Friday Night Lights (Widescreen Edition)

The Friday Night Lights book produced a great family drama, a very good high school movie (if you count Varsity Blues), and a very good sports movie. That final game!The movie hews much closer to the basic facts of the book than the show. Maybe the TV show better captures its spirit, but the movie does benefit from the verisimilitude of reality. Who would come up with a coin toss to get into the playoffs?Watch Varsity Blues or FNL and you might get the impression that Odessa is nestled in green, rolling hills. (Yes, Texas does have green and does have rolling hills.) But Odessa is past the green and the hills, past settled Texas, out in the ugly brown anvil of oil derrick-spotted west Texas. The Friday Night Lights production crew drove out of Austin and, unlike those other two, they kept driving all the way to Odessa. The real Ratliff stadium is more imposing than anything on Varsity Blues or FNL.Featuring: A quarterback whose accent isn’t unintentionally hilarious (Texans don’t speak with southern accents, but it’s still better than whatever James Van Der Beek was doing). Tim McGraw, channeling his best Dwight Yoakam from Sling Blade. Jay Hernandez and Lee Jackson, who were a lot less excited to be cast as Brian Chavez and Ivory Christian after they read the script.Three actors from the movie would return for FNL by my count. Brad Leland, who would reprise his role as a key booster, this time a little goofier and a little less sinister. Connie Britton, who would reprise her role as the coach’s wife, this time in a speaking role (only with a different coach at a different team). And Tim Crowley, a college football official who plays a ref in the state finals in the movie and one of the assistant coaches in the show (he is the one coach who follows Coach Taylor to East Dillon).The runtime demands of a film means the story winds up heavily, heavily condensed. Only Boobie, Billingsley, and Mike Winchell get proper arcs. The story suffers from being squeezed into two hours, but Berg can say a lot with a few lingering shots—an early shot of little black boys wearing #45 jerseys chasing after Boobie contrasts with an injured Boobie watching a black man collect trash.The comparison to Hoosiers: both tell a great (true) sports story, but both also show the dark side of a small town obsession with high school sports. This is fair, and enriches both works, as far as it goes. But if small towns have problems, those problems aren’t limited to football-mad towns with a rich tradition of success. My hometown has a lot of the same problems, and our high school football teams have more usually been wretched. And if Odessa (which isn’t really a small town) has particular problems of its own—and it surely does—it isn’t clear those problems are tied all that tightly to Permian football (or even at all). My thinking on this was changed to a degree by a feature included with the blu-ray on the true story. The feature includes footage from the 1988 season and, more relevant for our purposes, interviews with the real Winchell, Boobie, Billingsley, and Chavez (nobody cares about poor Jerrod McDougal). They come off as exceedingly . . . normal. I don’t know that they are any different from any other minute little average slice of America, only they have this one brilliant moment they can always treasure. The movie is perhaps a little over salutary, sure, but the book was very much the opposite. (Boobie and Chavez did wind up having legal trouble after the movie was made.)Friday Night Lights improves on rewatch because it is so dang emotionally rich. You really feel for those kids. Perhaps because Friday Night Lights is the rare sports movie that doesn’t end in a victory. Sometimes it really is how you play the game.

The fanaticism of Texas football is on display for viewers. I attended one of the high schools that were mentioned in this movie. I don't think that the intensity is as much now as it was then. For Texans it was about Conquest and defeating your adversaries. It was promoted that way... extremely intense.

