West Texas Football Clearly depicted by Bissinger

Rating: Null/10 (17 October 2004)

I loved this film. I grew up in West Texas ( El Paso), played Texas high school 4-AAAA ( now 5-A) football and had the fortune( or misfortune..!) to see the MOJO machine in action. I am an aspiring coach here in GA, and Billy Bob Thornton does an excellent job of playing the immortal Permian Head Coach Gaines. The play-off scenes are a tad confusing and I would have liked a little more history of the Permian Panthers scrolled at the first of the movie such as the scrolling they do before "Red Dawn" and other movies based on an event relating to its history. The actors who played the Permian football team were outstanding. While somewhat controversial, West Texas football is the real deal. My kudos to author H.G. Bissinger, who wrote a fabulous story. It is my all time favorite book. The movie does a good job of "demonstrating" the "reality" of the players of the Odessa Permian 1988 football squad.