guszak
No shock that when Bissinger's incredible book of the same name came out, residents of Odessa were none too pleased with what they read. It painted Odessa as a very backwards and overtly racist town. Countless examples and incidents revealed a Texas town still stuck in the Jim Crow days of years passed, inspired only by high school football victories. High school football was the main theme of the book, but the racism found in the community was right there with it. Enter Peter Berg, who wished to make a film about high school football, in particular, he wants to make this book into a movie. The community of Odessa made it clear, no way. Berg would not be allowed to use Permian images or Permian facilities. Berg pleads with the Odessa district to let him make the film, he pledges that he will remove all of the racist elements in the book that made Odessa look bad. In fact, Berg went one step further, he decided he would deal with the prejudice angle, by using African Americans as the example of the bigotry. The black coaches of the all-black Dallas Carter team that faces Permian in the championship game complain bitterly about the initial lack of black referees, implying they want to stack the deck for the black team. During the game, the black refs wink and smile at the black players as they taunt, cheap shot, showboat and play dirty. A black referee blatantly cheats on a call in favor of Dallas Carter. It is incredible! This is when you realize, this horrible excuse for a movie had nothing to do with the actual book it was based. It is very difficult for me to tell anyone that they should watch a movie, when the story being told, completely distorts the truth of what that film was supposedly based on.
Sam smith (sam_smithreview)
Almost everything works in this portrait of the madness for and around high-school football in a small Texas town. One of the best sports movies I've seen, largely because it's not really about the sport, or the big game, or winning and losing. It's about growing up, letting go of dreams, the pressure adults put on kids to fulfill their own dreams, losing perspective and gaining it. It seems to try and honestly look at both sides of high school football; how it helps young men grow, challenge themselves and bond, but at the same time how it subjects them to physical harm, an unrealistic set of expectations about life after being a local star, and being forced to carry a whole town on your shoulders when you're only 17. Some terrific visuals, both in the quick cutting ferocity of the games, and in the long aerial views of the empty Texas plains. A movie like this depends on its actors, because it is a character drama at its core. Much noise has been made of Billy Bob, and how he gives a great performance, and this is very true, but he is not the only star in this movie. The boys all do a great job too, especially Lucas Black. I have never noticed this actor before, but he is so intense as Mike Winchell that he makes you really feel for him. The other boys, including Derek Luke and Jay Hernandez, are also note- perfect.Few plot twists feel too familiar from other films. I understand those that say the film displays a superior attitude towards these small town people. But I found those weaker moments fleeting in a film that surprised me with the strength of it's acting, writing, and film making.
fairclothjacob
In my opinion Friday night lights is the greatest sport movie of all time. The movie was good back then and it is good now. This movie is about one of the prestiges high school in Texas for football. The football team has to live up to the whole towns expectations. In the first game the star football player tore his ACL and was out for the season. The shot of boobie about to get hit by the linebacker can be seen as if you know that he is about to get hurt. The movie goes on and the team has to come back from big loses. The team goes through emotional and physical changes. The team gets back on track when the little voices became big voices on the team. The third string running back became the first string. At the end of the movie the team is about to win the game but the quaterback gets stopped on the goal line. This movie was a great movie.z
greghm
Being french (did I hear French? where is the guillotine?) I watched this movie as I am a great fan of both Peter Berg and Billy Bob Thornton (especially as a coach in a comedy or a drama). I am a stranger to American football as it is not on TV in Europe in spite of a few attempts.For a foreigner, it is such a great experience to watch this movie as it shows a few things that are so different to our world in ol' Europe and how sport, its history and how it is integrated into culture in some countries such as England or the US. It is interesting also in a sense that it shows that in poor areas of the US, the American dream is only possible through getting in a college and may be in a sport team and one is at the mercy of a potential debilitating injury. The pressure of "old hands" players who know best on the coach, the people outside of the game who also think they know is marvellous. Anyway, if you do not know anything about American culture and its sport, it is probably one of the best movie to watch.
AD
