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"You have the responsibility of protecting this team and this school and this town." -- Coach Gary Gaines

Protecting them against what? We're not talking about war here, we're talking about high school football. And yet as "Friday Night Lights" unfolds, we begin to understand: The role of the team is to protect against the idea that the town is inconsequential and its citizens are insignificant. If Gaines can lead the Odessa Permian team to a state championship, that will prove that Odessa is a place of consequence, a center of power and glory. Well, won't it?

Certainly there are countless citizens in that Texas town who lead happy and productive lives and are fulfilled without depending on high school football. We just don't meet any of them in the movie, which focuses on the team, the coach and the local boosters -- adults who define themselves in terms of their relationship to the team. These people are obsessed beyond all reason with winning and losing, and the pressure they put on the kids and their coach is relentless. "Take us to state, Coach," one booster tells Gaines in a supermarket parking lot. "Or what?" asks Gaines. Or else. "Are we going to be moving again?" the coach's young daughter asks after a defeat. "No, honey," says her mother, but Gaines answers: "possibly."

Gaines is played by Billy Bob Thornton in another great performance in the past 12 months that have already supplied two other proofs of what a skilled actor he is: He played the drunken title character in " Bad Santa ," and Davy Crockett in " The Alamo ." The man has range, and he has a command of tone, too. Santa was over the top, but his Coach Gaines is a private man, inward, who finds it wise to keep his thoughts to himself. Consider the scene where he's told that his star player's injury won't prevent him from playing. Look at his eyes. He has reason to believe he is being lied to. He has reason to hope he is not. The player is Boobie Miles ( Derek Luke ), a motormouth with a giant talent that comes wrapped in ego. When one of his teammates accused him of not working out in the weight room, he explains that his gift is "God-given." But in the first game of the season, he injures his knee. He pretends it's nothing. Eventually, the uncle who is raising him ( Grover Coulson ) takes him to Midland for an MRI, which reveals a badly torn ligament. Boobie dismisses the doctor as a Midland fan "jealous of Odessa," and he and his uncle tell the coach he's ready to play. He isn't. Because he depended on sports for his future, because he doesn't read very well, there is a moment when he sits on the porch and watches some garbage men at work and contemplates his future.

The movie is based on real life, described the best seller Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream, by H.G. Bissinger. It depicts Odessa as a town consumed by high school football; its stadium is larger than those at many colleges. Local talk radio keeps up a steady drumbeat of criticism against Gaines. "They're doing too much learning in the schools," one caller complains.

The movie has been directed by Peter Berg not as character studies but as emotional snapshots. We catch on who the key characters are. Others are never identified. Gaines has enormous focus and can deliver a powerful message at halftime, but he understands better than anyone else that football is only a game. Unfortunately, his job is not only a game, and so he must take football very seriously; his job is not to protect the town and the school, but to protect his family. At dinner parties, in restaurants, everywhere he goes, he undergoes an endless stream of comments, criticism, suggestions, threats masked as praise. The way Thornton plays him, Gaines reminds me of Hemingway's definition of courage: grace under pressure.

There is something pathetic about a grown man still living his life in terms of high school, and that's the case with Charles Billingsley (played with great power by the country singer Tim McGraw ). He still wears his ring from Odessa's championship team of 20 years earlier and bullies his son Don ( Garrett Hedlund ), who is a receiver on the team. When Don fumbles early in the season, Charles actually walks onto the field to chew him out. He slaps him around, trash-talks him, gets drunk and directs a withering stream of sarcasm at the kid -- and has a revealing moment when he tells Don that high school football will be the high point of his life.

I started in journalism at 15, as a sportswriter covering high school football. I thought it was the most important thing on earth. But it was more innocent in those days. At what point in American history did the phrase "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game" get replaced by "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing"? Today's teams are like surrogate nations for their fans. When your team wins, it enhances you.

Oddly enough, despite all these undertones, "Friday Night Lights" does also work like a traditional sports movie, and there's enormous tension and excitement at the end, when everything comes down to the last play in the state finals. The movie demonstrates the power of sports to involve us; we don't live in Odessa and are watching a game played 16 years ago, and we get all wound up.

"Friday Night Lights" reminded me of another movie filmed in West Texas: " The Last Picture Show ," set 50 years ago. In that one, after the local team loses another game, the players catch flak everywhere they go. It's gotten worse. I'll bet if you phoned talk radio in Odessa and argued that high school football is only a game, you'd make a lot of people mad at you. The poor kids who play it are under cruel pressure. One of the team members tells a friend, midway through the season: "I just don't feel like I'm 17."

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Friday Night Lights (2004)

Rated PG-13 for thematic issues, sexual content, language, some teen drinking and rough sports action

118 minutes

Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gaines

Lucas Black as Mike Winchell

Garrett Hedlund as Don Billingsley

Derek Luke as Boobie Miles

Jay Hernandez as Brian Chavez

Lee Jackson as Ivory Christian

Lee Thompson Young as Chris Comer

Tim McGraw as Charles Billingsley

Grover Coulson as L.V. Miles

Directed by

David Aaron Cohen

Based on the book by

H.G. Bissinger

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Friday night lights, common sense media reviewers.

Powerful drama is so much more than a football movie.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Themes include competition, hard work, the importa

These are flawed, complicated characters; many mea

Rough football skirmishes with some bloody injurie

References to "getting laid," making out

Language includes "s--t," "hell,&qu

Underage drinking; an adult character abuses alcoh

Positive Messages

Themes include competition, hard work, the importance of family, tragedy, triumph, and teamwork. Race and class are also issues. All of these issues are dealt with realistically and insightfully.

Positive Role Models

These are flawed, complicated characters; many mean well. Cast is diverse, but there's also plenty of racist language, and race is an issue in the final game.

Violence & Scariness

Rough football skirmishes with some bloody injuries; a father is abusive to his son.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

References to "getting laid," making out, implied teen sex, bare back and quick glimpses of bare breast.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "s--t," "hell," "damn," "ass," "goddamn," the "N" word, "Jesus Christ," and "oh my God" (as exclamations).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Underage drinking; an adult character abuses alcohol.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Friday Night Lights has some tense family scenes with an abusive father. Underage characters drink, and an adult character abuses alcohol. There are sexual references/situations (including passionate making out and some quick glimpses of bare breast) and use of the phrase "getting laid." The football scenes are powerfully staged and very intense; some skirmishes result in bloody injuries, and viewers may almost feel that they're the ones getting tackled. The movie is frank in its treatment of race and class. Expect some strong language ("s--t" and more). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (5)
Kids say (5)

Based on 5 parent reviews

A lot of pressure for 17 year olds...

Billy bob shines, what's the story.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS follows the story of Coach Gary Gaines ( Billy Bob Thornton ) and his team, the Permian High Panthers of Odessa, Tex., a town that literally revolves around high school football. The film chronicles one season from the first day of practice to the championship game and is about dreams, competition, families, tragedy, triumph, and teamwork. Because it's set in America, it's also about race and class. Most of all, though, it's about how, in this small town, high school football affects individuals. Boobie Miles ( Derek Luke ) is the star player who juggles calls from college recruiters. Disenchanted former player Charles Billingsley ( Tim McGraw ) hopes to recapture the glory through his son but has no idea how to reach him except through insults and abuse. Mike Winchell ( Lucas Black ) juggles caring for a sick mother while trying to help the team win the title. And Coach Gaines shows his love for the game and for the boys on the team.

