Two Thumbs Up!!
I was prepared to really dislike Friday Night Lights, because a) Billy Bob Thornton's a skeezebag, and b) I really really dislike Odessa Permian and their goddamned Mojo football machine.
As it turns out, Friday Night Lights is probably one of the best sports drama movies I've ever seen. It's easily on par with Raging Bull, Hoosiers or Rocky. (I'm not gonna include Slap Shot or Bull Durham, those were great, but were sports comedies)
It just about perfectly captured the essence of the Official Texas State Religion (High School Football), from the cocky but flawed athletes, the dunderheaded popcorn munchers in the stands (and on talk radio), the endless (and pointless) yammering of the sportswriters, and the general insanity that occurs when your local team starts heading for a playoff.
It's not a perfect movie. Some liberties were taken with the story, as is to be expected when Hollywood invades your state. There's a bit more melodrama than absolutely necessary, and there were some characters that needed a bit more screen time. All in all, though, it's pretty damned good. There's one scene at the end between a father and his son that had me wiping tears out of my eyes.
Lucas Black is outstanding as the quarterback torn between his family responsibility and his dreams of escaping to a better life. Derek Luke brings swagger and attitude to his character Boobie Miles, the star of the team. Even ol' Billy Bob manages to do a pretty good job here.
Even if you're not a football fan, it's worth a look. Put it in your Netflix queue, or rent it next time you're at the video store. El Capitan says you won't be disappointed!
As for the flaws, here's the real scoop on the final game in the movie. First, it wasn't the final championship game. Odessa Permian actually played Dallas Carter in the semifinals. There were a lot of issues concerning eligibility of players on the Carter team, but they were allowed to play after a lot of backroom wheeling and dealing. Carter beat Permian 14-9, a much lower score than shown in the movie. In the finals, Carter went on to beat Converse Judson for the state title, but the player eligibility issue came to a head, and Carter forfeited all of their playoff wins, leaving Converse Judson as the 1988 Texas champions.
If you're confused by the naming conventions, it's because we have a lot of high schools in Texas named after famous historical figures, and many schools share the same name. To separate them, the city name comes first, (sometimes the school district name) followed by the high school name. So, Odessa Permian is really Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. You'll see Irving MacArthur playing San Antonio MacArthur, and Midland Lee playing Tyler Lee, and so forth. No, Permian is not a person's name, it's named for the Permian Basin, a geologic formation in that part of the state.
Now, I can't stand Odessa Permian just due to their asshole fans. I respect their football program, and their kids play their hearts out just like every other high school football team. No problems there. It's just that those no-account drilling-rig jockeys in Odessa got nothing going for them but oil and the Permian Panthers. They grasp wildly at the one thing they can excel at (screaming at football games) and morph into overbearing louts. This would not be so bad if they all stayed up in Odessa, but they tend to get laid off and drift into the big cities, where they burrow in like ticks and keep screaming about how good their hometown team is. It gets real old real quick.
I almost shot me a mess of Odessan oilfield trash after a game in 1995, I was so pissed off at their attitude. When I was living in Arlington, Texas, I was two blocks from the local football stadium. The high school down the street was Arlington High school, which happens to be my father's alma mater. It was easy for me to adopt Arlington as my surrogate home team, and I often wandered down to the stadium during my 5 years there to watch them play football.
In 1995 the Arlington Colts had a fantastic season, and advanced into the semifinals. They got lucky and managed to be the home team, but that meant that the Mojo crowd would soon be swarming into Arlington like a locust horde. I managed to get a ticket early, and a good thing, too. That stadium was packed. Odessa was heavily favored, but you never know how these things will turn out.
Those Arlington kids played one of the best games of football I have ever seen, be it high school, college or pro. They were pasted pretty hard, but they were a driven team, and didn't want a repeat of the last time they met Permian in the semifinals. Back in 1987, Arlington tied Permian 35-35, and the officials gave the game to Permian based on who had more 1st downs. Arlington wanted a win this time.
If there was someone sitting down during the entire 4th quarter, I didn't see it. Permian was wearing the Arlington team down, and they were starting a march down the field to score once more and break the 21-21 tie. All Permian needed was to get within field goal range, and the game as theirs.
The Colts stopped them cold. Time after time, they would manage to bring down the runner at the line of scrimmage, prevent the first down, or clothesline the Permian quarterback. They were still holding firm when the clock ran out.
Once again, though, a game that desperately needed to go into overtime was instead turned over to the UIL rulebook. It was ruled that Permian had 3 penetrations into Arlington's backfield, and Arlington had only two. Once again, the game was given to Odessa Permian.
From the jeering and taunting from the gathered oilfield trash, though, you'd have thought they whipped the Colts by 48 to nothing. The whole walk home I had to listen to that crap from the long line of cars waiting for the light on the way to I-20.
By the time I got home, a lifelong disgust of Odessa and its odious residents had settled in, and I was thinking about the nice big dark backyard I had, and how many Mojo assholes I could bury in it.
