Texas HS FB Flick "Friday Night Lights" Getting

PlummMeanGreen · October 12, 2004

I have not seen it myself, but to even hear some of my female collegues here at the job talk about it, I can't wait to see it. Jeez! Girls who like a football flick? "What in the wide world of sports is-a goin' on here?!?!" (Slim Pickens from Blazing Saddles")...

Any of you see it yet? What are you hearing from your own contemporaries about "Friday Night Lights?"

Edited October 12, 2004 by PlummMeanGreen

Eagle-96 · October 12, 2004

I really like the movie although for Hollywood purposes they had Permian and Dallas Carter in the state title game instead of the semi-finals. The audience was really into the movie with several people clapping and cheering every time Mojo made a good play in the game against Carter as if they were watching a live game. The theatre was dead silent at the end of the game. You could hear a feather drop. I thought the film portrayed the all-or-nothing life of Boobie Myles perfectly. If you grew up in Texas you will enjoy this movie. If you played high school football or have kids that did, you will LOVE this movie. To me, it is right up there with Rudy, Remember the Titans, and Pride of the Yankees as far as sports movies go.

GMG!!!

Cerebus · October 12, 2004

It was a great book, it was a pretty good movie.

The audience was actually shocked into silence a couple of times, because it doesnt have the usual, expected hollywood ending to a couple of scenes.

I though LV (Boobie's uncle) was shorted, he came across in the book as a person who really loved Boobie, and wanted the best for him, he would have felt the same way whether boobie could play football or not. He was proud of him for being a good player, but he would have been proud of him anyway. In the movie, he seemed to be out to ride boobies fame.

I thought the movie barely touched some of the darker aspects of the book.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...ge=Garber-FNL01
The Friday night lights were a symbol of hope, a slim ray of self-esteem in a broken city that went bust right along with the price of crude oil in the early 1980s. Four state championships in 20 seasons was a comfortably numbing shot of Jack Daniels in a place that Larry McMurtry's "Texasville" described as "the worst town on earth." Ratliff Stadium and its 19,800 seats, a pretty fair college facility in some parts of this country, was the town's monument to itself. Sitting there on a Friday night, you could almost forget that Odessa had the highest murder rate in the U.S. during 1982.

http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw030904a.htm
Miles, Chavez visit ‘FNL’ set

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...oks/fnl/excerpt
It had been there during the Abilene High game when he gained 232 yards on eight carries and scored touchdowns of 62 yards, 80 yards, and 67 yards.
...
The fire had been there during the Arlington game in the playoffs, after he had come off the field with tears in his eyes because one of the opposing players had called him a n-----. Coach Gary Gaines tried to comfort him and told him the other team only wanted to get him worked up so he would get himself kicked out of the game. And then he saw a change come over Boobie as if something had snapped, the hurt and humiliation giving way to a raging anger. He only carried the ball twelve times that day for forty-eight yards, but it was his savage blocking that made the recruiters up in the stands take notice, the way he went after the Arlington defenders with uncontrolled vengeance, the way he flattened a linebacker and rendered him semi-unconscious. It proved to them that Boobie had more than just the requisite size and speed to play big-time college ball. He had the rawness, the abandon, the unbridled meanness.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?...reel/fnl/041006
In Reel Life: To paraphrase Vince Lombardi, in Permian football's not everything, it's the only thing.
In Real Life: That's one of the major themes running through Bissinger's 1990 book, and he wasn't the only "outsider" to notice how huge football was in Permian in the 1980s. In the Nov. 18, 1985, issue of Time, Gregory Jaynes quoted one Odessa High alumnus as saying, "Nobody wants to hear about our merit scholars or that our chorus went to Wales last year. All they talk about is Permian football."
Jaynes also noted that the local NBC affiliate was so keen on broadcasting the Permian-Midland Lee game that it pre-empted an MLB playoff game and paid each school $4,500 for the broadcast rights. "It was believed to be the first live telecast of a regular-season high school football game in Texas," Jaynes wrote. And, "During the broadcast, you could have fired a cannon down the main streets of either town and not hit a living soul."

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_night_lights/

grad88 · October 12, 2004

It was a good movie...not a great movie. The movement of the hand-held camera got old after a while and distracting. A little of that goes a long way. Some parts of the movie were distrurbing as the book aparently was (I haven't read it). Hopefully some of the UIL reforms (no pass no play) is helping to curb some of the abuses in high school football that occurred in the 80s.

I went to grade school and jr high in Gainesville with a fellow much like the star athlete in the film. He was a phenominal athlete who was passed along all through school. He was an all-state running back who went to TCU to play (in 1983). Wacker thought he was the best RB that TCU ever had talent wise, but the kid could barely read. He lasted one semester and went back to work for the city on the street crew. THAT is a tragedy that should never happen.

shaneb · October 12, 2004

Hopefully some of the UIL reforms (no pass no play) is helping to curb some of the abuses in high school football that occurred in the 80s.

No Pass No Play is a good start.... but in school districts that already have problems it increases those problems by putting pressure on teachers through social and sometimes even school-based prompting to pass students along who didn't earn the grades.

The point is not to punish the student but to make sure that he is NOT passed along without knowing the material. This allows the student the ability to learn what he needs to know... football is not forever.