Is It Any Good?

Director/co-screenwriter Peter Berg has produced a movie that has both immediacy and resonance, filled with moments of authenticity and insight. Friday Night Lights has an intentionally rough, gritty, bleached, documentary feel, but Berg is in complete control, with every shot a small gem of precision and mastery. Many of the performances are quite moving, and, as always, Thornton brings subtlety and natural honesty to his role.

Within a very traditional sports movie structure, Berg assembles a mosaic of gem-like moments that illuminate a much bigger picture. This is not a football movie -- it's a rich and meaningful story about people who play football and the people who watch them, with respectful and poignant insights, beautiful performances, and sensitive treatment of issues that touch us all.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what it feels like for the 17-year-old boys in Friday Night Lights to carry so much of their family's and the town's sense of pride. What's good about that? What's bad?

Why was it so important to Don's father that he succeed? Why did he define success the way he did? Did his team's championship "carry him forever"?

How do parents help their children learn what success means? If it is not football that defines success in your community, what does?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 8, 2004
On DVD or streaming : January 18, 2005
Cast : Billy Bob Thornton , Lucas Black , Tim McGraw
Director : Peter Berg
Inclusion Information : Indigenous actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Drama
Topics : Sports and Martial Arts
Run time : 117 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : thematic issues, sexual content, language, some teen drinking and rough sports action
Last updated : May 7, 2024

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Friday Night Lights (United States, 2004)

If you go to this movie based solely on how it is being portrayed in the trailers and advertisements, you will probably be expecting a feel-good romp through familiar territory - a football version of Hoosiers . Like nearly all sports movies, Friday Night Lights is about redemption; however, instead of wallowing in clichés, Peter Berg's film uses them sparingly. This movie is less about what happens on the field than in the hearts of the players. And, while it is ultimately an emotionally fulfilling experience, it doesn't hide the ugliness in an effort to lionize the characters.

The story, which is based on true events as related in Buzz Bissinger's best-selling book, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream , follows the 1988 football season of the Odessa-Permian Panthers, one of the elite high school clubs of West Texas. This is die-hard football country, where stores close so everyone in town can attend the game. Sunday morning is for church. Friday night is for football. There are hopes for an undefeated season. The state championship is almost a given. With a player as talented as James "Boobie" Miles (Derek Luke), the concept of a loss is inconceivable - until Boobie goes down with a severe knee injury in the first game. Suddenly, his supporting cast, including quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) and running backs Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund) and Chris Comer (Lee Thompson Young) must step up. The team's coach, Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), alternately endures the bile and the praise of the town. When the Panthers are winning, he can do no wrong. But when the Panthers are losing, he is persona non grata.

Subplots abound, and these are what enrich Friday Night Lights ' brew. After all, when it comes to the on-field action, there are only so many variations on a theme. The film's soul may be closer to Rocky than Hoosiers or The Natural , but there are still plenty of the expected "big" moments, such as when the underachiever makes an important play and when the strong, silent leader fuels a comeback. But, while there is triumph in Friday Night Lights , it doesn't always come where it's expected.

All of the Panthers are dogged by high expectations. Most sports movies are about the underdog coming out of nowhere to achieve a victory. Friday Night Lights is about the pressure to win. Boobie gets a painful life lesson when he sees a promising future vanish in an instant. This teenager, who had always imagined that his talent would take him to the NFL, stares resignedly at a group of garbage men making their morning rounds. Mike, a natural mama's boy, must shake his natural reticence and become a leader. Win or lose, he must learn to grow up. And Don has to resolve the love-hate relationship he has with his drunken father (Tim McGraw), who savored a measure of success two decades ago as a member of a champion Panthers team, and wants the same for his son.

Two things lend Friday Night Lights an aura of verisimilitude: the choice of actors and the manner in which Berg and cinematographer Tobias A. Schliessler have chosen to present the narrative. The film's style is documentary-like. It is shot using hand-held cameras, with slightly desaturated color and an image that often looks more like it was captured on video than on celluloid. This is not a pretty movie, although it is effective in what it intends to do. Likewise, the decision to use fresh faces relieves us from having to lay baggage at the feet of any of the actors (except, perhaps, Billy Bob Thornton, who disappears chameleon-like into his role). Some of them are in the midst of starting fertile careers (like Derek Luke, who previously played the lead character in Antwone Fisher and is wonderful here), but none is established to the extent his reputation gets in the way of us being able to fully accept him as his character.

Friday Night Lights is being hailed by some critics as the best sports movie ever made. While I think that is hyperbole, Berg's picture is certainly an above average effort that provides a solid emotional punch. The difference between this film and many of those that have come before it is one of perspective. In most sports pictures, the big game at the end is the point. It's why we're in the theater and what we have been waiting for. Here, the game is just a means by which what really matters comes into focus. And that's sufficient to set apart Friday Night Lights .

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DVD & Streaming

Friday Night Lights

Drama , Sports

Content Caution

In Theaters

Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gary Gaines; Lucas Black as Mike Winchell; Derek Luke as Boobie Miles; Garrett He dlund as Don Billingsley; Tim McGraw as Charles Billingsley; Jay Hernandez as Brian Chavez

Home Release Date

Distributor.

Universal Pictures

Movie Review

It’s a Friday night in September, 1988. The stores are all closed. The streets are quiet. Everyone in Odessa, Texas, has gathered to worship. But not at church. Rather, they’ve congregated at the local high school’s football field where 20,000 screaming fans chant “MO-JO” in support of their beloved Permian Panthers, a team expected to roll across the Lone Star State like a tumbleweed in a stiff wind on its way to the state championship. Anything less would be considered a tragic disappointment.

One reason the small town demands success is that it has tasted it before. Also, running back Boobie Miles has superstar written all over him (and knows it), and looks to carry the team on his back. But when Boobie goes down with a season-ending injury early in the campaign, Coach Gaines must patch together a winner out of spare parts while requiring more offensive production from Mike, his hard-working but only modestly talented quarterback. How far can this team go? And what physical, mental and emotional condition will it be in when it gets there?

Positive Elements

Once the film hits stride, its point becomes clear that putting too much emphasis on football is unhealthy for everyone involved. Coach Gaines and his players listen to hurtful, often unfair comments on a radio call-in show, illustrating what the Bible says about the kinds of things that come out of fools’ mouths (Prov. 15:2) and the power and sting of unkind words (Prov. 26:21). Coach assures his boys, “Ain’t much difference between winning and losing except how the outside world treats you. … We can dig our own holes.” He also preaches teamwork and expresses pride in his players and staff.

Running back Don Billingsly’s verbally and physically abusive father is vilified. (A touching moment late in the film suggests that the dad is truly sorry for his attitude and is changing his stripes.) Before that happens, Don shows an admirable level of self-control in situations where others might have lashed back. Coach tells Mike to take initiative and improve his situation when life gives him “the short end of the stick.” Mike is devoted to his ailing mother.

