Good day to all. A few days ago I went to my first NFL game with some friends of mine, and that got me thinking about football movies. Now before I actually get into this blog I’m just going to say that Remember the Titans is my favorite football movie, however, the one 
I’m reviewing today I feel a little more connected to. It’s a movie that some football films try to be like, but this one really hits the nail on the head I believe, in the category of Sports being more than just a game, but an honest and very real way of life. Here high school football is looked forward to with an anxious nature, the whole town is involved, and they’re all behind their boys. We’re talking about Friday Night Lights.
In west Texas, specifically the small town Of Odessa, there’s Permian high school, where a football team with a very long line of championships from district to state reside. When this film opens up, right away it get’s you into the picture, taking you into this small, at times desolate looking town where everyone really knows everyone. I should mention right at the start here that one thing that is rather different about this movie is the camera work. At times it looks like someone is driving along the road or just walking around filming with just your basic video camera, so it’s a little shaky, however as annoying as some might find this, I think it works very well because it accomplishes two things: it makes you feel like you’re there in the picture, surprisingly, and it also appears like someone was there filming this whole story as it happened, like someone went back into 1988 and filmed these students and more so players drama, rises and falls as they happened. Yeah, the shaky cam I understand might annoy people, but I think it actually gives the movie an effective sense of being, don’t let that turn you away from watching this movie.
Something big I noticed when watching this movie is that regardless of the unique camera work, there are so many scenes in this movie that are really slow and methodic. 
It’s not really even slow motion, a lot of scenes just take a lot of time to unfold, and this actually works in helping us as viewers to appreciate everything that’s going on, it adds weight to the drama and it also helps to convey the lives of our characters, which leads me into talking about the boys of this football team. That’s the thing here though, considering this is a true story the focus really had to be on the characters that gave this story life, in this case, primarily the boys of the football team, who seem like the craziest batch of ingredients in a dramatic soup.
Mike Winchell: he’s the quarterback of the team who the first time you see him you find out that he’s battling his responsibilities, the obligation he feels to his aging mother, the pressure he feels as quarterback in both doing his best for his town and school, as well as that he is never really certain about much. Mike isn’t a lost character, but you know there’s a lot of pressure in his life and you can infer that it is probably weighing him down considerably, both in his personal life and in his school life. People are already counting on 
him to bring home a state championship before the season even starts, his mom is determined that he will receive a scholarship, and let’s be honest, being a quarterback comes with a lot of pressure. There’s a scene in this movie where Mike along with two close friends talk about age and Mike in particular says he doesn’t feel like a seventeen year old. This is in a way makes him this rather lonely character because as people say this is the time of his life, he doesn’t know what that feels like. Football is his life and playing for that town is his life, he’s playing for them more than himself.
James “Boobie” Miles: Every football team has one of him, the cocky, proud, but unfortunately highly skilled player who seemingly can do anything because he’s so good. Unfortunately the team has kind of built their offense around him, I mean he is the star player really, but when that acl of his gets torn, well, things start to go south. Here’s the thing though, considering this is a true story, what happened to him was kind of a small catastrophe. Here this player is one of the best in the state, he’s got scouts lined up around 
the block for him, and he is bent on getting a scholarship so he can get out of this small town and make something of himself. Football to him is not a sport at all, it is life, it’s what he wakes up in the morning for, so when you see him sobbing into his uncles shoulder because he can’t play anymore, you really do feel for him. In spite of everything though, it would be a trial to shape his life forever, forcing him to leave behind his highly cocky nature and become more humble and caring and really evolve into this great man.
Don Billingsley: He plays football because he enjoys it, but more so you feel he plays for freedom. What do I mean by this? Well, he really is our most tragic character because he is under the reign of his obsessive and even at times abusive father, who as a past state champion for the same team, doesn’t really want as much as he feels it’s required of his son to live up to his expectations. This is why you feel so sorry for him because he feels like he can’t go home, he doesn’t like to be home, he likes to be out on the field with his brothers because that’s where he feels accepted, where he’s most useful, it’s 
the only place he enjoys being. Who can blame him? His father struggles with alcohol and is constantly shoving the fact that he makes mistakes on the field down his throat until the point where he’s yelling and or hitting his own son. Even with all this though, you know he loves his son and just wants the best for him, but has a hard time showing it. By the end though, when he embraces his son on the field and puts his state champion ring on his sons finger, that’s actually a very touching moment.
I’m gonna put the next two together: Brian Chavez and Ivory Christian. Out of the characters in this movie, I feel I connect to these two the most. With Christian, he’s this quiet player who is out there to play and is willing to do what it takes, but it’s because he’s 
nearly silent that he kind of remains a mystery. You get the sense regardless of his willingness to work that he’s not even entirely sure why he’s out there, but he is, and he’s in it for the long haul. He’s a bit of a developing character though because up until the end he is so quiet, until he suddenly springs into action and rallies his team together letting everyone know their opponents are tough but they are not invincible, and it is then he really displays his power like an unstoppable bulldozer on the field. With Chavez, he’s the character who plays simply because he loves football. It’s not his life, but he just likes playing. The great 
thing about him though is that he is tough, but he’s also very compassionate and is that player on the team you can talk to if you need to. Plus, there’s a scene where after Permian loses a big game and Mike sits in the locker room in tears, Chavez kneels beside him and puts his arm around Mike. That scene is almost verbatim as my first year on Varsity we were losing a game and my quarterback sat on the bench in tears. I did the same thing as Chavez and I too was in a way that player who you could talk to on the team.
One of the biggest things I noticed about this movie is that it’s like a series of rises and falls. As the movie progresses you see our characters battle the ups and down of playing for the team, which almost seems more like a college team than a high school one at times, the drama of their family life, and the drive they have to try and be perfect in their lives. This however leads me to talk just briefly about their coaches message. Billy Bob Thornton as coach Gary Gaines is more than just a coach, he’s like a father figure in his teams life, offering help to them whenever they need it, yelling at them 
when they deserve it, and striving to give them the best message he can. I have to say that his message was actually rather touching, mainly that being perfect isn’t about actually being flawless, as much as it is about giving your all not only when your asked to, but on your own as well, and having a great amount of love in your heart to go with it.
One last thing I need to mention is the final connection I have with this film. At the end, the season is over, that’s it, there’s such a sense of finality that it almost takes a lot out of you, and if you’ve ever played football, then you know what that feels like. It’s not an empty feeling, but it’s the end of a chapter, a time in your life that it is totally over but that you’ll never forget. You’ll never forget those bonds you made, or the lessons you learned, 
and even though that part of your life is done, it’s gotten you ready for a new part of your life to begin. That ending in a way is rather beautiful, because you not only see the emotions of the players, but you also see how far they’ve come, particularly Mike, as for the fist time in the whole movie, you see that he actually is able to look at his life, and smile.
Friday Night Lights is a terrific football movie to say the least. It’s dramatic, it’s gripping, and it really is a beautiful movie when you get down to it, as primarily conveyed through its characters that this is one of life’s many chapters, and that you should live it to its fullest degree, but also take everything you can from it, because often the greatest lessons we take in, aren’t always just staring us in the face, but have to be experienced.
Flicks With Maddog 