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Written by: Buzz Bissinger (book), David Aaron Cohen and Peter Berg (screenplay)
Directed by: Peter Berg
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Jay Hernandez, Derek Luke, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Tim McGraw, Connie Britton, Amber Heard
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
Based on Bissinger's book which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers.
Verdict
Football drives this movie and the characters. Each game is must win. The coach and players feel that pressure of everyone telling them nothing is more important than Friday night's game. Ultimately there is more to life than football. This doesn't delve very far into the players, and it seems like there's a lot more to the characters than what we see, or at least there should be. It doesn't have room for much past the football games. This isn't far from the typical sports movie, but it feels like it should delve between the lines more.
It depends.
Review
Berg went on to generate the television series Friday Night Lights based on this movie and book. Watching this movie, the story feels much bigger than what we get. A series is a better way to expand on the stories of these characters. After re-watching the series recently, I decided to go back to the movie.
It's Texas and football is a big deal. From the first day of the season the pressure is on to win the state championship. The team's stand out players are Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), Donny (Garrett Hedlund), and Mike (Lucas Black). Boobie is all ego but he has the ability to back it up. Donny's dad is an alumnus that's living through his son. Mike is the straight laced quarter back.
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| Garrett Hedlund, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black play Donny, Brian, Mike |
Boobie injures his knee early in the season. The fans blame the coach, as someone must be blamed. Boobie tries to hide the extent of the injury, and the team's future is uncertain. It's just high school, but the coach and kids face a lot of pressure. The kids look for a stress reliever often in the form of partying, this story line is shallow. While Mike and third string running back Comer manage a few wins and give the coach breathing room, they still face an uphill battle. Fans want their team to control the uncontrollable and win. For the coach, the pressure is inescapable as everyone he runs into wants to tell him how to do his job. All they care is whether the team will win. The coach isn't a person, he's a commodity, replaceable.
Boobie conceals the extent of his knee's damage. It's short-sighted, but football is his future. If he isn't playing scouts won't see him, and he doesn't have a backup plan. The movie made it clear that school doesn't matter to him. He hopes that if he can play one more game he'll get a scholarship.
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| Lucas Black plays Mike Winchell |
This movie does seem to exaggerate the football games. The hits are hard and the plays are impressive, but the injuries these kids sustain are horrendous considering they're plating football and wearing a helmet and pads. The coach's tactic is to yell at the kids to wake up and play football. I don't see how he inspires them, but somehow they win despite the odds.
With a football movie the score and the clock keeps the tension high as time is always running out and the Panthers are always behind. It all comes down to the championship game against a powerhouse of a team. Permian is getting pummeled in the game, and of course it looks hopeless. If you'd guess the team is going to stage a comeback, you'd be right. Despite blatant cheating by the other team, Permian plays a great game.
It's a football movie, and this gives us plenty of season games and even the big championship game, but this movie continually shows us the pressure the town puts on the team. While the team overcomes injuries and other teams, the most difficult aspect is the pressure from the town. Unfortunately the movie just doesn't have a lot of time to delve into that.We get a few scenes that point to that, but it's not enough to explore the topic. That could have set this apart from other football movies.
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