My youngest and I went to see Friday Night Lights (FNL) a couple of days ago, and I have to eat my words. As a commenter to Sleepless in Midland, when the film crew came to Odessa I said something like “…they didn’t come all this way to make us look good…”, my belief fueld by a) the original, not very flattering book on which the movie was based, and b) the director is the cousin of the books’ author.
I was wrong. They made Odessa, and Odessans, look like Odessans, no better and certainly no worse. (I grew up in Odessa, went to Odessa Permian, and know of which I speak).
The movie is an excellent story of small-town but big-time High School football, and as such could have been about nearly any program, but Permian made an excellent subject with their outstanding winning record and painfully devoted fan base. (Mojo!)
Just go and see it, or see it when it comes out on DVD. You’ll be glad you did.
It has been several days since I saw FNL. My lasting impressions are:
1) It is an excellent view into team sports in general.
2) The dramatic moments in the movie are derived purely from the reality of team sports and are not exaggerated, so events like those in the movie actually happen within several school sports teams every year. This makes FNL nearly unique among motion pictures.
3) This movie is authentic. I rate the degree of adherence to actual events equal to that of “Apollo 13”.
4) Because it’s authentic, I am now more proud to be a Permian Panther. MOJO is on the map now, in a very good way. FNL will serve to further motivate every future generation of Permian football players and is a lasting tribute to all who came before, building the tradition.