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FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS By Tom McCurrie
Despite being based on both a true story and a national bestseller, I wasn't expecting much at all from FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. In fact, I expected to be bored out of my mind by another underdogs-come-from-behind sports flick. Much to my delight, however, I was riveted by a movie that wasn't so much about sports as it was about life in all its bittersweet glory.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
Written by Peter Berg and David Aaron Cohen, and directed by Berg, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS documents the 1988 season of the Permian High Panthers, a high school football team from Odessa, Texas. And when I say documents, I mean it. Berg's hand-held, fly-on-the-wall camera gives the story a documentary-like immediacy that envelops us in its realism. Berg also ladles on the atmosphere, capturing the gritty look and shimmering feel of West Texas in near-palpable fashion.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS' authenticity is aided by its well-chosen cast. From Billy Bob Thornton's head coach to Tim McGraw's bitter drunk (Country Music star McGraw is excellent in his acting debut), the performances are all strong and natural. Best of all is young Lucas Black as the team quarterback, a boy slowly crumbling under the burden of caring for his mentally unstable mother. This kid acts so well I wasn't able to catch him doing it, giving his performance a reality that soon becomes emotionally overwhelming.
But does the script have that reality? On the surface, no, since it hits the beats of every cliched sports flick ever made. The Odessa team loses its best player (Derek Luke) the first game of the season, turning it into an instant underdog for the State Championships. The considerably weakened team spends the rest of the movie overcoming personal problems as well as tougher opponents to make it to the Finals. And when it does get there, it has to topple the best team in the state, Dallas Carter, whose players make William "The Refrigerator" Perry look positively emaciated.
From this synopsis, you'd think FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS would be just another saccharine, feel-good sports movie, one so predictably formula the audience would lose interest in record time. But the script defies expectations in two important ways. One, it shows us the dark side of American sport. Odessa takes its obsession with the gridiron too far; the town's entire self-worth seems to be caught up in winning football games, creating a pressure-cooker environment that bears down on both the young players and the movie's audience. When Black blows a pass that could've won the game, he turns into a quivering wreck. And McGraw's victory-obsessed dad doesn't hesitate to slap his son (Garrett Hedlund) around when he fumbles the ball. Most tragically, when Luke suffers his career-ending injury, he thinks his life is over; like Odessa itself, he's so focused on football he can't imagine a life beyond the game. Luke's emotional breakdown when he realizes he'll never play again is as heartbreaking as it gets. (One thing the script could've done better, however, was to show how economically depressed Odessa was at the time. This would have explained why football was the only source of pride the town had, as well as why the kids were so desperate to win, get those college scholarships and escape.)
But FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS does something even more refreshing to enliven the sports genre. It has its underdogs LOSE the championships. Instead of a last-minute miracle victory, we get a last-minute crushing defeat. This twist was so unpredictable, and so brave, it completely blew me away. When was the last time a Rocky-type underdog lost in a major studio feature? The Tenth of Never. Or to be more exact -- in ROCKY itself. People forget Apollo Creed beat Rocky in the 1976 movie. And that flick won Best Picture.
Now you'd think audiences wouldn't like a movie where the hero loses, but ROCKY cleverly solves that problem. Life is bittersweet, and any movie that reminds us of that has much more reality, and thus much more emotional impact. Rocky loses the match, but since he feels just going the distance is a "win," the film leavens the bitter with the sweet (it also helps that Rocky wins the girl at the end). FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS does the same thing. Thornton tells his players that winning means living up to your potential, not victory in a particular game. Despite its loss, the Odessa team does live up to its potential, leaving us with a good feeling after the defeat. A final title card explaining that Odessa won the State Championships the following year doesn't hurt.
They say Americans will forgive everything but failure. Hopefully Odessa's failure to win the '88 championships won't stop audiences from seeing this winner of a film.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, they're archived on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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