Captures the West Texas Environment Remarkably Well

Rating: 7/10 (21 March 2019)

This film centers around a high school football team in West Texas known as the Odessa-Permian Panthers who have set a standard of excellence that remains difficult for anybody else to surpass on the football field. However, with this success has come such a rabid devotion to this team by the local residents that an enormous amount of pressure is put upon everyone associated with the team in the process. So much so that the local residents and alumni not only expect a victory each and every time the team takes the field but they also demand it--or else! And this puts the new coach "Gary Gaines" (Billy Bob Thornton) in an especially difficult postion which only gets worse after he loses his star running back "Boobie Miles" (Derek Luke) to a season ending knee injury in the very first game. And things really get bad when he not only loses this game but another one not too long afterward. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although there was some artistic license taken with the historical accuracy here and there, the film follows the basic plot of the book and makes for an enjoyable movie experience overall. I especially liked the manner in which the director (Peter Berg) managed to capture the West Texas environment as vividly as he did. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this movie and recommend it to all those who might be looking for a film of this type.