Off the field Coach is even-keeled, taking the criticism and pressure in stride. Midway through the big game, he informs his players that his admonishment that they “be perfect” has nothing to do with how the scoreboard looks when the gun sounds, and everything to do with character and relationships (“To me, being perfect is not about … winning. It’s about you and your relationship to yourself, your family and your friends”). He proceeds to talk about integrity, honesty and joy, preparing them for the inevitable backlash from a community that puts winning ahead of those virtues.

Elsewhere, a young man is humbled by tragedy. And although it’s disturbing to watch older characters struggling with racial prejudice, it’s nice to see that the younger ones—white and African American alike—don’t make an issue of skin color at all.

Spiritual Elements

In the locker room, the Panthers join hands and recite the entire Lord’s Prayer before returning for the second half of the big game (as does the opposing team). Boobie claims his talent is “God-given,” and calls a player whose last name is Christian “preacher man.” The losing team gathers for prayer. People raise their glasses for a toast that evolves into a blessing.

Sexual Content

The Billingsley boy urges his teammates to embark on a night of debauchery (“We’re gonna get drunk and laid”). Later on, he and a girl stumble into his house, kissing and undressing each other as they fall onto the couch. She is shirtless (her arms cover her breasts) when Don’s father—showing no moral concern—interrupts them. Students are shown making out at a party. A football groupie approaches Mike and implies she wants to have sex with him. When he declines, she accuses him of being gay. To prove he isn’t, Mike agrees to be intimate with her. (Both are shown dressing after the fact; the girl is seen in her underwear.)

Violent Content

Crushing tackles, blindside blows and after-the-whistle cheap shots show just how violent the game of football can be. We glimpse players bloodied from combat. Tempers flare on the practice field and teammates mix it up until coaches step in. When their momentum takes them out of bounds, athletes mow down a bystander and a cheerleader. A boy’s dislocated shoulder gets popped back into place. A gruesome tackle destroys Boobie’s knee. He throws a tantrum when a doctor says he shouldn’t play, then returns to action prematurely and incurs even more damage. Prone to fumbling, Don gets berated and thrown to the ground by his dad, who later humiliates the boy by angrily duct-taping a ball to his hands. The dad talks about being beaten by his own father, and kicks out the rear windows of a car he’s riding in.

Crude or Profane Language

More than 40 profanities, including eight s-words, a barely obscured f-word and an exclamatory use of Jesus’ name. God’s name is misused in conjunction with “d–n” nearly 10 times. A white woman refers to a black player as a “n-gger.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Adults drink wine at dinner. An ill woman takes prescription medication. But the real problem is teen drinking, which includes a wild party, binge drinking and a beer bong. A guy invites players to a party with the lure, “We’re gonna get wasted!” Don’s boozing dad is often drunk, which contributes to his abusiveness.

Other Negative Elements

Several remarks leave the impression that a person’s high school years are the best life has to offer, and that teens should let it all hang out in order to create memories without regard for morality and common sense. Mike’s mother seems less concerned with his well-being than his ability to keep playing when he takes a pounding.

Friday Night Lights is based on a real community embroiled in an actual football season. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist H.G. Bissinger’s compelling, disturbing and controversial book of the same title follows the ups and downs of Odessa’s unhealthy obsession with high school football. But while this small West Texas town may come across as a whipping boy, it’s merely emblematic of a more widespread problem. The truth is, many communities have been morally blinded by those same Friday night lights, turning football into a religion, and anointing high school kids as gods. If the film shocks those people into reordering their priorities and cutting their local athletic program some slack, it will serve a purpose.

However, some young people will internalize the message that they should turn their senior year into an excuse to party and sleep around because, after all “it’s all downhill from there.” For those viewers, the movie will do far more harm than good. A former state champ tells his son, “You’ve got one stinking year to make yourself some memories, and it’ll be gone after that.” A tragic thought. Teens need to know that high school is just a station of life, not the destination. And irresponsible choices can ripple far into their future. While Coach Gaines’ halftime speech preaches honesty, integrity, joy and community, it remains to be seen which ideals will stick with audiences.

Bob Smithouser

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Movie Review: Friday Night Lights

The clichéd line is never uttered, but without listening very carefully, you can hear its echo throughout Friday Night Lights. In Odessa, football is a way of life.

And, as is quickly shown, it is the only way of life for residents of this small Texas town, where state champions become legends and those who fall short become mere pariahs rejected even within their own families.

Based on H.G. Bissinger’s best-selling non-fiction book of the same title, the story chronicles Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) and his Permian Panthers’ 1988 season from the first day of pre-season to its rousing conclusion on the turf of the Astrodome some months later. Thanks in large part to their nationally recruited running back, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), the Panthers are widely projected to return the title to Odessa.

But when Miles suffers a torn knee ligament on a meaningless play in the fourth quarter of a blowout victory, hope immediately fades as a cadre of second-tier stars—led by Mike Winchell (Lucas Black), Brian Chavez ’93 (Jay Hernandez) and Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund)—grapples with the town’s smothering expectations en route to the championship game.

For those unfamiliar with elite high school football, the film is jarring to say the least. Though American society worships successful professional athletes, the cult following earned by these 17-year old high school seniors is, for the most part, less widespread. Director and co-writer Peter Berg rightly devotes more time to the Panthers’ trials in their daily lives—how they survive in the face of such intense scrutiny—than to their gridiron exploits to underscore that this isn’t just a game, but a profession.

That decision plays to the movie’s primary strength—solid acting across the board that hinges on gutsy performances from a slew of younger actors—and de-emphasizes the sexed-up action scenes that regularly plague football-themed movies. But Friday Night Lights does not always escape that temptation. Tackling scenes—choreographed by Allan Graf, whose previous body of work includes Any Given Sunday and The Waterboy—are often shot at too tight an angle for dramatic effect and come off as unnatural and disorienting, while the hits themselves are overly stylized and unrealistic. Passing sequences are more fluid and shot from positions that often mirror those shown during weekend broadcasts on television and are easier to tolerate.

But the on-field action merely bridges the far more interesting off-field subplots. Luke steals several early scenes with his depiction of Miles, then the barely literate, larger-than-life Heisman Trophy wannabe with a limitless ego—“It’s hard to be humble,” he says—but his best performance is reserved for Miles’ later realization that he is worthless because he can no longer play.

The surprise of the film, though, is the unexpected range of singer-turned-actor Tim McGraw, who plays Charlie Billingsley, Don’s father. Well cast as the former high school star and state champion he wishes his son were, McGraw perfectly embodies the strain that the town places on its youth, never relenting in applying that pressure. Though some of the scenes in which he embarrasses his son with his overbearing demeanor—Charlie at one point appears out of thin air as his son fondles his girlfriend on the couch, before taping his hands to a football after a pre-season fumble—McGraw makes the father’s irrational anger and desperation surprisingly believable and all the more heartbreaking.

