CORPORATE LINE: From Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment and based on the best-selling book about high school football by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights chronicles the entire 1988 season of the Permian High Panthers of Odessa, Texas, with football players, coaches, mothers, fathers, pastors, boosters, fans and families struggling with ongoing personal conflicts while the team fights for a state championship.
A town for sale, Odessa, Texas has seen better days–the financial bust evident in its boarded-up shops and broken lives. Yet one hope sustains the community where, once a week during the fall, the town and its dreams come alive beneath the dazzling and disorienting Friday night lights…when the Permian High Panthers take to the field. In a city where economic uncertainty has eroded the spirit of its inhabitants, nearly everyone seeks comfort in the religion of the Friday night ritual, where the unfulfilled dreams of an entire community are shifted onto the shoulder pads of a team of high-school athletes.
Friday Night Lights captures the frenzy of a small town that reveres its school team and their weekly games. With Odessa standing in for places just like it all across America, the film provides an illuminating look at the hoped-for successes and the built-in failures of trying to live the American Dream through the efforts of a group of talented young men. The film is produced by Academy Award® winner Brian Grazer, directed by Peter Berg (The Rundown, Very Bad Things) and adapted from Bissinger’s book by Berg and David Aaron Cohen (The Devil’s Own).
THE GOOD: Director Peter Berg does well in getting us emotionally involved and investing all our hopes on the Permian High Panters to win state. From the cocky Bobbie Miles (Derek Luke) to our main characters Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) these young men drive the emotion home.
Although some things are predictable and ready made for Hollywood it doesn’t hurt the film. The glue that holds the film together is Coach Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton). He isn’t exactly Vince Lombardi however Thornton delivers a true-to-heart high school coach. You expect a high school coach to teach boys how to be men and Thornton delivers. Tim McGraw’s is convincing and chilling as the father of Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), is another tough side of life—parents putting too much pressure on their kids to succeed in sports.
THE BAD: Berg’s pace is fantastic however the handheld camera move so quickly in their attempt to capture the pace of football that it often feels like a stomach turning roller coaster ride. Another problem is how long it takes to learn about Coach Gary Gaines and his life outside of coaching.
FRANKLY: Friday Night Lights is a bit like the teen years; awkward, emotional, and full of potential. Football is full of highs, lows, and crushed dreams—that’s the reality. Friday Night Lights doesn’t attempt to buff the rough edges or hide the truth as we all know it—especially the amount of pressure that comes with being a young male scrutinized by their school, community, and friends. Friday Night Lights is a triumph of life over sports and the lessons learned on the field transferring to life off the field.
+ Charlie Craine
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