Good film, but has its faults

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2004)

There's been a recent trend in Hollywood as far as sports movies go. The trend follows a basic formula, which is to get a B-list actor in the role of a coach, a bunch of college-age kids and a somewhat interesting story about a sports team to equal a good and successful movie. Recent examples of this have been 2000's Remember the Titans and Miracle (released earlier this year). Titans landed Denzel Washington as a coach of a football team, and Miracle featured Kurt Russell as the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Friday Night Lights, based off the novel by H.G. Bissinger, has Billy Bob Thornton as the coach of a high school football team in Odessa, Texas.
Odessa is a small town where high school football is heavily emphasized. The players are acknowledged everywhere they go, and football is so important to these people that on every Friday night during the season, all of the stores are closed with signs that read something along the lines of, 'GONE TO THE GAME- CLOSED.' The film is about the Permian High Panthers' struggle to reach the State Championship.
What separates Lights from the aforementioned movies is that this movie focuses more on the players than on the coach. Instead of it being the story of a coach who brought his team together to do the impossible, Lights features Thornton's character as an average guy coaching a good team. The story is more about how playing football impacts the players' lives, whether it is a knee injury or an abusive father. This is one of the few areas where the movie failed. Although most, if not all, of the subplots were interesting, some were left unresolved, which is annoying after learning so much about these characters.
The only other area I can really criticize is the camera work. Most of the movie was compiled of quick shots, resulting in a frenzied feel to the movie. During the football games, this was great-the chaos of the game was accurately portrayed. This style of directing didn't work during the dramatic scenes, however, and often left the viewer in a state of confusion.
Overall, Friday Night Lights is a good way to spend two hours. The scenes during the football games were very well done and as a whole the movie was very interesting. I would give it a 7 out of 10.