Really, things have gotten better. But to really effect change, the attitude of the football coaches has to change. They have to put as much effort into the school education of their players as they do into their field education. There are some who have, and many who haven't.

I have not seen the movie, but have read the book many times and Cerebus the first that I have talked to who didn't think that Hollywood striped all social value out of the story.

Read the book. Have your kids read the book. Have your friends read the book. Make sure that you buy the appended version that tells where the players are now.

Friday Night Lights and (IMHO) Life Is So Good should be added to all HS required reading lists.

Shane

Cerebus · October 12, 2004

I have not seen the movie, but have read the book many times and Cerebus the first that I have talked to who didn't think that Hollywood striped all social value out of the story.

I have seen the movie and read the book, and I play a Dr. on television.

The book has several moral stories in it, some of the moral stories are pushed hard in the movie, some are really soft pedalled. Almost all of them make at least a token appearance.

It would be impossible to get all the points made in a 300+ page book into a 90 minute movie.

The movie has much less depth, the characters are shallower, the issues are shallower... thats a shortcoming of every movie based on a book.

Coach · October 12, 2004

I was suprised the movie focused on Don Billingsley so much and barely touched Brian Chavez and Ivory Christian, who in the book were MUCH more intriguing characters. Bissinger left no stone unturned in the book and it would be impossible to fit all that in a couple of hours, but Christian and Chavez would have made the movie more interesting than Billingsley,.

There were some inaccuracies, but not huge. It has Permian playing Jesuit in the first round of the playoffs even though they weren't even in UIL until this year, has Marshall getting blown out in Permian wearing gold and white (in real life they played in Marshall, Permian lost, and Marshall wears red). There was a glimpse of an UnderArmour elbow band, and a split second of a revolution helmet, but that is silly stuff that if fun to look for (like the celebrating E.T.'s in Episode 1). Also, the game was played in Austin, not the Astrodome, and it wasn't nearly as high scoring as in the movie.

The theatre was dead silent at the end of the game. You could hear a feather drop.

That is why I have to see it again. The crowd I was with ruined it. In that part you are talking about, a bunch of high school kids made a fart sound and laughed. The people behind me felt the need to do a commentary on everything and when they showed Shotwell Stadium, they clapped for ten seconds. Amazing, you are from Abilene, let me watch the movie. I need to watch it again without all the distractions and get a better take on the movie, but I did think it was a good one. They didn't butcher it like ESPN did with The Junction Boys, but I need to see it again without the distractions before I say it is an all-time great.

Coach · October 12, 2004

That reminds me....

Did anyone else have a theater that laughed hysterically at every aspect of the movie?

The meeting between Permian and Carter officials which was crucial in establishing the racial tension of that matchup was ruined for me because after a clever line by Gaines, the whole crowd roared like they were watching Barber Shop or something I didn't even hear what was said next.

Did anyone else have this problem? Am I the only one who didn't think I had bought a ticket for "Taxi"?

Cerebus · October 12, 2004

Did anyone else have a theater that laughed hysterically at every aspect of the movie?

I had a group of 14 year olds burst out laughing when Boobie cried to his uncle. Ma-roons. <_>

One thing I did notice is they tried to make Odessa look tiny, and it is bigger than Denton. So is Midland... Those two are out in the middle of no where though.

Its not 6 hours to Houston, its 10, its about 6 hours to Dallas, its about 4 to El Paso.

calvin · October 12, 2004

Grad88,

Are you talking about James Calhoun ? Didnt get to see him play but heard he was awesome. Went to TCU and started as a freshman.

Eagle-96 · October 12, 2004

There were some inaccuracies, but not huge. It has Permian playing Jesuit in the first round of the playoffs even though they weren't even in UIL until this year.

http://www.kylgrafx.com/mojo/werock80.htm

I thought the same thing when I watched the movie. Although apparetly they did play them in the regular season. They also trapped themselves by putting Permian in the title game against Carter and then not mentioning that Carter forfeited the championship. How would they explain Permain not being awarded the championship.

James “Boobie” Miles has a cameo appearance as a Permian High School assistant coach.

Cerebus · October 12, 2004

Odessa Permian-Midland Lee is going to be on FSSW this thursday.

Marty · October 12, 2004

Grad88,
Are you talking about James Calhoun ? Didnt get to see him play but heard he was awesome. Went to TCU and started as a freshman.

Is that his son, Da'Ron Calhoun, playing for Gainesville this year?

PlummMeanGreen · October 12, 2004

No real biggie here, but am curious why a subject concerning football gets moved from the football section to this section but subjects like student health centers, WFAA Channel 8 events and other non football related subject titles do not?

Have I missed a ground rule somewhere?

Edited October 12, 2004 by PlummMeanGreen

Cerebus · October 12, 2004

No real biggie here, but am curious why a subject concerning football gets moved from the football section to this section but subjects like student health centers, WFAA Channel 8 events and other non football related subject titles do not?
Have I missed a ground rule somewhere?

That forum is UNT FOOTBALL.

This thread of course, isnt UNT football, but it is "Non UNT Sports".

THe student health center was brought up asking the very valid question, will this effect how students would vote for/against a student fee for a stadium.

I dont know what the WFAA/Other thread your talking about.

Besides, with 1 of your 4678 posts being moved over here, I dont think you have to worry about persecution