Friday Night Lights isn’t perfect. Though the racist attitudes of many of the school’s boosters and fans are referenced in passing, they are certainly glazed over in an effort to make the story more Hoosiers than it really is.

But despite that artistic error, the Panthers’ tragedy and subsequent glory somehow come across as unadulterated anyway, a hurdle very rarely leaped by football movies.

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Friday Night Lights

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

The only fake thing in director Peter Berg’s film version of his cousin H.G. Bissinger’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1990 book, Friday Night Lights , is Billy Bob Thornton’s hair. As Gary Gaines, the real-life coach of the Permian Panthers football team in Odessa, Texas, Thornton wears a piece and zips up his Bad Santa mouth. “Good gracious!” is the most you hear from Gary, even when his team loses its running back, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), to an injury. Thornton gets inside the coach’s skin. It’s a subtle, soulful performance in a movie that otherwise goes for the jugular. Chronicling the team’s 1988 season, the film is red meat for rabid football junkies. Berg ( The Rundown ) takes you so deep into the action, you can hear the bones crunch.

That Berg’s film doesn’t do is get you inside the heads of the characters. That was the strength of Bissinger’s book. Onscreen, quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black), tight end Brian Chavez (Jay Hernandez) and running back Chris Comer (Lee Thompson Young), who plays in the state-championship game for Boobie at the Houston Astrodome, are mere sketches. Garrett Hedlund registers more forcefully as tailback Don Billingsley because Berg spends time detailing the kid’s relationship with his abusive dad, played by country Tim McGraw, who proves a natural in the acting game. “After football, it’s just babies and memories,” says father to son. A little more of that personal touch and Friday Night Lights might have scored a touchdown.

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Friday night lights.

Directed by Peter Berg

Hope comes alive on Friday nights.

A small, turbulent town in Texas obsesses over their high school football team to an unhealthy degree. When the star tailback, Boobie Miles, is seriously injured during the first game of the season, all hope is lost, and the town's dormant social problems begin to flare up. It is left to the inspiring abilities of new coach Gary Gaines to instill in the other team members -- and, by proxy, the town itself -- a sense of self-respect and honor.

Billy Bob Thornton Lucas Black Garrett Hedlund Derek Luke Jay Hernandez Lee Jackson Lee Thompson Young Tim McGraw Grover Coulson Connie Britton Connie Cooper Kasey Stevens Ryanne Duzich Amber Heard Morgan Farris Laine Kelly Gavin Grazer Turk Pipkin Carey Windler Tommy G. Kendrick Brad Leland Lillian Langford Christian Kane Buddy Hale Ken Farmer Marco Perella Eloise DeJoria Robert Weaver Katherine Willis Show All… Angie Bolling Charles Sanders Barry Sykes Clay Kennedy Lewis B. Johnson J.D. Hawkins Bob Thomas Wade L. Johnston Rick Herod Paul Wright Julius Tennon Dennis Hill Timothy Walter Robert Scott Smith Kenneth Plunk Josh Berry Branson Washburn David Johnson John Hayden Chris Palmer Kyle Scott Jackson C. Anthony Jackson Kippy Brown Cleveland "Chick" Harris Billy Melvin Thomas Kam Hunt Roy Williams Gary Mack Griffin Randy Brinlee Dan Rankin Timothy F. Crowley Harvey L. Jeffries Tiki Davis Everett Smith Ty Law Christopher Dahlberg Peter Harrell Jr. Kevin Page Brady Coleman Stephen Bishop Bob Richardson J. Mark Donaldson Aisha Schliessler Evan Bernard Rutherford Cravens Wayne Hanawalt Brian Thornton Sam Austin Mark Nutter Jeff Gibbs Richard Dillard Robert Flores Terry Dale Parks Lizzo

Director Director

Producers producers.

Brian Grazer Robert Graf David Bernardi Sarah Aubrey Karen Ruth Getchell

Writers Writers

David Aaron Cohen Peter Berg

Original Writer Original Writer

Buzz Bissinger

Casting Casting

Janet Hirshenson Jane Jenkins

Editors Editors

David Rosenbloom Susan Rash Colby Parker Jr. Gabrielle Fasulo

Cinematography Cinematography

Tobias A. Schliessler

Additional Directing Add. Directing

Executive producers exec. producers.

Jim Whitaker David Hudgins John Cameron

Camera Operators Camera Operators

David Luckenbach Chris Moseley

Production Design Production Design

Sharon Seymour

Art Direction Art Direction

Peter Borck

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Carla Curry

Special Effects Special Effects

Stunts stunts.

Allan Graf Julie Krystina

Sound Sound

Craig Henighan Joel Shryack Gregory King Rick Kline Eric Harwood

Costume Design Costume Design

Susan Matheson

Makeup Makeup

Lynne K. Eagan Troy Breeding

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Melizah Anguiano Wheat Charles Yusko Roxie Hodenfield Charmaine Richards Joani Yarbrough Melissa Forney Chelsea Carpenter

Imagine Entertainment Friday Night Lights MDBF Filmgesellschaft mbH & Company KG Universal Pictures

Releases by Date

08 oct 2004, 17 dec 2004, 10 mar 2005, 16 apr 2005, 13 may 2005, 07 jul 2005, 19 sep 2005, 16 apr 2016, 18 jan 2005, 21 jul 2005, 07 feb 2010, releases by country.

Theatrical PG
Theatrical 15+
Theatrical 12

Netherlands

Theatrical 9
Physical 9 DVD
TV 9 RTL 8
Theatrical M/12
Theatrical 12A
Theatrical PG-13

118 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Sally Jane Black 16

CW: racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia (implied?), capitalism, America

It's not even coded. It's not subtext. The final team to beat is "black." The film acknowledges this within the context of the story, but it doesn't acknowledge the full sociological or historical context of it. It doesn't seem to understand that posing the Panthers as a mostly white-led team desperately trying to win as underdogs against African-American non-characters is part of the tainted tapestry of American history, the densely woven narrative that has demonized and commodified African-American physicality for centuries. That the film frames these underdogs effectively as people to root for makes me uneasy. Further, the touching father-son drama between abused and abuser is horrifying in its emotional impact.

Review by Jacob W. ★★★

Texas seems like a horrible place to live.

Review by Will Menaker ★★★½ 10

The 1988 Odessa Permian Panthers are the worst losers in the history of sports. Absolute bums with a Mickey Mouse schedule and a disgraceful performance in a Texas State Championship they only got into on a coin toss.

Review by {Todd} ★★ 8

“We're in the business of winning.” -Coach Gaines,

Participants are heroes... go sports go!

I don't know what I was expecting because I find sports fandom to be an illness and I hate Peter Berg's conservative approach to understanding humanity. I think after hearing people discuss this as a good sports movie for years I just expected more than a standard football flick with a trippy score that isn't even original. I don't care what happens to the characters and I ended up disliking everything about the toxic culture in which they lived... I couldn't honor and love it like the film kind of does.

Not for me but probably good for people that care about football.

Review by Brennan ★★★★

NFL draft starts tomorrow so I felt like watching one of my favorite football movies. Back in high school during football season Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans, and occasionally a few others would just play in a rotation when I’d go to bed after summer 3-a-day practices.

