Friday Night Lights (2004)
I have just four words to say about
"Friday Night Lights:" Explosions in the Sky!
(Okay, maybe I have a few more than
four, but those are the most important four!)
That's the name of the Austin band
that provides much of the music for the film. That's
the name of the band that should become household
names because of their amazing music. Director Peter
Berg scores this high school football film perfectly
with the music of this amazing band, combined with
some familiar songs by ZZ Top, Iggy and the Stooges
and Bad Company among others, in a way that makes
his film a perpetual motion machine. This is a film
that goes and goes and goes and only slows down for
moments of pure poetic brilliance that captivates
our spirits and our hearts. But trust me, it is Explosions
in the Sky who makes this film the truly emotional
experience that it is. Sure, Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas
Black, Derek Luke and the amazing Garrett Hedlund
help to solidify this moving, heart-wrenching, tear-
inducing film, but it is the score, the aural underscore
of the film, that truly ties everything together and
provides the emotional platform from which this amazing
cast and this visionary filmmaker can jump.
"Friday Night Lights" isn't just
for those who played high school football. And it
isn't just for those who love the sport. No, this
film is for anyone who ever went to high school. This
is also for anyone who could never quite comprehend
why the sport was so important; important to our classmates,
important to the parents, important to the school
staff. This is a film that reminds us not only of
the teamwork, emotional heart, physicality, and exuberance
of playing the game, but of the enormous pressure
which is put on all teenagers these days to perform,
to excel, to succeed. In the end, the film is about
brotherhood, memories, moments, and the spiritual
beauty of male bonding. For a film about football,
there is a lot going on here.
Actor turned filmmaker Berg provides
an testosterone driven, MTV-generation influenced,
sun-drenched, washed-out exploration of the sport.
This isn't a film about a story or plot or even characters
as much as it is about moments and memories that somehow
glue together to provide story and plot and characters.
The fast-paced editing here, which one would expect
from a football film during the sports sequences,
helps to remind us of just how fast these moments
come when you are 17-years-old. The world is a blur.
Football emulates that, moments of quiet tedium suddenly
propelled through seconds of time that seem massively
important but are just as easily lost forever.
Thornton is amazing here. He makes
his Coach Gaines a quiet, thoughtful, seemingly stoic
character in a way that makes every word count when
he does finally speak. His emotional speech to the
players at the climax of the film is perhaps the most
beautiful scene involving a coach's speech in a sports
film to ever appear in the history of cinema. It sure
beats the fuck out of the old "Win one for the Gipper"
spiel. (We can now bury that one with Ronald Reagan's
cold, heartless, mindless, Alzheimer's addled body).
Thornton, no stranger to accolades for his amazingly
subtle performances, finds himself deserving of more
honors for his work here. Thornton is so awesome can
say, "My goodness gracious" here and make it sound
like his own phrase. This is the kind of performance
that ought to be remembered at Oscar time.
And what a delight to see him share
the screen with Black, his young co-star from "Slingblade."
This is Black's first truly "adult" role and he once
again proves himself to be one of the most raw, honest
and emotional young actors in America. When you see
him work here, his body grown to young adulthood,
muscular, hardened, staunch, you are still able to
see the remarkable young man who made "Slingblade"
such an amazing film. One only has to see Black's
work in "Crazy
in Alabama" and this year's festival fave "Killer
Diller" to realize that he can make a movie become
something more than was ever thought possible. His
work in "Friday Night Lights" reminds us this his
are the kind of performances that continue to make
even the most mediocre of films come to life. His
work here brings him into the arena of young adult
actor, perhaps the very best actor of his generation,
and provides us with a strong, emotional, complex
and likeable character that only serves to draw us
even more deeply into the film. One can only hope
that Black, who has quietly voiced a dislike for the
profession of acting in the past, continues to perform
in film. He is an amazing young talent.
And what about Hedlund! Wow! Here's
a kid that takes an emotional arc that doesn't exist
in the script or the final film edit and still makes
us care about his character and makes us believe his
story. His character Donnie's evolution with the character
of his father, played by a creepy Tim McGraw sans
cowboy hat, may not be fully realized on celluloid
in the finished film but it is fully realized by the
audience who sees it. Hedlund's troubled teenager
combined with Black's stoic anchor, Luke's vibrant
and emotional loser, and Thornton's quiet, introspective
leader provides us with a solid group of characters
that we easily become emotionally invested in. It
may not be on the page, it may not be in the final
edit, but it is in the hearts of these young men and
Thornton and it shimmers from the screen like a field
of diamonds when flickering through the light of a
projector bulb in front of an audience.
"Friday Night Lights" is easily
the best sports movie in quite a while. But it's also
a damn fine film period. The elements here including
story, characters and emotions, combined with the
themes of the film, like brotherhood, pressure, loss
and small town existence, brought forth by these amazing
actors and underscored by the most beautiful and emotional
rock music you've ever heard make the film one that
should truly be seen and heard by everyone. This is
a sports film that isn't about a team scoring, it's
about the hearts of young people soaring. What a wonderful
cinematic experience on every level.
And that music... Wow!
Notes:
Filmed in and around Austin in 2004.
Austin author Turk Pipkin has a small role.
Based on Buzz Bissinger's book of
the same name. Bissinger is Berg's cousin.
Berg filmed real high school football
games and then matched his actor's uniforms to the
footage used.
Viewed in Austin in October 2004.
