H. G. Bissinger decided to capture the atmosphere around the Friday night high school football games as he traveled to Odessa, Texas, in 1988.  This can be read in Bissinger’s bestseller Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, which is the foundation for the film.  In Odessa football is the most important issue of the town during the fall when the lights of Ratliff Stadium are lit.  All businesses close for the game as every single living soul congregates at the stadium to support the towns pride, the Permian Panther's.  However, the game is so much more than just a game, it becomes an outlet for parents and town folks.  The Permian High School athletes have to face these demands of parents, booster clubs, coaches, and the people of the town in what seems to be a struggle for life in a game of football.  The game seems to be the only way out of the town for the young high school students as football is encouraged above education.  The people of Odessa frantically try to achieve this opportunity for the players.  Thus, the goal is always to win the State Championship game.

The journey to the State Championship becomes a long and hard trial of emotional and physical stamina on the young high school players as on and off field behavior is being scrutinized in regards to football.  The story focuses on a small number of players that become the mirror image of the whole team.  A couple of these players are James "Boobie" Miles (Derek Luke), Mike Winchell (Lucas Black), and Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund).  Boobie is a rare talent in football, but football is also the only thing that he knows, while the quarterback, Mike, has a sick mother that frequently requires his attention.  These boys on the football team are pushed into an environment where they are turned into men as it is their last year of high school.

The director Peter Berg portrays Bissinger’s written account through a cinematic experience that is depicted with grainy realism that does not hide the ugliness or the heroic effort by the high school athletes as they try to meet the demands of Odessa.  Berg brings the audience into the locker room where the viewer can visually smell the sweat, feel the emotions, and suffer the pain of each tackle. There is no mystique to what happens in the film and it is this visual frankness that punches the air out the gut of the audience.  Lastly, Berg does not display deep intricate character development, but focuses on the social dilemma of all the characters and the environment in which the story takes place.  In the end, Berg offers the audience a great cinematic experience that requires reflection as this coming of age sports film deals with several issues that are smacked into the viewers face.

DIRECTED BY

Peter Berg

COUNTRY

USA

Filmography links and data courtesy of