BEFORE: OK, enough football comedies. Time to get real serious and watch a drama about a real (?) serious game.
THE PLOT: Profile of the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers.
AFTER: I love Billy Bob Thornton, and I'll watch just about anything that he's in - ever since "Sling Blade" I've been very impressed. This movie also features Lucas Black, who played the small boy in "Sling Blade", as the team quarterback - all grown up and still working with Billy Bob...
There are lots of films about football and other team sports, but so few of them get into the drama of what it MEANS to represent a school or a city. THIS is that film. On a day where my city seems to be suffering from Yankee-mania (the Yankees don't represent MY New York...), here's a movie about a team that DOES represent its town, and everyone in it seems to be affected by the team's ups and downs. This film is set is Texas, after all, where love of football seems to come just after that of God and country...
If the team wins a game, the players are meeting with representatives from various colleges, and leafing through luxury car brochures - and if the team loses, the town residents are calling for Coach Gaines' head on a platter. And all the while the players' parents, some of whom are former football stars themselves, are piling on the pressure. "Here's my state championship ring, where's yours? Oh, that's right - you ain't got one!" The most notable parent reliving his former glory (through verbal abuse of his son) is played by Tim McGraw, who I didn't even recognize without his trademark cowboy hat. One would imagine that the son of Tug McGraw might have a few issues himself with living up to his father's sports success...
This movie features some of those sports cliches that were parodied in "The Comebacks" - like the star running-back with the crippling injury, the pulling together of a small underdog team facing impossible odds, etc. But for every winning team, there's a losing one - why focus on one particular team during one particular season, and the answer to that question is the essence of this film. Our star coach can give a stirring half-time speech, but across the stadium, isn't there another coach doing the exact same thing? Our Panthers can kneel in team prayer, but aren't they praying to the same God as the other team is? Why them, why now? Because they have "heart"? Because they "want it more"?
The thrilling state championship game is packed with drama, and contains a few events that set it apart from just an average football film. I don't want to reveal too much - but it managed to keep me awake and interested in the wee hours of the morning. And they turned this into a TV series which is still going strong after 4 seasons, carrying over Connie Britton from this film, along with all the town drama surrounding the high-school football team.
RATING: 7 out of 10 letters of intent
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