Sports drama starring Billy Bob Thornton. In the 1988 American
football season, the Permian High Panthers hold the hopes of
their economically depressed town on their shoulders, and with
each game hope to get closer to mainstream success. Their
dedicated coach Gary Gaines (Thornton) tries to keep the team
focused and together in the face of the increasingly tense
expectations of the town, but when they lose their star player
it's all he can do to stop the team falling apart.
From .co.uk
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Based on the non-fiction bestseller by H.G. Bissinger, Friday
Night Lights looks at high school football in the harsh light of
reality, finding heart and hardness while stirring our emotions.
Actor-director Peter Berg is Bissinger's cousin; he knows the
material well, and understands how an obsession with winning
turns high school kids into somber, over-pressured
gladiators--expendable soldiers in a community war against shame
and obscurity. The fact-based story focuses on the 1988 football
season of Odessa-Permian high school in West Texas, and as a
fast-paced sports movie, Berg delivers the goods with a rousing,
frenetically styled crowd-pleaser. But there's darkness in this
tale of weary underdogs, including an abusive her (well-played
by country music star Tim McGraw), threatening townsfolk, an
injured star running back (Derek Luke), a tormented quarterback
(Lucas Black), and the melancholy coach (Billy Bob Thornton) who
takes his team to the finals. Berg's film could use less flashy
cutting and more drama to support its gridiron intensity, but
Friday Night Lights offers a refreshing alternative to the
conventional sports movie. --Jeff Shannon, .com
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Synopsis
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Based on the best-selling book by H.G. Bissinger, Peter Berg's
gritty, powerful drama tells the true story of a small Texas town
in which high school football is the only thing that matters. Set
in 1988, Friday Night Lights opens on the first day of practice
for the Odessa Permian Panthers. Under intense pressure and
scrutiny from the town's residents, head coach Gary Gaines (Billy
Bob Thornton) nonetheless maintains a calm façade. His star
player, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), is a running back with
unlimited potential, but the rest of the team is undersized and
lacking killer instinct--especially quarterback Mike Winchell
(Lucas Black), who's shy and short of confidence, and Don
Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), who is tormented by his her
(Tim McGraw) for being too soft. When Boobie goes down on opening
day with a career threatening knee injury, the season appears to
be over. But Gaines won't give up, and neither will the rest of
his feisty players. Billy Bob Thornton delivers another
outstanding performance in Berg's impassioned drama, as do the
film's young actors (most notably Luke, Black, and Hedlund).
Tobias Schliessler's fuel-injected photography and Explosion in
the Sky's electrifying score make Friday Night Lights an even
more spectacular movie-going experience.
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