I settled for going out front, and directing lost Odessans east towards Dallas instead of west to their squalid trailer towns. A small revenge, but I felt lots better.
As it turns out, Friday Night Lights is probably one of the best sports drama movies I've ever seen. It's easily on par with Raging Bull, Hoosiers or Rocky. (I'm not gonna include Slap Shot or Bull Durham, those were great, but were sports comedies)
It just about perfectly captured the essence of the Official Texas State Religion (High School Football), from the cocky but flawed athletes, the dunderheaded popcorn munchers in the stands (and on talk radio), the endless (and pointless) yammering of the sportswriters, and the general insanity that occurs when your local team starts heading for a playoff.
It's not a perfect movie. Some liberties were taken with the story, as is to be expected when Hollywood invades your state. There's a bit more melodrama than absolutely necessary, and there were some characters that needed a bit more screen time. All in all, though, it's pretty damned good. There's one scene at the end between a father and his son that had me wiping tears out of my eyes.
Lucas Black is outstanding as the quarterback torn between his family responsibility and his dreams of escaping to a better life. Derek Luke brings swagger and attitude to his character Boobie Miles, the star of the team. Even ol' Billy Bob manages to do a pretty good job here.
Even if you're not a football fan, it's worth a look. Put it in your Netflix queue, or rent it next time you're at the video store. El Capitan says you won't be disappointed!
As for the flaws, here's the real scoop on the final game in the movie. First, it wasn't the final championship game. Odessa Permian actually played Dallas Carter in the semifinals. There were a lot of issues concerning eligibility of players on the Carter team, but they were allowed to play after a lot of backroom wheeling and dealing. Carter beat Permian 14-9, a much lower score than shown in the movie. In the finals, Carter went on to beat Converse Judson for the state title, but the player eligibility issue came to a head, and Carter forfeited all of their playoff wins, leaving Converse Judson as the 1988 Texas champions.
If you're confused by the naming conventions, it's because we have a lot of high schools in Texas named after famous historical figures, and many schools share the same name. To separate them, the city name comes first, (sometimes the school district name) followed by the high school name. So, Odessa Permian is really Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. You'll see Irving MacArthur playing San Antonio MacArthur, and Midland Lee playing Tyler Lee, and so forth. No, Permian is not a person's name, it's named for the Permian Basin, a geologic formation in that part of the state.
Now, I can't stand Odessa Permian just due to their asshole fans. I respect their football program, and their kids play their hearts out just like every other high school football team. No problems there. It's just that those no-account drilling-rig jockeys in Odessa got nothing going for them but oil and the Permian Panthers. They grasp wildly at the one thing they can excel at (screaming at football games) and morph into overbearing louts. This would not be so bad if they all stayed up in Odessa, but they tend to get laid off and drift into the big cities, where they burrow in like ticks and keep screaming about how good their hometown team is. It gets real old real quick.
I almost shot me a mess of Odessan oilfield trash after a game in 1995, I was so pissed off at their attitude. When I was living in Arlington, Texas, I was two blocks from the local football stadium. The high school down the street was Arlington High school, which happens to be my father's alma mater. It was easy for me to adopt Arlington as my surrogate home team, and I often wandered down to the stadium during my 5 years there to watch them play football.
In 1995 the Arlington Colts had a fantastic season, and advanced into the semifinals. They got lucky and managed to be the home team, but that meant that the Mojo crowd would soon be swarming into Arlington like a locust horde. I managed to get a ticket early, and a good thing, too. That stadium was packed. Odessa was heavily favored, but you never know how these things will turn out.
Those Arlington kids played one of the best games of football I have ever seen, be it high school, college or pro. They were pasted pretty hard, but they were a driven team, and didn't want a repeat of the last time they met Permian in the semifinals. Back in 1987, Arlington tied Permian 35-35, and the officials gave the game to Permian based on who had more 1st downs. Arlington wanted a win this time.
If there was someone sitting down during the entire 4th quarter, I didn't see it. Permian was wearing the Arlington team down, and they were starting a march down the field to score once more and break the 21-21 tie. All Permian needed was to get within field goal range, and the game as theirs.
The Colts stopped them cold. Time after time, they would manage to bring down the runner at the line of scrimmage, prevent the first down, or clothesline the Permian quarterback. They were still holding firm when the clock ran out.
Once again, though, a game that desperately needed to go into overtime was instead turned over to the UIL rulebook. It was ruled that Permian had 3 penetrations into Arlington's backfield, and Arlington had only two. Once again, the game was given to Odessa Permian.
From the jeering and taunting from the gathered oilfield trash, though, you'd have thought they whipped the Colts by 48 to nothing. The whole walk home I had to listen to that crap from the long line of cars waiting for the light on the way to I-20.
By the time I got home, a lifelong disgust of Odessa and its odious residents had settled in, and I was thinking about the nice big dark backyard I had, and how many Mojo assholes I could bury in it.
I settled for going out front, and directing lost Odessans east towards Dallas instead of west to their squalid trailer towns. A small revenge, but I felt lots better.
posted by El Capitan | 9:47 PM
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