Friday Night Lights (2004)
The Cast
Billy Bob Thornton .... Coach Gary Gaines
Lucas Black .... Mike Winchell
Garrett Hedlund .... Don Billingsley
Derek Luke .... Boobie Miles
Jay Hernandez .... Brian Chavez
Lee Jackson .... Ivory Christian
Lee Thompson Young .... Chris Comer
Tim McGraw .... Charles Billingsley
Grover Coulson .... L.V. Miles
Connie Britton .... Sharon Gaines
Boy I'm glad I never grew up in smalltown America, where football & Jesus reign supreme. I'm also glad that I'm not athletically inclined ('cept when it comes to 9 ball yo), so that I wouldn't hate my father more than I already do for foisting unrealistic dreams of glory onto me.
I watched Ray last night, which was also based on "actual events," & normally I tend to avoid that genre of movies. Firstly, if it's already happened, I'll know how it ends. Secondly, if there are any inaccuracies in the movie, it allows questioning of the integrity of the movie. No matter how much you loved the movie, if you find out the story was altered on it's way to the big screen to make it more "audience-friendly," then you're just gonna be a little miffed.
Ignoring that point for a moment, the movie has it's emotional peaks & valleys. The score is tremendous, screeching with feedback, building with intensity, doing everything it should for a sports movie. All of the high school football sterotypes are in the movie, including an excellent performance by Tim McGraw as "the dad who wants his son to be better than he was," guy.
The rest of the cast know their roles & do their jobs perfectly. Thornton is essentially playing a mix of Al Pacino & Jon Voight (from Any Given Sunday & Varsity Blues, respectively), & you could definitely pick worse characters to model yours on. Like maybe Goldie Hawn in Wildcats, although that movie did have Bruce McGill AND Nipsey Russell in it.
So when I check out the IMDB page for this movie, I find out in the Trivia section that Odessa never went to the State Finals, that they lost in the Semis. I feel kinda used & manipulated by the ending, especially the ol' standby they use in high school movies. Peter Berg, the director, should've gone a different way with the ending. Do the subtitle bit after the game, not back home. That combined with the altered history makes me gives this a 4 outta 5.
Brodie 808's review
Andy the Saint's review
Mighty God King's review
Burning Candles' review
Roger Ebert's review