Friday Night Lights (2004)

Directors:

Peter Berg
Josh Pate

Writers (WGA):

Buzz Bissinger (book)
David Aaron Cohen (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

8 October 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

Hope comes alive

Plot:

Based on H.G. Bissinger's book, which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers.

Plot Keywords:

Texas | Coach | Odessa Texas | Small Town | Championship

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Billy Bob Thornton	...	Coach Gary Gaines
Lucas Black	...	Mike Winchell
Garrett Hedlund	...	Don Billingsley
Derek Luke	...	Boobie Miles
Jay Hernandez	...	Brian Chavez
Lee Jackson	...	Ivory Christian
Lee Thompson Young	...	Chris Comer
Tim McGraw	...	Charles Billingsley
Grover Coulson	...	L.V. Miles
Connie Britton	...	Sharon Gaines
Connie Cooper	...	Mrs. Winchell
Kasey Stevens	...	Flippy
Ryanne Duzich	...	Melissa
Amber Heard	...	Maria
Morgan Farris	...	Jennifer Gaines

Also Known As:

Friday Night Lights (Spain) (DVD title) [es]
Friday Night Lights (Italy) [it]
Friday Night Lights (Finland) [fi]
Friday Night Lights - Touchdown am Freitag (Germany) [de]
Juego de viernes en la noche (Argentina) (video title) [es]
Kynigontas to oneiro (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
Les lumières du vendredi soir (Canada: French title) [fr]
Luces de viernes noche (Spain) [es]
Ston pyreto tis doxas (Greece) (TV title) [el]
Swiatla stadionów (Poland) [pl]
Tudo Pela Vitória (Brazil) [pt]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic issues, sexual content, language, some teen drinking and rough sports action.

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:LH | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Australia:M (tv rating) | South Korea:12 | Malaysia:U | Ireland:12A | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:12 (video rating) (2005) | USA:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-11 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Abilene, Texas, USA

Company:

Friday Night Lights LLC

Trivia:

Live-action game sequences from the 2003 Permian High School football season are interspersed throughout the film. Director Peter Berg matched the uniforms and on-field jersey numbers for acted sequences so that the live clips would blend. Game sequences were shot on location at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa and the Astrodome in Houston.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Chavez and Billingsly are eating burritos in front of the convenient store and the police officer pulls up, Billingsly's window is up/down/up between shots.

Quotes:

Ivory Christian: This is our team!

Movie Connections:

References "Hawaii Five-O" (1968)

Soundtrack:

Shoot for Thrills

The Best Sports movie ever made

This movie was phenomenal in every way. It had incredible performances under a great director with a fantastic story to back it up.

It tells the story of a high school football team in Texas through the course of their 1988 season. Billy Bob Thorton played the coach of the team and give the best performance I've ever seen him give. The film was directed by Peter Berg who gave it a unique film style. He managed to tell this story in a very beautiful way.

Tim McGraw gives a great debut performance of an ex-high school football player who has become the drunken abusive father of one of the players currently on the team. He was almost unrecodnizable in this role and he portrayed it well. He, and the rest of the cast for that matter deserve a lot of credit.

This is the only football film I have ever seen that has done justice to what it feels like to play football in high school. I played under Friday night lights myself, that time of my life ended just a year ago and it still holds fresh in my memory. And because of that I can tell you how accurately this film portray's the sense of brotherhood and friendship that is felt by every team, at least every good football team.

Whether you ever played under Friday night lights yourself or not anyone should be able to appreciate this film.