About more than just football

Rating: 8/10 (22 July 2007)

This movie is not so much about football as it is a small, economically depressed town in west Texas and its relationship with a high school football team.
In short, the team is all the town has. It's all that they know. Local stores close shop to attend the games, the kids walk around emulating the players and wearing their jerseys, and talk radio revolves around high school football. Life is good when the team wins, and not so good when it loses. Every facet of the town is effected by it.
Being a football fan, though, in order for a 'football movie' to be truly great it must at least make sense when it comes to the technical stuff. And this movie sure does. The terminology, the equipment, the coaches, the fans -- all of it looks and feels real.
As far as the acting, Billy Bob Thornton turned in a solid performance as Coach Gaines. To me, though, the scene stealer was Tim McGraw. It was amazing to see his relationship with his son come full circle the way it did.
Finally, what pushes this movie into category of one of the finest sports movies of all time is its score. Great ambient music by 'Explosions in the Sky' perfectly captured the bittersweet euphoria and pain of the story.
Highly recommended and not just solely for football fans.