Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund
ôFriday Night Lightsö is a movie that chronicles the true story of the Odessa, Texas high school football team, the Permian Panthers, and their 1988 season. The main point of the movie is that not only the players and their parents, but the entire town, is addicted to football. The town is for all intents and purposes nearly a ghost town, with nothing else of interest but football. Many of the townÆs business establishments are boarded up, and football has become the one overriding passion of the town. Furthermore, winning football games is not just something the team would like to do; it is something that they must do. The entire town lives for football, and it lives to win.
ôFriday Night Lightsö is an exceptional movie. Not only does it achieve its goal of depicting the pathological obsession with football that characterizes Odessa and so many similar towns around America, it makes this obsession believable and understandable by providing background and details that give the viewer insight into the townÆs perspective. The camera work is done as though the movie were a documentary rather than a fictional movie, lending verisimilitude and an impression of ôbeing there,ö right in the action with the characters. The character development of the main characters, particularly Billy Bob ThorntonÆs character, Coach Gaines, helps to build the drama and integrate the characters into the story. The dialogueùsuch as when one of the players says, ôWe gotta lighten up; we're only 17,ö and another player responds, ôDo you feel 17?ö is calculated to convey the football obsession and the pressure on the players to win; it does so very effectively (ôFriday Night Lightsö). The movie is masterfully done, with every element providing insight and impact.
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