Friday Night Lights (film)

Friday Night Lights is a 2004 sports drama film, directed by Peter Berg, which documents the coach and players of a high school football team and the Texas city of Odessa that supports and is obsessed with them. The book on which it was based, Friday Night Lights A Town, a Team, and a Dream 1990 by H. G. Bissinger, follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship. A television series of the same name premiered on October 3, 2006 on NBC. The film won the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award and is ranked numberon Entertainment Weeklys list of the Best High School Movies.

The coach, Gary Gaines Billy Bob Thornton, is constantly in the hot seat. Tied to the successes and failure of the coach and the team in general are the conflicts the players struggle with on and off the gridiron. The coach overuses his star player, running back James Boobie Miles Derek Luke, who gets seriously injured he tears his ACL, misses the playoffs, and has a limp for the rest of his life. When this happens, sports radios are flooded with calls for Gaines resignation. Miles oncearrogant attitude vanishes as he sees his once promising chance of playing bigtime college football disappear, and he starts to question his future after he notices his notso promising academic standing. While recuperating on his uncles veranda he observes the garbage collectors doing their rounds and gets a glimpse of a somewhat different future he could now face and bursts into tears.Coach Gaines triumphs and struggles with winning football games and connecting with his players numerous times during their tumultuous season. His job depends on the Panthers making the playoffs, and his team is in a threeway tie with two other teams at the end of the regular season. Under Texas rules for ties, the tiebreaker is a cointoss. Permian gets a spot. Meanwhile, after he drunkenly throws away his championship ring, Don Billingsleys father breaks down and confesses his failures in life cause him to push his son as harshly as he does, pointing out that he wants his son to at least have one big moment of triumph before dealing with the harshness of the real world. The team makes it to the finals, where they narrowly lose against powerhouse Dallas Carter High School. The movie ends with the coach removing the departing seniors from the depth chart on his wall. Notably, the depth chart has Case at quarterback. This refers to Permians reallife backup quarterback in 1988, Stoney Case, who would go on to lead Permian, along with Chris Comer, to the 5A state title the following year, and still later m

Source: Wikipedia