Who Asked You...Movie Review - Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights

Directed by Peter Berg ("The Rundown", "Very Bad Things")
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton ("Slingblade", "Monster's Ball"), Lucas Black, Derek Luke, Tim McGraw

People in Texas take high school football way too seriously.

At least, that's the impression you can't help but get from "Friday Night Lights". Now in my case it certainly doesn't help that I: 1) didn't grow up in Texas 2) didn't play high school football and 3) never found myself in a situation at the age of 17, where I might be at the pinnacle of my life.

That seems to be the great point of the film. The fact is that to these people from a small, low-income, working class town in rural west Texas, football is everything and the only thing. Not so much because the sport is so great, but because for these people there simply is nothing else. This is not a quietly implied point. In fact, it is flatly stated at one moment in the film by the often abusive and even more often drunk Charles Billingsley (Tim McGraw), the former state champion and father of the team's starting fullback.

The acting is good across the board, even if some of the characters are cookie-cutter and small. Derek Luke and Lucas Black both stand out in their roles as the team's star running back and quaterback respectively. Tim McGraw is much better (and much hairer) than most of his fans might expect. Finally, Billy Bob Thorton is also quite good as a football coach who, despite the typical stereotype of coaches, understands better than anyone else that football is just a game. As on might expect in a football movie, there are few female roles and even fewer of any substance.

One can't help but compare this film to the other football films that have come out over the years. Unlike movies about other sports, most football movies tend to be well made and quite good. With that high standard in mind, "Friday Night Lights" falls well into the middle of the pack of pigskin pictures. It certainly outdoes your standard high school drama but is not quite up to par with top football flicks like "Any Given Sunday".

If anything does set this game apart from its couterparts, its the 'realism' of the narrative. I'm not saying the hits feel more genuine, the gameplay is more accurate, or the "I" formation is properly used. However, the idealic glamour that exists in Disney efforts like "Remember the Titans" is absent here. As is the unrealisic brutality of "Any Given Sunday" or low-brow comedy of "Varsity Blues" or "The Replacements". Football is potrayed in a way that is much closer to the third edge of the sword. Not too rough, not too silly, not too clean, not too dirty. The sport is neither stuck in the muck nor put on a pedestal. It is merely allowed to be.