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Movie: Friday Night Lights
Published by Semprini
17th May 2005
Movie: Friday Night Lights

[image=left]http://www.alternativenation.net/gallery/files/1/frinili.jpg[/image]Sports movies are strange beasts. It's a fine line for the makers to straddle, where brilliance is a very small distance from mediocrity.

Friday Night Lights is the story of a west Texas team, the Odessa-Permian Panthers, and the 1988 season of high school football. [Note: Here, and for the rest of the review, I don't mean soccer] This is a subculture that is very alien to UK viewers, and we really have nothing comparable to it. The whole town gets behind the team on gameday, it is almost as if a winning season is all that the town lives for.

The movie does feature all the usual sporting movie clichés, but it isn't clichéd in itself - it plays around with the conventional wisdom as regards said clichés. For example, in movies of this ilk, there is always a setback that befalls the team. Always. It is, however, very rare for the audience to be hit with it in the first 20 minutes.

The movie is well shot, and captures the desolate feel of small-town Texas quite beautifully. There are a lot of fast cuts, although perhaps too many, and they would have been better off sticking to the game sequences for these. That said, the excitement of the games is well captured, particularly the final showdown.

The film is not without its flaws. Subplots are alluded to, but not developed as fully as they could be. Those who are not fully aware of the nuances of football will feel that they are missing something, and a racial issue is hinted at, which simply isn't necessary.

The real meat of the movie, though, is the team's march towards the state championship. This is where a sports movie will stand or fall. If it is done properly, the audience will find themselves rooting for the heroes, feeling every tackle as if they received it themselves. If it's done badly, they'll be looking at their watch, indifferent to it all. Whether the final throw of the dice (another genre cliché) is successful will have no emotional resonance. That is the crux of the quality of the movie: leaving aside the fact it happened 17 years ago, will you find yourself wishing you could be on the field to help them yourselves?

You will. Recommended.


Friday Night Lights is out now on general release.

http://www.fridaynightlightsmovie.com/
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Old 17th May 2005, 11:14pm  
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Re: Review: Friday Night Lights

Meant to go see this on monday, sadly i didn't.

Soon though ...soon.
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Old 18th May 2005, 7:02pm  
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Re: Review: Friday Night Lights

I was going to see this on saturday morning, but i decided Robots might be a better way to ease a hangover (it wasn't).

I'll prolly go see this even though it looks like a sport-movie by numbers. Somebody adapt Don Dellilo's 'End Zone', damnit.
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Old 18th May 2005, 7:39pm  
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Re: Review: Friday Night Lights

Hmm really fancy this, never even knew it was out.
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Old 19th May 2005, 2:58pm  
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Re: Review: Friday Night Lights

I was thinking about seeing this, i probably will do now. Cheers Semp =)
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Old 20th May 2005, 4:20pm  
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Re: Movie: Friday Night Lights

does anyone know if it's true that Explosions in the Sky do the soundtrack to this?

I think I read it somewhere but can't remember where
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Old 20th May 2005, 5:58pm  
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Re: Movie: Friday Night Lights

They do some of the original music, yes, according to imdb.
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Old 20th May 2005, 6:16pm  
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Re: Movie: Friday Night Lights

I really enjoyed this movie, great story, also for me some great football scenes, and billy bob thornton was also really good in this.
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Old 11th June 2005, 6:40am  
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Re: Movie: Friday Night Lights

I heard the soundtrack before I saw the movie, it's a beezer anall. If you've seen other american football movies like Varsity Blues then youll know the formula but theres a few surpises and decent acting and it has an original look to it. Plus you won't be able to help getting choked up by the end.
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Old 11th June 2005, 8:57am  
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Re: Movie: Friday Night Lights

Quote:
Originally Posted by One_tree_hill
Plus you won't be able to help getting choked up by the end.
awww bless.

good movie tho, the acting certainly does surprise you.
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