Friday Night Lights

Synopsis: In 1988 Buzz Bissinger spent the year in Odessa, in West Texas following the high school football team, the Odessa-Permian Panthers, from their first day of training until the state finals. He discovered a town whose identity lay in whether their team won the state final or not. Bissinger wrote a book about his experience, "Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream" capturing the highs and lows of what it takes to live the dream.

In many ways I found Friday Night Lights to be an intriguing film. Firstly, I don't imagine that I am part of the audience demographic which I imagine is a male audience, say between 17 to 39.

Brian Grazer, the producer was the force behind bringing Bissinger's book to the screen. Alan J Pakula had introduced the book to Grazer when it was initially released. Pakula had planned to direct the film, however he was killed in a car accident in 1998. Grazer decided to stick with the project and do his best to complete the project keeping in mind what he felt Pakula would have done if he'd had the opportunity.

There are a number of 'six degrees of separation' aspect to the cast and crew in this film that helped to bring the film into being. The director, Peter Berg is Buzz Bissinger's cousin. Bissinger gave Berg a copy of the galley proof of the book when he wrote it fourteen years prior. Berg was immediately taken with the strength of the story and remained interested in its fate as the years went by and pushed to direct the film, with Grazer eventually taking him on.

Grazer had always considered Billy Bob Thornton for the lead role. Thornton was able to relate to the story from personal experience: his father had been a high school basketball coach. Playing beside Thornton is Mike Winchell as Lucas Black. At 14 years of age, Winchell played Frank Wheatley, the young boy who befriends Thornton's mentally disabled character in Sling Blade.

The point I wish to make here is that the connections between those involved in the creation of the film, and the commitment these people have to the project, do make a difference. As the director, Berg respected his cousin's story so much, he went to the effort of getting to know the people of Odessa, both past and present, because he wanted to be as authentic as he could to Bissinger's vision. It shows on the screen.

Billy Bob Thornton is perfect in the role of the football coach. This would have to be one of the most 'ordinary' roles he has played, and yet there is something about him that is out of the ordinary. He uses words like 'heart' and 'love' and 'joy' when he wants to inspire his team and to their credit, they respond. Watching these young men deal with their own fears and hopes as they carry the burden of their town's expectations is like watching a group of soldiers go off to war.

Friday Night Lights has many of the usual ingredients of the 'against all odds' sports film. What goes against our expectations is that the guts of the story is about the journey, not the triumphant outcome. This is a film that deepens the genre, paving the way for more thoughtful interpretations of it.

 

 

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