This is a well-made movie and true to life in every way. I'm not a fan of cursing and sex in movies, but I must admit that even the party scene in this movie is (unfortunately) an accurate reflection of life in such an environment. I've lived in a small Texas town and can vouch for the fact that star athletes (or entire teams in the case of a winning tradition like Odessa Permian's) are treated as heroes in such places. These towns live and die by their football team, and ex-players who remain in the town past high school love nothing more than to relive their 'glory days.' All of this has already been stated by previous reviewers, so let me add a different twist.This movie should be shown to all high school student athletes so that they can learn that, while athletics are fun and can be an important component in a person's life, academics are more important and will take you further (yes, I know, there are the ones who do make the big time, but they are few and far between). I am not talking about trying to discourage kids from participating in athletics or quashing their dreams, but I am talking about being realistic and having an education to fall back upon. Boobie Miles, the star running back in the film (and in real life), is a classic example of this. The biggest college football programs in the nation were pursuing him until he had a serious, season-ending knee injury. The most poignant scene in the film, in my opinion, occurs after Miles has cleaned out his locker and is sitting in the car with his uncle. He begins to cry and tell his uncle that he doesn't know how to do anything but play football (Miles was shown earlier in the film having difficulty reading one of the letters of interest he had received from a university). At the end of the film we find out that Miles lives with his twins in Monahans, TX (another small town in the desolate Permian Basin of Texas). Interestingly, although the end of the film tells us what other players - Mike Winchell, Brian Chavez, Don Billingsley - are doing now, no mention is made of what Miles does for living. I can't help but wonder if this is due to embarassment at what he does (though, personally, I believe that if a person is a contributing member of society, then his occupation - as long as it's legal - isn't important).At the opposite end of the spectrum, however, there is Brian Chavez. As a student athlete he had his priorities in order: he loved football, but he made sure that he also did well academically. We find out at the end of the film that he attended Harvard and now practices criminal law in Odessa. He obviously knew that football wasn't going to carry him forever.We have seen examples of what can happen to even those athletes who do make it to the professional leagues but don't have any plans for what to do once their careers end (whatever the reason may be for them ending: injury, substance abuse, or simply reaching the end of the line athletically). Former Washington Redskin Dexter Manley stands out as the most glaring example of such an athlete; years after substance abuse brought his career to an early end and poor business decisions left him bankrupt, Manley came forth and admitted that he was illiterate. That says a lot about how messed up our society's priorities sometimes are, and so does the film "Friday Night Lights."Enjoy the film - it's definitely a well-done movie - but don't be afraid to use it as an object lesson for those who prioritize athletics over all else (and if you're one of those people, then maybe the lesson will get through to you). My wife shares my love of sports movies (a rare thing in a wife), but she didn't like this movie because she thought it was "depressing." I didn't agree with her that the entire movie is depressing, but I do agree that the fact that there are so many cases like Boobie Miles and Dexter Manley in this country is depressing.

It isn't Varsity Blues nor a whipped cream bikini, but its a good movie!

I bought this film expecting another take on the theme of Varisty Blues and in essence it is. However, Friday Night Lights is very different.Based on actual events that occured during the 1988 season, in a small town in Texas. Friday Night Lights is less lighthearted than Varsity Blues but with stellar performances by Billy Bob Thornton and Derek Luke is just as, if not more entertaining.If you want a sugar coated, pop culture, vomit fest look elsewhere. This film is a classic sports drama. The best thing about it is it's focus on the sport and the families of the players and not their romantic lives.It will amke you wish you were a youngster playing beneath those shining Friday night lights.

One of my favourite sports movies. Originally bought it many years ago but lost when moved house so had to buy again. Paints a good picture of how high school football is seen in Texas and you do grow to care about the characters, especially as its based on a true story. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes sports movies, especially American football ones.

Good film to watch if this type of thing is what you're into. You're expecting it to be the typical film where they go on to win everything in the last second. However, there are plenty of twists and turns and sets the story out in a good way.Mainly bought this after seeing the tv series and wanted to get another take on it.Must say I wasn't disappointed whilst also admitting it won't go top in the top 100 films ever. Worth a watch if you fancy a chilled afternoon in front of an easy to watch film.

Gritty sports drama based around American football. Billy bob Thornton as the coach guiding his underdog college team to the state champs.Some good action but not a 'glitzy' Hollywood movie. Only recommend for fans of American football!!!

It was a good film but prefer the tv series which was inspired by the movie. Good quality dvd received at good price.