Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights chronicles the entire 1988 season of the Permian High Panthers of Odessa, Texas, with football players, coaches, mothers, fathers, pastors, boosters, fans and families struggling with ongoing personal conflicts while the team fights for a state championship.
A town for sale, Odessa, Texas has seen better days--the financial bust evident in its boarded-up shops and broken lives. Yet one hope sustains the community where, once a week during the fall, the town and its dreams come alive beneath the dazzling and disorienting Friday night lights...when the Permian High Panthers take to the field. In a city where economic uncertainty has eroded the spirit of its inhabitants, nearly everyone seeks comfort in the religion of the Friday night ritual, where the unfulfilled dreams of an entire community are shifted onto the shoulder pads of a team of high-school athletes.
Member Reviews
Go Panthers! - Smittyx
I'm not a big US football fan, but this movie drew me in from the start. It doesn't hurt that Explosions in the Sky, one of my all-time favourite bands, provides an absolutely note-perfect soundtrack.
Thornton turns in a great performance as the head coach of the Panthers, but it's Derek Luke as the once hot prospect Boobie Myles who provides so much inspiration for the film.
From the crisp images of West Texas to the personal conflicts of father and son, and all in between, this movie will get you.true nature behind sports - CanCritic
I love movies that reveal the true nature behind sports. This movie did that, albeit a "Based on a True Story" movie, it captured every element behind highschool football in Texas.
I loved to hate the people of the town, pressuring the coach to win state or lose his job, to the quarterback who just wanted to play football without all the hype and take care of his mother, to the over egotistical running back who after a career ending injury becomes the man he should have been at the beginning of the movie, to the father a former Panther hero and state champion that continues to run all over his son about his playing ability until the end of the state champs game where he hands over his ring to his son.
This movie exposed the unforgivingness of highschool football in Texas to the absolute glory of it. This movie balances its characters very well, and pulls no punches in its depiction of both the pro football pressure at the highschool level and its balanced yet dynamic characters.
A huge 2 thumbs up for this movie.These other reviewers are out to lunch - theScud
This is a great movie. Not a great sports movie, but a great movie, period.
You do not have to be a football fan to enjoy the film. It's a story about characters and situations, not an homage to the game. Don't get me wrong, much of the movie is played out on the field, but this is deeper than your typical jock picture. A lot of the drama is developed off the field, as this underrated West Texas team tries to find its way to the State Championship game.
The game scenes are thrilling and they pull you in. I don't even like football and I found myself on the edge of my seat.
This film deserves to be ranked up there among the greatest sports movies of all time like Rocky, The Natural, and Slap Shot. It also deserves a spot on your ZipList.
Member Reviews
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Go Panthers! - Smittyx
I'm not a big US football fan, but this movie drew me in from the start. It doesn't hurt that Explosions in the Sky, one of my all-time favourite bands, provides an absolutely note-perfect soundtrack.
Thornton turns in a great performance as the head ...true nature behind sports - CanCritic
I love movies that reveal the true nature behind sports. This movie did that, albeit a "Based on a True Story" movie, it captured every element behind highschool football in Texas.
I loved to hate the people of the town, pressuring the coach to win ...These other reviewers are out to lunch - theScud
This is a great movie. Not a great sports movie, but a great movie, period.
You do not have to be a football fan to enjoy the film. It's a story about characters and situations, not an homage to the game. Don't get me wrong, much of the movie is ...