This is just a really good sports movie that is a real rollercoaster ride with its ups and downs. I probably should rate it even higher with how much I truly enjoy it. That devastating ending though!

I can say Friday Night Lights absolutely nails the crushing feeing you have when you know you’re done with the sport. I loved playing football and could’ve played some college football if I pursued it…

Review by BossBabyFan ★★ 6

His name is boobie.

Review by JBird ★★★½

A Texas town with lots of pride, Means football gets amplified. On Friday nights, Up go the lights, That make them all teary-eyed.

Review by KMOKLER ★★★ 2

Its a clichéd sports movie.... Who doesn't like clichéd FUCKING! sports movies!

Review by bree1981 ★★★★½ 3

Top quality high school football movie which is more about the the pressure place on these young men living in small town Texas as about the game itself. The film expertly swings between uplifting and heart wrenching as it tells the story of these young men in what will most likely end up the greatest year of their lives. The young cast all put in terrific performances and Billy Bob Thornton is at his best as the coach who keeps his composure under mounting pressure from the people of the town where football is the only thing that matters. Special mention to the soundtrack as well which for the most part steer's clear of the usual heavy rock that accompany's football movies in favour of Explosions in the Sky's more instrumental soundings.

Review by kaylie ★★★★

don billingsley’s girlfriend (real)

Review by Andio ★★★½ 2

So playing high school football in texas is basically hell.

High quality sports drama that focuses more on the circumstances and the pressure that the students and coaches are facing. Also watchable for non sports fans.

Review by Steve Robinson ★★★

This was a great coming of age sporting movie and I would whole heartedly recommend it for anyone who loves the genre. My biggest problem? I’m already in love with Varsity Blues starting James Van Der Beek and whilst that’s not as good as this, Varsity Blues still captured my heart more!

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FILM REVIEW

Glory Days on the Gridiron: Young Manhood, Texas Style

By A. O. Scott

Oct. 8, 2004

Odessa, the West Texas town where "Friday Night Lights" is set, is the kind of place where football is pronounced FUH-paw and where it is routinely described as a religion. With all due respect to God, it may be even more than that. The impression of Odessa that emerges from Peter Berg's new film, and from the scrupulously reported 1990 book by H. G. Bissinger on which it is based, is of a self-contained world in which high school football, played in a stadium bigger than ones at many colleges, is more important than church, state, sex, money or anything else. The sport's power is sacred and secular: it holds the social order together and gives individual lives a sense of meaning and high purpose.

Early in the movie the teenage boys who play for Permian High School are told that their duty is "to protect this town" -- a job description that somehow doesn't seem metaphorical. Odessa during football season resembles a besieged garrison, and these kids are its soldiers. This is a lot to ask of such young men, and sometimes the burden of expectation sits heavily on their pumped-up shoulders.

"Do you feel 17?," one senior asks another, at a particularly tense point in the season. " 'Cause I sure don't feel 17." (Because the athletes are played, according to Hollywood tradition, by actors in their 20's, they don't look 17 either.)

The town's obsession also puts a lot of pressure on the coach. As in the book, the film follows the Permian High Panthers through their 1988 season, when they were led by a relative newcomer named Gary Gaines. As played by Billy Bob Thornton, in a characteristically sly and thorough performance, Gaines is neither a my-way-or-the-highway autocrat nor a rah-rah motivator. His locker-room oratory can be grand and furious when the occasion requires, but his manner is more often courteous and reserved. He smiles politely when local boosters tell him how to do his job, and clenches his jaw when callers to a radio show criticize him. After an early-season loss, he and his wife (Connie Britton) come home to find dozens of for-sale signs sprouting from their lawn.

The town will settle for nothing less than a state championship -- the fifth in the school's history -- and the film's plot is dominated by their march to the finals. Toward the end, as the conventions of the genre require, there is less and less off-the-gridiron action, but the earlier scenes provide just enough information about the lives of some of the players to keep us interested in the characters.

The story focuses mainly on Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), the gifted running back who has staked all his hopes on football stardom; Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), whose abusive father (the country singer Tim McGraw) once played on a championship team; and the starting quarterback, Mike Winchell (Lucas Black), who is driven less by love of the game than by a desperate desire to get out of Odessa.

"Friday Night Lights" is a run-of-the-mill sports movie distinguished by a gritty, realistic sense of place. (In fusing genre conventions with local color, it resembles "8 Mile," which, like this film, was produced by Brian Grazer.) Much of it was shot in Odessa and other parts of Texas, and it was photographed (by Tobias Schliessler) in hard, desaturated tones that emphasize the bleak, sandy landscape.

Mr. Berg, an actor who previously directed "Very Bad Things" and "The Rundown," directs the nonfootball scenes with a loose, low-key rhythm that lets the clichés feel more lived in than usual. When thorny issues arise -- racial friction on and off the field, questionable judgments that affect the health and safety of the players -- the script, written by Mr. Berg and David Aaron Cohen, neither dwells on them nor shoves them aside.

In the end, "Friday Night Lights" is uplifting and troubling, partly because it is more honest than most sports movies about the high cost and short life span of high school football glory. Perhaps the most moving part of this film comes at the end, after the big game, when we learn that the real-life members of the 1988 Permian team, who had been heroes, martyrs and scapegoats in adolescence, grew up to be land surveyors, construction workers and insurance salesmen.

"Friday Night Lights" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has a few sexual situations, underage drinking and rough football action.

Friday Night Lights Opens nationwide today

Directed by Peter Berg; written by David Aaron Cohen and Mr. Berg, based on the book by H. G. Bissinger; director of photography, Tobias Schliessler; edited by David Rosenbloom and Colby Parker; music by Explosions in the Sky; production designer, Sharon Seymour; produced by Brian Grazer; released by Universal PicturesGE and Imagine Entertainment. Running time: 105 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Billy Bob Thornton (Coach Gaines), Derek Luke (Boobie Miles), Jay Hernandez (Brian Chavez), Lucas Black (Mike Winchell), Garrett Hedlund (Don Billingsley), Connie Britton (Sharon Gaines) and Tim McGraw (Charles Billingsley).

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Friday Night Lights Review

13 May 2005

117 minutes

Friday Night Lights

Stop right there. If you've read the premise for this vivid, compelling movie and have immediately switched off at the thought of another story about that incomprehensible, herky-jerky US sport, you should know different. Yes, this is a film about American football, but it is so much more. It is a stark survey of the hold sport has on life, with its tribal allure and power to devastate both supporter and player. Directed by sometime actor Peter Berg through the framework of an earthy coming-of-age saga, the grunt 'n' buckle trade-offs of 'football' have never felt so profound.

There has been some criticism of the deviation from factual detail to fit a more emotionally telling template, but it is a formula as passionately reproduced as any Rocky, Seabiscuit or Bull Durham. The wounded star player forced to confront the end of his playing career before it has even got going is as ragged a moment of honest pain as anything Mike Leigh could cook up on a London council estate. Country and Western crooner Tim McGraw shrinks his cowboy brio into a drunken brute of a former football hero facing up to the bitter realisation he has come to mean nothing more than history. Meanwhile his son, not half the player, has to bear the brunt of his hopelessness. "After football, it's just babies and memories," he glumly reports, father-to-son. A hell of a thing to lay on a 17-year-old.

