Director: Peter Berg, Josh Pate
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lee Jackson, Lee Thompson Young, Amber Heard, Tim McGraw
Score: 8 / 10
This review by Robert Nijman.
The struggle at the heart of ‘Friday Night Lights’, the young men of the Permian High Panthers trying to win the state championship and rise above and beyond the limitations of their hometown, neatly symbolizes the emergence of Peter Berg – sort of. The actor/director, who had a hand in the script that was based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger, had yet to produce his first big budget feature as he had previously only worked on (other) small films like Very Bad Things and The Rundown. Soon after the remarkably impressive Friday Night Lights though – that saw its format developed into a successful TV series two years later as well – Berg could step up to the big league, helming projects like Hancock and The Kingdom. He owes that to a strict control over his direction, successful editing and flashy camera work, boasting fast-paced shots that never distract from the deeper layers of the story – the ones that lift FNL above the general ranks of the sports movie and into the realm of insightful and heartrending drama.
The film has, in addition to all obvious comparisons, a lot of common ground with the depiction of Permian High’s professional counterparts in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday. The most-always political director managed to capture the rapid action of the hectic sport equally cleverly, without annoying his audience with handheld camerawork that’s just too hasty for comfort. The charismatic likeability Billy Bob Thornton brings to his portrayal of coach Gaines doesn’t fall short of Al Pacino’s Tony D’Amato either. A strong leader on the pitch, an introvert and quiet presence off the pitch. The same basically goes for the entire cast of FNL, who despite a large number of unfamiliar names paint a very convincing picture of the turbulent world of American football at the level of the Panthers – a high school football team whose performance seemingly captures the attention of every man, woman and child of Odessa, Texas. Take Garrett Hedlund for example, who for his role as quarterback gained about ten pounds of muscle shortly after gaining fifteen pounds for Troy. Although his abilities to perform on the (football) field of battle impress, the real sparks come from him chopping at the acting bit with his onscreen father, who has a successful quarterback history of his own. Thirty-year-old Derek Luke inspires as well, convincingly playing the part of heavily injured seventeen-year quarterback James “Boobie” Miles, turning his tragedy into genuine heartfelt drama. During some shots off field, the real Boobie Miles can be seen standing next to Luke. Berg also added actual game footage from the 2003 season, alternated with his own shots that have his actors wear sports gear identical to that of the team they set out to portray.
The main strength of Friday Night Lights however is not what happens inside the stadium, but on the outside. The struggle of the individual team players to provide themselves a better future than those around them surpasses Any Given Sunday’s intensity. A number of key players has their own story to tell, offering a clear and somewhat depressing picture of the influence of a local sports club (with a rich history) on the general atmosphere in a town like Odessa. The attention and pressure on the shoulders of these young players, that not too subtly burdens them with the larger-than-life importance of their performance, is most aptly put by team leader Mike Winchell (Lucas Black): ‘I don’t feel seventeen. Do you?’ The movie deserves extra credit then for depicting that world no better than it is, without giving in to typical Hollywood demands when it comes to the finale. Friday Night Lights is a strong and very human portrait of both the glorious and inglorious sides of sports greatness, in Smalltown America.
