What Football really is all about

There is a scene in Friday Night Lights when injured star running back Boobie Myles returns to his team's locker room after he's basically been told that his season is over. He goes around the room to his teammates and spreads words of encouragement. Then, he exits and returns to the car where his father is waiting for him and he bursts into tears. "I can't do anything else but play Football," he cries to his father. The authenticity of this scene doesn't surprise when we reach that point, because Friday Night Lights in its entirety has the same authentic feel.

Most Football coaches sleep better when nothing is expected of their team. Permian High coach Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) does not have such a luxury. His team is one of the most talented High School squads out there and the entire town of Odessa, Texas is predicting a state championship. The film lets us in on the lives of several people involved in the adventure. Quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) is stuck in a difficult situation. He wants to get out of Odessa (as do most people in this movie) and his mother knows the playbook almost better than he does. Here is the case of a guy for whom the stress involved in Football surpasses the fun. "You know, it has to be fun," says a coach from a Division 1-AA program who has popped by for a visit.

Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund), the team's fullback, has a father (Tim McGraw) who has won a state championship with Permian. He is hellbent on his son managing this feat as well because, as he ends up telling him, this might be the greatest and most important thing he'll accomplish in his life. Obviously, the father wants it more than the son.

However, the team's hopes rest on star Running Back Boobie Myles (Derek Luke). Myles is heavily recruited by many top NCAA schools. The movie gives us a look at his unfortunate reality when a reporter asks him about the quality of his grades and he says something along the lines of "I get straight A's for Athletics."

At the end of Permian's first regular season game, Myles injures his knee. This puts a lot of heat on coach Gaines for keeping him in there, not to mention on Myles as college coaches begin to wonder how serious the injury is (scholarship offers being at stake) and puts the team's dream of glory in serious jeopardy.

The cast features many unknown youngsters, but they all do a fine job. Luke, who was so good in Antwone Fisher, is once again excellent here as the cocky Myles, who gets a serious humility lesson when bad luck strikes and, for all intents and purposes, ends his hopes of playing in the NCAA. Billy Bob Thornton is very effective and does terrific work with what turns out to be a beautiful part as Coach Gaines. The biggest surprise to me was the remarkable quality of Tim McGraw's performance, which made me wish he'd let go of country music and focus solely on acting.

Some (like epinions.com member Ed Williamson) were somewhat offended by the way Odessa is portrayed in the film. Indeed, people unfamiliar with Odessa (such as myself) would probably be left under the impression that the town is a complete hole where people are drunken, lifeless racists whose sole concern is the performance of the local High School team. They (as Ed Williamson did) made sure to point out every myth found in the movie and setting the records straight, which is a good thing to do for the sake of it, so that Odessa doesn't earn an unfair bad reputation. I completely understand that. However, I have a great deal of trouble blaming the movie for it.

What probably constitutes the movie's greatest strength as well as its greatest weakness is that even though it is based on a true story, the people and the town of Odessa as pictured in the movie, before being people and a town, are concepts. Friday Night Lights represents the rare times when this is a good thing. Because while some bits and pieces may be "Hollywoodized" for the sake of an entertaining movie, Friday Night Lights makes truly astute observations and asks important questions. It shows a side of the High School Football culture that many people have no idea about and can probably scarcely imagine. Football can be important to people and probably is to anyone who plays it, but is it normal that it be all that some have in their lives? Is that "healthy"? Can a point be reached when parents, not to mention their children, take the game a little too seriously? (See scene where Tim McGraw attacks his son after he fumbles a ball in practice.) This is true for any parent anywhere. Until they get to the pros, it is a a good thing for people to put the hopes of a town on the backs of kids who are not prepared, never mind being paid, to deal with this kind of pressure? As the film shows, it does build their character, but it also scars them for life.

It's easy to dismiss Friday Night Lights from contention for the label of great film because it's a sports movie. That however, would be a mistake. I believe it's a great film because it can be seen in many dimensions. There is obviously the Football story of team that overcame many obstacles to achieve something not short of greatness. But there is also the ordeal that some of these kids went through and the general perspective on how seriously the game is taken by some people in spite of the fact that it is after all a game.

Not every Football environment teaches young men the right values. But Billy Bob Thornton gives what is probably the most important halftime speech of any Football movie ever made when he says: "All season long, you've heard me talk about being perfect. But being perfect doesn't show up on the scoreboard or the win-loss column. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you gave it everything you had; there was nothing more that you could have done. Can you live in that moment, as best as you can, with pride in your hearts, with joy in your hearts? If you can do that, then you're perfect." Nothing else needs to be said.