FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Directed by Peter Berg
Certificate PG

If you’ve seen Coach Carter – or any sports film in fact – Friday Night Lights will seem familiar territory. Set in the football-crazed Texas town of Odessa, this is a sports film which, while not exactly being different in the way it looks at winning and losing, knows how to entertain even the most non-sports-minded.
Based on the 1990 book by H G Bissinger, it tells of the suffocating world of high school sports in a place where, for many of its players, the big game will be the highpoint of their entire lives.
This is particularly sad when you realise they’re all teenagers but the pressure to perform well for the town makes them feel a lot older. One player says: “Do you feel 17? I sure don’t.”
In Odessa, there is only the team and football. This is reflected in the fact that the school has an enormous stadium and everyone shuts up shop for the big game. While Odessa loves its football, their players are, after all, only human.
Their coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) is a different kind of coach. He is not military tough nor is he squishy and nice. He is relatively unflappable, as seen when the team loses once and he comes home to find ‘For Sale’ signs all over his front lawn, put there by kindly appreciative locals.
Odessa has won the state championship for four years in a row: these people have no sense of humour when it comes to losing. Of the gifted players, we all know that something tragic must happen to the over-confident running back called Boobie (Derek Luke) and that Don (Garrett Hedlund), the downtrodden son of an abusive former championship player must also come to the crunch.
Directed by Peter Berg this film has a look of shock about it. It is as if lightning has struck the town leaving it in bleak, washed-out tones. The editing is fierce, keeping you on your toes so if you dip into the corn at the wrong moment, you’ve lost already.
This is a sports movie that plays in the back of the brain long after you’ve left the cinema.