Which is the whole point Berg and his cousin, original author H.G. 'Buzz' Bissinger, are making - in what sane world does a tender bunch of kids in the prime of their life have to carry an entire town's neuroses?

As the team coach, Thornton is the honest-to-God kinda guy who, ironically, sees through the devotional haze; winning isn't everything, it only feels like it. This should all ring very familiar. The all-consuming obsession of Odessa, down to radio phone-ins and car park confrontations, carries the same religious patter as rabid soccer support does here. They are the heartbeat of whole communities.

Berg is smart enough to find something suspicious in this and also the absurdity that Bissinger observed: the coin-toss to decide a tournamentÆs outcome, the real estate signs staked out on the coach's lawn after defeat, the inverse racism applied to influence referees ("zebras"). Such detail allows the film to breathe, keeping it aloft from the go-go sport-as-American-metaphor cliches too often hung on the game. The swaying emotion of the seesaw season carries a universal clarity. You want these boys to triumph. In fact, you will long for it. The action has the punching, rhythmic edits of genuine sports coverage, and in among the players' lives the handheld camerawork has the unblinking force of a documentary. Yet, Berg's delivery still possesses an essential movieness, and his film has a mythical reach, skies filled with the contrails of unattainable dreams. These are less the tones of the melodramatic sports milieu than the romantic Western, the young cowpoke's rite-of-passage transmuted from the chaparral to the stadium. And when you read the written coda of what happened to the real kids, it's a note of pure heartbreak. So stay for the closing credits, if for nothing else but to stifle your sobs.

Movies | 20 08 2018

Movies | 09 05 2018

The Real-Life Inspiration Behind 'Friday Night Lights'

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The Big Picture

Friday Night Lights is based on the best-selling book by journalist Buzz Bissinger; it follows the 1988 football season of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas.
Although Bissinger's novel would go on to sell 2 million copies and spawned the 2004 film and a hit TV series, the citizens of Odessa felt bitter about how they were portrayed in the book. To this day, Bissinger is no longer welcome at Odessa-Permian events.
The book-turned-movie highlights the intense pressure and adoration towards high school football in Odessa, Texas. Unfortunately, the film fails to address racial implications and the real-life outcome of the football players and community involved.

If you grew up in Texas, you know how important high school football is. If Sunday is for God and church, then Fridays are for your local varsity football team under the lights. So what do you do when something becomes almost as important as religion? Well, you make a movie about it. Friday Night Lights is a cinematic portrayal of the cult of football and how it affects the young men who play the game, their coaches, and the small towns in which they are at the center. But you better dot your "I"s and cross your "T"s, because if you misrepresent the sport of football in the Lone Star State, (especially if you aren't from Texas) there are hordes of Texans ready and willing to release the hounds of hell on you. Just ask Buzz Bissinger, who hails from New York City and was writing for the Philadelphia Enquirer . Bissinger is the intrepid scribe who took on the behemoth that is Friday night football in the great state, and what came from it will follow him and the people he wrote about for the rest of their lives.

Friday Night Lights

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'Friday Night Lights' Is Based on a Best-Selling Book

As detailed in an interview with Fresh Air , when Buzz Bissinger decided in 1988 that he wanted to write about the phenomenon that is Texas high school football, he went to a college football recruiter and asked him which town best represented what it was all about. That recruiter didn't hesitate and directed him to the town of Odessa, Texas and the Permian High School program . So Bissinger moved his wife and two children to the central Texas town and started writing Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream .

Bissinger had no idea what he was getting into. In Texas, high school football on Friday nights is a hallowed religious experience, especially in a small town in the middle of the dusty Texas plains whose other claims to fame are oil fertility and being a couple of hours' drive outside of Lubbock. The Head Coach of the program at the time was the legendary Gary Gaines (played by Billy Bob Thornton in the film), and he wielded more power than the mayor of Odessa. In a town like Odessa, where there is an almost cult-like environment surrounding the high school football team , sharing your thoughts on Gaines is akin to writing about a man who has achieved a quasi-Messianic status. His 16 to 18-year-old players were like rock stars. What became of Bissinger's account would later sell 2 million copies of his novel, spawning a movie called simply called Friday Night Lights, and a five-season TV series of the same name.

What Is 'Friday Night Lights' About?

The movie Friday Night Lights follows the 1988 football season of the Texas District 5A powerhouse football program at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. In the season that is chronicled, the Permian Panthers advanced all the way to the State Semifinal game against another hallowed Texas program, Dallas-Carter High School. The star athletes on the '88 team were the talented quarterback, Mike Winchell ( Lucas Black ) and the elusive and lightning-fast running back, Boobie Miles ( Derek Luke ).

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The game was a clash of two titan programs that both had a "State Championship or go home mentality." There was everything to lose for these teenagers playing for Permian and the director, Peter Berg , really presses that upon the audience. By the time these teams get on the field together, the viewer is so emotionally invested that every play and every tackle keeps you on the edge of your seat. But once the movie is over, what became of Bissinger, the coach, and the players that have the weight of Texas high school football put on their shoulders?

Buzz Bissinger Is No Longer Welcome at Odessa-Permian Events

Some of the things that Bissinger wrote about in his book didn't go over very well with the football-crazy town of Odessa. He spoke in his Fresh Air interview specifically of how a lot of the locals felt misrepresented as racist :

"Did they trust me? Of course. Did [I] want them to trust me? Of course. But when I hear the n-word used repeatedly, when I heard the n-word used to describe a tragic black running back ... who is now in prison, when I heard those things, what am I going to do? Not put it in? Issue a Miranda warning saying, "Don't say that anymore! Don't go there!"

The running back he is referring to is Boobie Miles. He expounded on what he perceived as Permian using Miles as a ringer and ignoring his education:

"Boobie was basically treated as a football animal. He was pushed through school without any demands. He basically had a tutor who gave him the answer to all the questions. There was no attempt to educate him at all. I never saw him play because in a preseason scrimmage, in a silly play that was meaningless, his cleat got caught in the turf, he blew out his knee."

Bissinger says he still communicates with the now 53-year-old Miles, who is serving a 13-year sentence relating to failure to register as a sex offender.

Bissinger was not invited to the 25th anniversary of the storied season , and Permian and the people of Odessa still hold a grudge. The running back who came in and replaced Boobie in the movie, Chris Comer, died in 2018 at just 46 years old. Heroic quarterback Mike Winchell currently works for an oil field services company outside of Denton, Texas, which is an hour north of Dallas. Legendary coach Gary Gaines, however, would go on to win 6 state titles, including the year following Friday Night Lights in 1989 at Permian. He passed away from Alzheimer's Disease in 2022 at the age of 73.

