FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
US, 2004, 118 minutes, Colour.
Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas Black, Garett Hedlund, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lee Jackson, Tim Mc Graw, Connie Britton.
Directed by Peter Berg.
Friday Night Lights was a very popular football film on its release. It was so popular that it led to a television series which was also acclaimed in its own right.
This is a film very much for an American audience, but once it goes beyond the United States, there are difficulties in audiences understanding American football, its code, its moves… And there are quite a number of excerpts of matches in this film, the play with close-ups of fans, players, coaches intercut.
The setting is 1988, Odessa, Texas, and its local football team which has had some success in the state championships. The aim is to win the competition in 1988 and so the screenplay takes us through the competition, week by week, the general success, the play, the advice of the coach, difficulties, as well as personal portraits of the players and their difficulties.
Billy Bob Thornton is right at home in the role of the coach, a good man with wife and daughter, interested in the play as well is the welfare of the players, sometimes at the mercy of the higher authorities who want winds and no losses. He has the opportunity of quite a morale-rising speech before the final match of the film and competition, emphasising perfection that only the sense of being true to oneself and supporting fellow-players.
Included in the cast are a number of younger actors who were to make their way well in their film careers, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Jay Hernandez.
For American sports fans and football fans, definitely. And for those who like sports films.
1. A popular football film, in the United States, beyond? Leading to a successful television series?
2. The 1980s setting, atmosphere? The town of Odessa, Texas? The surrounding countryside, Texas openness? The town, homes, school, football? Beyond Odessa, locations for the football matches? Extra dome? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus on the importance of football, the local teams, victories and premierships, competitiveness? Prestige for the town? People’s commitment to the Friday
matches, the Friday night lights?
4. Audience knowledge of the game, Americans and football, something of a mystery in terms of the code, players and moves, uniforms, cheerleaders, fans, non-Americans?
5. The portrait of the team, the variety of players, the coach? The background of the town and the authorities, financial backing, officials? The tensions within the team, decision-making?
6. The portrait of the coach, an earnest man, his skills, interactions with the players, his home life, wife and daughter, negotiations with the authorities? Winning and losing, a precarious job? His skills in understanding the men, communicating with them, decisions during the matches? Is pep talks? The final speech before the final, perfection, being true to oneself, supporting the members? An important and selfless rallying cry?
7. The members of the team:
Mike Winchell, his age, with his grandmother, his knowledge of the game, an earnest young man, his personal life, friends with the other members of the team, his abilities, the support of the coach?
Don Billingsly: his age, experience, the pressure from his father, former champion, that the year of winning was everything for life? His father’s drinking, taunts? His reaction, morose moods? His friendship with the others? Driving home with his father, his father’s’ antagonism, the championship ring, throwing it away, losing it, the final speech of his father, his giving back the ring?
Boobie Miles: his love of the game, skills, his uncle support, is injuries, doctor, prognosis, his defining this, his uncle’s agreement, pleading to play, going on, further injury, carried off, on crutches, with the players for the pep talk, weeping in the car with his uncle? Never playing again?
Brian Chivers,: Hispanic background, pleasant personality, place in the team, supporting friends?
The range of other players, white backgrounds, African- American backgrounds? Contribution? The place of the African- American players in the Texas of the 1980s?
8. The background characters, the coach and his wife and daughter and the support? The fans in the stadium? The spirit of support for the game?
9. A piece of Americana, American sports and 21st centuries?
