A beautiful and inspiring must-watch football movie BASED on the book

Rating: 8/10 (13 April 2014)

As an ex-player and deep fan of the book, I can truly say that Friday Night Lights captured the emotions of the players and the fans from the "small" town of Odessa. It evokes sentiment during every second and, just like in the book, makes the viewer an instant die-hard fan, a member of Odessa's community of Permian supporters.
The actors chosen for their respective roles played their parts brilliantly. Hats off especially to Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas Black, Derek Luke, and Garrett Hedlund for their performances. Everyone was totally bonded with their character and did not let go.
While the makers did a terrific job in selecting the cast and writing each scene, there were some major issues that interfered with me delving completely into Permian High School, fall 1988. I do not want to sound like a movie sin counter, but I could not look over a lot of the following things.
To start off, there was no reason whatsoever for the changes made to the players. Absolutely none. It transformed the story way too much. Brian Chavez was put on defense and had his number changed to 4, an insult to his legacy, in my mind; Ivory Christian was shown to be weak at the beginning and was moved to defensive end as number 90; Boobie Miles had his number changed to 45. They also altered some scores and games that took place. And the list goes on and on. There is no purpose in me dragging on about all the revisions because they can quite simply be Googled.
Moving on, the in-your-face anachronism of 21st century cars was quite careless. People were dressed like it was early November for the September 29th game. The zipping about and shaking of the camera, while confusing but suitable for game scenes, was inappropriate for scenes in which a steady shot would easily permit the viewer to grasp what was going on. And last for the list of criticisms, the Rebels game deserved more on-screen time and should have shown the defense playing as well. It made it seem like the Panthers were being absolutely demolished when in fact it was a close game thanks to the defense.
I know a large portion of this was dedicated to complaints. But, the flaws stuck out like a sore thumb against the perfection that was the rest of the film. The fact that they only made me dock 2 points says a lot about the quality of the movie. It will pull you in and make you understand and feel what it really is like to be a part of a high school football team in a merciless town. Watched and written 04/13/2014.