'Friday Night Lights' Is Actually a Story About Racism in Odessa College Football

The grand finale of Friday Night Lights is the game between white middle-class players from Odessa Permian, and Black, inner-city players from Dallas-Carter. There is a heavy, problematic way in which the film clearly portrays the privileged white athletes as the "heroes" overcoming everything and trying to beat a team full of physically imposing Black players who play dirty. David Green wrote a piece for NPR about this dichotomy :

"In the film, Thornton tells his team that to win state, they'll have to beat 'a team of monsters' from Carter High School in Dallas... Carter High School is really an afterthought in Friday Night Lights — the evil, thug-like team that stole a championship."

When you watch Friday Night Lights now, it reinforces how much the film fails in its opportunity to confront racism in athletics, and more specifically, Odessa's long history of racism . Another thing the movie fails to mention is that Dallas-Carter would go on to win the Texas State title that year after disposing of Odessa Permian. Twenty years later, the questionable and loaded way in which Black athletes from an all-Black school are portrayed signals the film's missed opportunity to address racial relations head-on.

Movie Features

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Friday Night Lights Parent Guide

Football stardom doesn't get much brighter than under the Friday Night Lights of the stadium in Odessa, Texas. But how long will the glow last for these teenaged Permian Panthers?

Release date October 7, 2004

Run Time: 118 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

There’s a sign in the gym of our local school that reads, “Be a Fan, Not a Fanatic”. It’s a little bit of wisdom the football enthusiasts from Odessa, Texas could take to heart.

While this kind of fervor can be just as easily found at the hockey rink, tennis court or soccer field, the fans portrayed in this film push the extreme of fanaticism. (Having never been to Odessa, I have no idea what the school’s “real” boosters are like.)

The citizens also are willing to turn a blind eye to the players’ rampant promiscuity and teenage drinking. But they’re leniency doesn’t extend to any messing around on the football field.

It’s no wonder then that Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) has a permanent scowl on his face. Along with caring for his sick mother, this quarterback for the 1988 team carries a huge weight on his shoulder pads. The well being of the whole town seems contingent upon winning a state championship. (We’re given no explanation how community survived since the team’s last championship success in 1984.)

But Mike’s not the only one with problems.

When Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund) misses a pass during practice or a game, he can be sure he’ll catch it at home. His father (Tim McGraw) was once a big football hero, but now he’s an abusive drunk who viciously beats and verbally berates his son when the boy doesn’t live up to his expectations. And you can bet this dad isn’t man enough to apologize when he’s sober.

Although the film offers some thoughtful looks at the definition of success, it gets a huge penalty for family viewing. The script includes numerous profanities, depictions of drinking and two teen sexual scenes—one in which a boy gives up his virginity only to prove to a girl he isn’t homosexual and another impulsive moment when we see a young couple without their shirts from the back.

For anyone over 20, this story based on a real football season is also a sad reminder of how insular high school can be. These senior players are led to believe this is their last chance for victory, their last chance to make history, their last chance to find success in life before they turn into frumpy, grumpy old adults who have to live vicariously through the younger generation.

Unfortunately, the grown-ups in this movie don’t do much to dispel that belief. Rather than guide these young men through challenging times and prepare them for future achievements, most of the townsfolk leave the kids to deal with mature issues while they quibble over football.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Friday night lights parents' guide.

What is the responsibility of the referees to maintain a safe playing environment? Would the excessively rough hits portrayed in this movie be allowed on a real high school football field?

What did the team learn about winning? What did Coach Gaines say was the difference between winning and losing? Do you agree with his analysis?

What are other examples of fanatical fans? Is their presence an attraction or distraction? Is this a just portrayal of all sports enthusiasts?

The most recent home video release of Friday Night Lights movie is January 17, 2005. Here are some details…

Real Life, Real Games, Real People: The True Story of the 1988 Permian Lions introduces some of the real players, as well as interviews with the stars who portrayed them. Other special features include, Tim McGraw: Off the Stage, Player Cam Action Shots , and some Deleted Scenes . The DVD also offers audio tracks in English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), as well as Spanish and French subtitles.

Friday Night Lights (2004) Movie Review: An Earnest Sports Drama with Muddled Execution

Ironically far less popular than the Television spin-off it birthed, “Friday Night Lights” is a film steeped in College football culture and drama. This is clear from the opening moments that trace across the vast Texan landscape of Odessa. A radio show discusses the state championship chances for the 1988 Permian High School Panthers. The film, based on a book about a true story, intercuts the inspirational landscape scenery mixed with slow-building drums.

Director Peter Berg lays it clearly within these opening few seconds to highlight how deep football culture runs in Odessa, as well as how vital the game is for a better life for those who play it. Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) is the captain, burdened with his mother’s ailing health as much as the responsibility to propel himself into a scholarship through the game. James ‘Boobie’ Miles (Derek Luke) is the star running back for the team, a beacon of hope amidst the small African American community within Odessa. The first interaction between the team in the locker showcases how his superior skills hold up the team, but they are also infuriated due to his puffed-up confidence and fun-loving personality.

These two leads contrast with the rest of the team and their stern, determined Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton). Their pre-season training session is where Berg sets up almost all the elements that will form the narrative and its drive. Handheld camera work is utilized to give “Friday Night Lights” tension and kinetic energy. The editing rapidly cuts from the players’ sessions to their media interviews on the field and the crowd at hand, already excited for the coming games.

The stirring band music ramps up this tense vibe. The dialogue writing contrasts the players discussing their potential successes and the teams’ brotherly spirit against moments of confrontation within. More characters are highlighted, relationships are made clear, and themes come to the fore. Boobie’s Uncle acts as his hype man for recruiting scouts.

Chris Comer (Lee Thompson Young) is a ditzy backup to Boobie, looking to be a featured player, and Brian Chavez (Jay Hernandez) is a wise player that keeps the other’s emotions in check. Above all, there is Donny Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), a flawed player living in the shadow of his abusive alcoholic father, and Charles Billingsley (Tim McGraw), a former state champion. The past glory of a state championship hangs over the heads of the key protagonist, a microcosm of the entire city’s hopes for the teams’ victory.

It highlights the film’s key themes, promise, and, most importantly, pressure. Like an albatross, the championship ring that past players wear constantly weighs heavy, a visual metaphor captured throughout “Friday Night Lights.” On the other side of that ring is the idea of promise that the glory of winning holds. Berg and co-writer David Aaron Cohen find fascinating irony in the young men’s hopes for the championship leading to a better life, while past champions are stuck in the past.

Even though much of “Friday Night Lights” depicts the idea of the sport with earnestness, especially in fostering community, it also plays a little bit with the satire. This is mainly seen with Gaines, navigating the struggles of coaching this underdog team while bearing the brunt of the public’s anger and desire. Gaines is bombarded with suggestions by upper-class women on how to play his defense and star player, Miles.

Miles’s role, in many ways, also crudely navigates the subject of race within the narrative, something Berg isn’t deft at handling even when overlooking his politics. The screenplay lacks the depth with which author HG Bissinger highlighted the tensions that stemmed from the multiracial team and the society surrounding them in Odessa, Texas. Boobie Miles’s personal story, though, is touched with great emotion; especially when a horrible injury causes struggle as he is ruled out from the game. It’s a tragedy that rests on Derek Luke’s moving performance, especially as he packs his bags with a winsome smile before breaking down in his car.

