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Friday Night Lights (DVD)

Review by: Tom Johnson

TomJohnson@TheCinemaSource.com

Let me preface this review by stating that I'm nothing but a fair-weather football fan. That we're now witnessing the most exciting play-offs of my lifetime means that, of course, I'm currently typing in my Michael Vick jersey(which is less popular up here than it is back home in the ATL), but during most of the season, I merely check statistics, and rarely have more than a lukewarm interest in the actual games.

The fact that I can't be classified as much more than a casual fan makes my choice of Friday Night Lights as favorite film of 2004 all the more astonishing. But astonishing is perhaps one of the best adjectives to describe the job done by director Peter Berg. When all is said and done, Friday Night Lights isn't just the best football film ever made, it's one of the best sports films, period. Yet it achieves its greatness not through dramatic filtering, forced character development or sentimental gloss, but by doing something no other sports film has had the guts to do: it makes the game itself the star, and never tries to allegorize it. Here, football is what it is, representing nothing, but simply existing as the only pure joy the film's characters will ever know.

Set in the small town of Odessa, Texas, the film is a loose adaptation of the book by reporter H.G. Bissinger. Bissinger sets out to address fanatical fans, racial tension and the undue stress on young athletes in his novel, but all that is secondary here, merely left to garnish the story that Berg tells on the football field. Chronicling one memorable season in lives of Odessa's Permian High Panthers, the film is alternately hopeful and heartbreaking in its illustration of the young players' lives, both on and off the field. It's defining characteristic, however, is how it tells its story: cold, studied and without judgment, as if it were a documentary(though ironically, it feels even more truthful than a few actual documentaries from the past year did).

This effectively makes Friday Night Lights the anti-Remember the Titans, the anti-Disney. There's not a sentimental bone in its body, and the film trusts the audience to react emotionally regardless. Interestingly enough, all the fear, sadness, laughter and tension elicited here come much easier when one doesn't feel as if these emotions are being forcibly pulled. Much like its portrayal of football, the film doesn't try to exist as anything other than just that-film. Berg is comfortable allowing Friday Night Lights to be anything the audience wants it to be, instead of force-feeding the film he wants it to be. It's a choice that few directors have

the courage to make, instead assuming that the job of a sports film is to contain a largely subjective experience within one glossy viewpoint. Berg gambles on something different, and it pays off on so many levels.

Adding to the gritty, "you-are-there" realism of the film is the extraordinary effort put forth by the entire cast. Anchored by a selfless and brilliantly understated performance by Billy Bob Thornton, the characters onscreen never appear to be characters at all, but human beings caught for a moment on film, a remarkable feat accomplished through subtle acting, tight editing and dialogue that feels(with the exception of one awkward skeet-shooting scene) like improv. Especially noteworthy is Tim McGraw as a drunken, disorderly father, merely for the fact that despite being a newcomer to acting, he plays a role beaten to death by the genre without a trace of banality or cliché. Another standout in the cast is Derek Luke as the arrogant star quarterback, Boobie Miles. He's handed what's questionably the film's most emotionally difficult scene, and soars with it gracefully.

I could go on and on about how the film commands a genuine love for its team, how it feels like actual events unfolding before our eyes, or how, in the film's closing minutes, a simple gesture made by one character to another evokes tears that car crashes, slow chanting and paralyzing injuries in similar films could only wish for. I'll ease off, because it would really just be my perspective speaking. The brilliant thing about Friday Night Lights is its absolute trust in the audience. Each viewer is invited to bring his own point of view, welcome to latch his own emotions and experiences onto every frame. Berg respects his characters, but remains as much of an objective eye as possible, respecting the audience just as much. This decision requires that the viewer bring something of his own to the table, but through strength of storytelling, the film gives back far more than it receives. It may not be the slickest, or for that matter the most technically efficient film of 2004, but through its own unique magic, it stands as my personal favorite.

Film Grade: A

The picture and sound are top-notch, with nary a glitch or an awkward layer-switch in sight, and the packaging retains the simple yet effective poster image. The slipcase is always appreciated as well. The extras on the disc are meaty, but could be a lot meatier. A short documentary on the real Mojo '88 seniors digs up interviews with all the real-life characters, and even reunites some of them. Especially poignant are the words from Miles, who's powerful statements and modest persona show that any negative similarities to his onscreen persona have passed with age. The only

problem with the piece is that it's too short. After supplying us with a surprising amount of firsthand accounts, it ends before it really starts. It could have easily run for 90 minutes; instead it runs for 20. The same could be said of the DVD's behind-the-scenes featurettes, one displaying Tim McGraw's first jump into acting, and the other showcasing the intense preparation required for two of the film's climactic games. Together, the features run about 10 minutes. Deleted scenes are present, including one that highlights the racial divide that's better chronicled in the book, while Peter Berg gives a bizarre introduction to what is apparently an "added scene", shot after principle photography, that ends with an Ali-G reference. Overall, the extras are ambitious, but fall just short of what they could have amounted to.

DVD Grade: B+

Since its release, Friday Night Lights slowly gained word of mouth, and with its DVD release, seems destined to make a slow, Rudy-like climb to notoriety. With any hope, it will soon be recognized by audiences as the modern-day classic that it is. It may be brutal in its gridiron violence, and it may be gritty in its portrayal of broken dreams and crushed spirits, but under the film's cynical surface lies the heart of an optimistic softie: a film that has equal say over the pressure to win forced on young men, the ridiculous 3 month spectacle of small town football, and the brief freedom of being able to do something that you actually love. It only takes a receptive viewer to unlock it all. Featuring some of the greatest football scenes ever captured on film, and fueled by a worldly, anti-mush sentiment, Friday Night Lights is one of those rare films to touch a place within the viewer that can't be reached through words alone. It's a beautiful, heartbreaking film that resonates far deeper than any of its peers, despite a macho exterior and a bleak tone. A winner in every sense of the word, it's designed to be a different film for every person who sees it. Give the film a chance, and make it your own.

Final Grade: A