Genre: Action, Drama, Sports, Teenage, Marriage, School / Campus, True Story
Tagline: Hope comes alive on Friday nights
Plot: As darkness descends over the flatlands of West Texas every Friday from September through December, a dazzling, disorienting glow, visible on the stark horizon for miles around, ignites the blackened sky. Looming over the landscape, Ratliff Stadium, the country’s biggest high school football field, overflows with 20,000 spectators, their voices raised in the trademark chant: “MO-JO! MO-JO! MO-JO!” The crowd’s jubilation rises to fever pitch as the Permian Panthers, Odessa’s “boys in black,” take to the field like warriors in an ancient coliseum. Once a week during the fall, this town and its dreams are carried on the padded shoulders of these young gridiron heroes, illuminated beneath the autumnal glare of those Friday night lights that serve as a beacon of hope to the townsfolk of this dusty West Texas town.Since their first season in 1959, the Panthers established themselves as the most successful football program not only in Texas, but in the entire country. Now, in the last days of summer of 1988, the Permian High School Panthers of Odessa, Texas begin the season with one thing on their minds—winning their fifth state championship in their 30- year history. For their coach, Gary Gaines (Oscar® winner BILLY BOB THORNTON), it all comes down to his definition of perfection:
More Plot Descriptions
 |
Related Movies:
- version of Friday Night Lights (2006)
|
 |
Behind the Scenes:
Read more about the production
| |
 Discussion forum for this movie
|
| |
 Friday Night Lights is being hailed by some critics as the best sports movie ever made. While I think that is hyperbole, Berg's picture is certainly an above average effort that provides a solid emotional punch.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
Billy Bob Thornton, as the coach of a small-town high school football team, scores a few points, but this smug little film drops the ball at every turn.--Charles Taylor (Salon)
We really begin to care about these characters, and what's even more striking is that their story becomes a powerful and heart-wrenching piece of work. A---Craig Younkin (Lee's Movie Info)
Friday Night Lights is a football movie, but it's not about winning a trophy. It looks at the sport as a culture: as an ingrained part of the American landscape, and the triumphs and damage that entails. B--Rob Vaux (Flipsidemovies.com)
‘Friday Night Lights’ no doubt is well-made. Peter Berg gives the film a stylishly appropriate look and feel, the performances are genuine, and the film continually plays with viewers’ expectations. Unfortunately, it’s rather severe depiction of the depths of human nature and how some people stake their lives on the success and failure of sports teams makes it more of a niche film than a blockbuster.  --Joe Rickey (Movie-Gurus.com)
Unlike most films that come down to the final play against the invincible foe that absolutely require the emotional satisfaction of an underdog victory, Friday Night Lights emotionally involves viewers even more because we simply don't know what the final scene will bring. It can have multiple endings and still work well within the narrative because the film really lives out the metaphor realistically, just like Life.  --John Nesbit (CultureDose.net)
Everything falls together for Friday Night Lights, causing it to be a far more moving film than one might expect. Some solid performances, excellent editing, and a daring music choice makes it stand out compared towards stereotypical sports dramas. 8/10--Aaron West (Movie-Vault.com)
Still, it’s an engaging sports film, and definitely should be seen by football fans in particular for the look at the game and what it means to small-town America. I’ve heard the book is richer and more in-depth, considered one of the best sports storiesever written, so you may also want to put that on your must-read list if you like what you see here  --Vince Leo (Qwipster.net)
The only other movie that has done this sort of thing artfully-Hoosiers-did it better, but Friday Night Lights is in the same league. --Rick Kisonak (MovieWeb)
Friday Night Lights is bound to receive criticism about not having many aspirations, story-wise, but I would call its unconventional look at a “great sports story” more ambitious than most other movies in its genre. In addition, it does what it sets out to do superbly, and that speaks volumes, in my book. I will prefer an ambitious and efficient film to one that is ridiculously complex and only half-successful, ninety-nine out of a hundred times. Friday Night Lights is a perfect example of this. --Danny Baldwin (BucketReviews.com)
Everything is dealt with on a superficial level, as if questioning fanatical devotion to sports were tantamount to telling someone their religion is a sham. Which, if you think about it, it probably is. --Loey Lockerby (eFilmCritic.com)
|
| Directed by |
Peter Berg
Very Bad Things, The Rundown, The Losers |
 |
|
| Music By |
| | David Torn
The Order, Believe in Me, Vampire Vermont |
|
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is not about winning (a notion that distracts many sports movies), but brotherhood, forgiveness, and the human spirit.  --Laura Kyle (eFilmCritic.com)
Friday Night Lights treats its subjects with respect by not flinching when confronting the harsh reality that they are given little choice but to create for themselves. --Erik Childress (eFilmCritic.com)
It is structured very matter-of-factly with a surprisingly loose narrative. Scenes are piled on top of each other like quotes in a newspaper story, time passes very flippantly, and there is little regard for eloquent transition. This all works to the film’s advantage by allowing the movie to simply tell its story without taking sides or making blanket statements. --Luke Pyzik (eFilmCritic.com)
"Friday Night Lights" tells an engrossing story with such conviction and honesty, embedded in a surplus of stylistic flourishes, that it becomes one of the best sports movies in recent memory. A---Eric D. Snider (EricDSnider.com)
"Friday" is filled with plenty of bone-crushing, helmet-crashing action, but it's the exhilarating scenes of the final game that more than make up for Berg's tendency to oversentimentalize the characters' personal dilemmas.--Robert Dominguez (New York Daily News)
A solid football movie. Sure, you don't have to love the sport to appreciate the story at hand, the characters intertwined or the message that the film ultimately sends out, but let's be honest here...if you're a football fan, this movie will definitely appeal more to you! 7/10--'JoBlo' (JoBlo.com)
HIGH school football is a religion in some parts of the country, and “Friday Night Lights” — despite another expert performance by Billy Bob Thornton — is for the most part content to preach to the converted.  --Lou Lumenick (New York Post)
|
|
Movie Database
In Theaters