The rest of the cast gets their own little moments to shine, Thornton remaining the standout as the stoic Coach facing threats and delivering hard speeches. The screenplay does enough to move the plot along, giving the characters barely etched sub-plots for the actors to lift the material. The only wasted performer is Connie Britton as the coach’s wife, who has a more substantial role in the spin-off series of the same name.

In terms of craft, director Berg translates much of that energy in the opening scenes to the rest of the film. The camera speeds by when scenes grow dramatically intense, cutting close up and then wide to the surroundings to let the beats sink in. In that sense, the score and soundtrack maintain the tempo. However, this filmmaking language becomes overbearing. The shaky camera style is reminiscent of action films from the 2000s and really becomes a problem during the Football sequences. There is no sense of engagement, especially as we zip by almost all of Permian’s exploits with the typical sports montages.

As much as a connection is built towards the characters, their goal feels robotically disenchanting. We understand the pressure the world puts on them, but we do not get to fully comprehend why they care so much. That sense of greatness Berg attempts to create, showing how the sport is spiritual, is worsened by his messaging in the climax. Having built up the team and the protagonists as underdogs, especially in terms of size, the final sees them facing the mighty Dallas Carter Cowboys.

It’s the archetypal David versus Goliath story, yet Berg haphazardly places race as a significant element in the situation. The Cowboys are accurately portrayed as an all-black high school, yet between their coaches and players, the contention regarding race is played like a negative. Visuals from the way the cheerleaders and players are presented to the actions of the sly coach make it feel as if they are othering the opposition team.

It’s hard to overlook, even after the endearing climax that sees the protagonists lose but freed from the burden of expectations. In many ways, Berg’s “Friday Night Lights” falters because of his failure to completely execute his intentions and, in turn, let his characters breathe. This is something the ensuing series would pick up on, with the space afforded in that format allowing the writing to deepen its impact. Perhaps, then, it isn’t really ironic that the film that birthed the cult series isn’t as fondly remembered.

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Friday Night Lights

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Kyle Chandler

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FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

"doesn’t quite measure up".

What You Need To Know:

(Ro, C, BB, LLL, VV, S, N, AA, D, M) Romantic worldview where a West Texas town’s obsession with high school football corrupts its families and some of its teenage players, with a redemptive ending with Christian implications at crucial points, the reconciliation between a father and his son, and important prayers reciting the Lord’s Prayer, as well as some solid moral elements, especially the redemptive moral character of the football coach; about 27 obscenities, six strong profanities, three light profanities some strong football violence including harsh tackles, crack heard as one player’s knee suffers career-ending injury, mouth bleeding, and player kicks helmet into another player’s chin which bleeds; teenagers kiss passionately and partially undress to start fornicating but are interrupted by boy’s angry father, implied fornication between one teenage couple and teenagers talk about “getting laid” at party; upper male nudity and teenage girl’s bare back shown; alcohol use, drunken father and underage drinking; and, brief smoking.

GENRE: Sports Drama

More Detail:

One of humanist comic George Carlin’s most funny, cleanest bits is his riff on the differences between football and baseball. The difference is epitomized by the name of the places where each sport is played. Thus, football is played in a “STADIUM!”, but baseball is played in a park.

One of the funniest moments in the new serious sports drama about high school football, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, is when the school officials of the two football teams vying for the Texas State Championship debate where to hold the final game. Neither team wants to play in the other team’s stadium, because their fans wouldn’t like it. Then, the coach of one of the teams proposes that they play at a neutral site. How about the Astrodome, he suggests, and both sides agree. Of course, the Astrodome is a symbol of the new technological age that America represented in the 1960s, when modern football came of age as a truly national sport.

Like the award-winning book by H. G. Bissinger on which it’s based, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS focuses on the 1988 season of the Permian High School Panthers in Odessa, located in West Texas. Everyone in the town expects the team to win the Texas State Championship for the sixth time, mostly because its star running back, Boobie Miles, is one of the hottest professional prospects in the United States. An unexpected accident, however, changes the fortunes of Boobie and the team, which is led by its intense, clean-spoken coach, Gary Gaines, played by Billy Bob Thornton.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS begins by focusing on the personalities of Boobie and several other players. For example, Boobie is very cocky about being the best player on the team. The quarterback, Mike Winchell, is quiet and withdrawn. He’s not sure if he likes all the adulation and expectation that the whole town, including his widowed, sickly mother, places on the team, and on him. Finally, one of the team’s running backs and pass receivers, Don Billingsley, suffers from a demanding, hard-drinking father. Don’s father is re-living the past through his son, because years ago, he was on a Panthers team which won one of the school’s five state championships. Don doesn’t have quite the skills of his father, however. He fumbles too much, a failure that Don’s father is eager to angrily berate.

Holding these disparate characters together is Coach Gary Gaines. Gaines is a man under intense pressure, because the town is paying him $50,000 to coach their team to victory and because the town paid $6 million in 1982 to erect their high school football stadium, the largest high school stadium in the U.S. at the time. Despite the pressure, Gaines is a man of honor and integrity who refuses to curse at his players. That doesn’t mean, however, that he doesn’t give the players an angry tongue lashing when they deserve it.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS doesn’t completely succeed in its efforts to depict the town of Odessa’s dedication to the Friday night games of its high school football team. The intoxicating intensity of those nights, described in the movie’s press notes and in Bissinger’s book, doesn’t quite come together. This is probably due to the disjointed shooting and editing style in the movie, which is confusing at first and places a distance between the audience and the characters. There is also some teenage drinking and brief sexual content in the movie’s beginning. The beginning also contains some disturbing arguments between Don Billingsley and his demanding, seething father. Once the story’s first major twist occurs, however, the movie picks up intensity to provide more compelling drama. It also becomes more theologically positive. (A movie’s theology has a tremendous affect on its story, characters, tone, style, and audience appeal.)

Even so, the first half of the movie has a Romantic premise where the coach and the players are nearly defeated by the Romantic breakdown in priorities and perspective in Odessa. In effect, the town’s football mania has corrupted the players’ parents and the town’s citizens. Consequently, both the players and the coach are suffering. The movie’s redemptive, implied Christian ending barely overcomes this Romantic worldview of sports and family life.

Despite these problems, Billy Bob Thornton’s wonderful performance as Coach Gary Gaines gives the movie plenty of depth and appeal. This character is also written well. Thornton gives a great delivery of the coach’s final redemptive speech to the team at the state championships in the Astrodome. Immediately after the speech, the movie cuts to the two teams praying the Lord’s Prayer. The implied Christian meaning in this short sequence helps give the movie a strong uplifting ending. The rest of the movie could have used a lot more of this Christian-friendly content.

Thus, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS doesn’t quite measure up to such recent sports classics as HOOSIERS, REMEMBER THE TITANS and MIRACLE. The Christian premise in the second half of the movie is nearly overwhelmed by the Romantic tone in the beginning. The movie also contains plenty of foul language, especially in the first half. For example, there are more than 25 obscenities and six strong profanities, but no “f” words.

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Friday Night Lights

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