emotions about the film. Maybe that is a good thing because one thing this movie makes almost all of us do is think about ourselves. The majority of us are in there somewhere - maybe you're the dad who puts too much pressure on your kid to be a star athlete, or the coach's wife whose very way of life becomes defined by a simple game made much too complicated by the community, or the rabid fan who lives and dies with your team and never hesitates to berate a coach or player who makes one mistake. Maybe you're the star athlete who saw your dreams die in the form of a serious injury, or the little guy who had to prove your toughness, etc. If you care enough about sports to watch this movie, you're in here somewhere.

Back to my mixed feelings, though. I love football; it's a great sport that lets you have some fun and learn important lessons, such as teamwork, you can put to good use throughout your life - but there is an ugly side to the sport, and Friday Night Lights shows you just about everything that is wrong with this great game. There is nothing fun about being a Panther during the season chronicled in this film. On day one of practice, every kid on every high school team should want a state championship, but none should expect it. Desire brings out the best in you, while expectation sets you up for a fall. In Odessa, Texas, though, the very spirit of the game is betrayed by the adults in the community; not only do they expect a championship, they demand it; these most rabid of fans might know every play in the playbook, but they know nothing about what football (in my opinion) should really be all about. The stress these kids feel to not only win, but pulverize every opponent is much more than any 17-year-old should ever have to bear.

The film basically takes us through the 1988 football season for the Panthers, from the first practice to the final game. That first practice sets an ugly tone for what is to come, and things get even uglier when the team's star running back hurts his knee in the first game. It will not be a perfect season in Odessa. Losing, of course, brings out the worst in some people who were already pretty bad to begin with. The parent of a chronic fumbler, already embarrassed that his son isn't following in his footsteps, pretty much goes off the deep end; the quarterback, living with an ailing mother and desperate for a scholarship that can take him away from this town, gets pushed pretty close to the breaking point, and the star player refuses to believe he is seriously injured because he can't imagine a life without football. What of the coach, the enabler, the molder of young minds? Billy Bob Thornton may be terrific in this film, but I never got inside the head of the coach he played. In the end, I see him as perhaps the worst kind of coach you can have. He's not honest with his team, he doesn't take care of his players, and he puts an obviously injured player back in action without even consulting either of the doctors who examined him. He plays down expectations at times, but it's just an act; all too soon he is frothing at the mouth on the sidelines. Some say he figures things out in the end, realizes that football is just a game, but I disagree. That heartfelt talk with the quarterback: a cruel form of motivation; that half-time speech at the big game: more psychological motivation. It's all about winning for him - that's my interpretation, at least.

The film does have its moments, though. When the injured superstar finally breaks down, it's more than a poignant moment - the film virtually stops right there; it's one of the most powerful scenes I've seen in a long time. Other big moments, though, rubbed me the wrong way. Having your father finally show something better than contempt for you is good, but the reason why it happens in this case sends a message I find quite wrong.

This is definitely a film about high school football. Academics, the very thing that high school is supposed to be all about, is nowhere to be found here - except in the reading problems of a certain star athlete and random comments about more money going to athletics than education. As a full-fledged nerd, and as someone currently involved in education who has to hold his tongue when he sees luxurious athletics buildings erected on a campus desperately needing additional classrooms, I am going to have to stifle myself right here. It does disappoint me a little bit to interpret this film the way I do - for, the way I see it, it ultimately says winning isn't everything - but it is pretty darn close. Whatever its message, though, Friday Night Lights does make you think, and it is a gripping sports-related film, and that is more than enough to make it well worth watching.

- Fantastic

Without a doubt, the best sports movie of all time. It was a tragedy that so few British cinema's screened it (only four in all of the London area!). It is what a 'blockbuster' like Any Given Sunday wants to be. It puts you right in the heart of the action so that you feel every tackle, making it much more realistic than Varsity Blues. Also, knowing nothing about American Football is not a hindrance to loving this movie. Based on a true story. Highly recommended.

- Fantastic photo!

Fantastic photo - that is why I give it 5 stars. The film itself is also really good with a cool storyline. But you really want to buy this DVD for the amazing photo - very artistic and nicely edited!