[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/
