A review from That Guy Named David.

Friday Night Lights (A)
As a kid growing up in small-town Texas, H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights was considered required reading when it came out during high school. I remember reading the book and being amazed at the similarities of 1988 Odessa, Texas and its love of the Permian Panthers with what I was experiencing as a high school football player in a town of 6,000 in South Texas. All my friends that didn't experience small-town Texas high school football laugh when I describe the treatment that high school football players get where, from August through December, there is nothing more important than what happens under the lights on Friday night. From the small-town radio shows, the autograph sessions at the elementary school and junior high (seriously), the free meals at local restaurants, the "slide under the radar" treatment in many classes (especially on gameday), etc., the town's obsession with this sport unnaturally places 16 and 17 year old kids on a pedestal from which they feel they can never be knocked. The movie adaption of Friday Night Lights did an artful job of showcasing this treatment and the effect that the sport has on the kids and the community at large. Billy Bob Thornton did an exceptional job portraying the pressures that coaches (who generally make more than every other person at the school) feel to win every game or pack their bags and get out of town. However, I thought the movie and book were best when they profiled the players and various members of the community and the types of problems that they experienced, from racism to alcoholism to effects of the oil bust on an oil town. Perfect adaption of a great book.