Football Flicks of the Week - “Friday Night Lights” and “Varsity Blues”

It’s now football season once again and for last week’s edition, I checked out the highly acclaimed 1971 TV movie “Brian’s Song” (which you can currently stream on Tubi). For this edition, I wanted to check out two high school football movies - “Friday Night Lights” (2004) and “Varsity Blues” (1999).

In the 2004 movie “Friday Night Lights,” a small, turbulent town in Texas obsesses over their high school football team to an unhealthy degree. When the star tailback, Boobie Miles, is seriously injured during the first game of the season, all hope is lost, and the town’s dormant social problems begin to flare up.

It;s left to the inspiring abilities of new coach Gary Gaines to instill in the other team members - and, by proxy, the town itself - a sense of self-respect and honor.

The 2004 movie “Friday Night Lights” is one of the best football movies out there! This movie delivers an authentic portrayal of high school football and has the ability to engage non-football fans with its compelling emotional drama and themes of community and attrition.

“Friday Night Lights” not only gives us some great high school football action, but it also shows us an emotional focus on the lives of the players, their families, and the town of Odessa as a whole. To make the movie seem truly real and grounded, this movie avoids the usual cheesy, inspirational tropes that are usually seen in sports movies (except for the usual half-time speech), and presents an honest look in a town where football is everything.

The 2004 movie also shows us some really memorable moments, such as when the running back gets injured and seeing everything literally stop (the players, cheerleaders, the people watching the game, everything) and the nail-biting championship third act. There’s also an amazing half-time speech from Gaines as they were on the verge of losing the championship as he tells them to not let the game’s outcome affect them and the emotional end of the Billingsley father/son story.

“Friday Night Lights” received favorable reviews with critics calling it one of the best football movies ever and audiences found the movie inspiring, emotional and deeply effecting.

MPA: Rated PG-13 for thematic issues, sexual content, language, some teen drinking and rough sports action  (runtime 118 minutes).

After checking out “Varsity Blues” for the first time, I noticed that both of these movies do have some similarities. They both are set in West Texas, both feature a small town obsessed with high school football and both show the intense pressure on athletes and coaches. Then, I found out that this 1999 movie was directly inspired by the Permian Panthers story (“Friday Night Lights”) - no wonder they were similar!

Unlike “Friday Night Lights”, the 1999 high school football favorite is a more fun and entertaining take on the high school sport and also features a familiar cast of young up-and-comers, such as James Van Der Beek, a pre “Fast and Furious” Paul Walker and a really intense Jon Voight.

Throughout this movie, we get to see some very humorous moments when the football players are partying and both the Charlie Tweeder and Billy Bob characters absolutely steal the show with their partying antics.

While some of the 1999 movie has some fun moments, “Varsity Blues” also delivers some really dramatic scenes, especially once the Mox character (Van Der Beek) sees how the sport of football can easily change someone and how Mox begins to see how Coach Kilmer (Voight) can treat players.

Despite initial mixed reviews, “Varsity Blues” quickly became a cult classic after its theatrical run. The movie also does a decent job with its themes of adolescent angst and rebellion in its core audience, along with the movie using football to tell a  story about growing up and the pressure to conform.

MPA: Rated R for strong language throughout, sexuality, nudity and some substance abuse   (runtime 106 minutes)

At the moment, you can currently stream BOTH “Friday Night Lights” and "Varsity Blues” on Netflix or rent them through various PVOD rental services.

• The real James "Boobie" Miles can be seen standing next to Derek Luke (playing "Boobie" Miles) several times throughout the film. He is wearing a black Permian jacket and hat.

• The real-life Brian Chavez did go to Harvard and got a law degree. But then he moved back to Odessa and started going to Permian football games with one of his old teammates, longing for his old glory days on the field. One day, angered by a historic Permian loss in a heated rivalry game, Chavez rounded up a posse, broke into a house party and started brawling with the attendants. His motivation: His girlfriend's ex-husband was at the party, and had been fighting with her over the phone while Chavez was trying to watch the game. Chavez was eventually forced to plead guilty to "burglary with intent to commit assault", and had to settle lawsuits with the victims. Although he avoided jail time, he did have his law license invalidated by the Texas State Bar. He has since turned his life around, but this incident had ultimately proved that the pull of Permian high school football was too much for even the smartest and most grounded player to escape.

• Coach Gary Gaines said he would have never allowed a parent to yell at their son like Tim McGraw's character (Charles Billingsley) did during practice.

• Frustrated with the authenticity of some actors playing assistant coaches, director Peter Berg turned to actual Permian High School coaches to deliver some lines during game sequences.

• 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.

• Due to the success of the film, Permian High School gained fame and with that, high school football teams across the nation have asked to come and play Permian at Ratliff Stadium. These teams mainly come from California and New York and play early in the season before district play begins.

• The book displays several instances of racism and use of racial slurs to black players. When the makers of the movie asked Permian High School to use all of their facilities for authenticity the school agreed only on the terms that all racism from the book not be included in the film to avoid a negative image on the school and town.

• To gather research, producers visited real high school football games in Texas during the fall of 2003.

• After the successful 1989 Permian Football season, head coach Gary Gaines left Permian for an assistant coaching job at Texas Tech University, just two hours away from Odessa. Gaines would go to recruit and coach future NFL players such as Zach Thomas. But 20 years later, Gaines would return to Permian high school as the head coach once again, and also serve as Athletic Director and the team went 8-4 in his first season back. He officially announced his retirement from coaching following the 2012 season.

• Don Billingsley and his father, Charles Billingsley did indeed reconcile. They ended up attending the same church as Gary Gaines and his family.

• Paul Walker broke his leg during filming.

• Although the character Billy Bob was supposed to be an eighteen-year-old high school senior, Ron Lester, who portrayed Billy Bob, was 28 years old at the time this was filmed.

• The Top Notch Restaurant is a real restaurant located in Austin, Texas. It was also seen in Dazed and Confused (1993).

• Mox (James Van Der Beek) wears jersey #4 in homage to Van Der Beek's favorite football player, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

• The announcers weren't real actors. The announcers called local high school games in Texas. In fact, the announcers called a high school game in Texas that was labelled " the greatest high school comeback ever" between Plano East and John Tyler, in 1994.

• Two principal cast members have died since the movie's release: Paul Walker on November 30, 2013, and Ron Lester on June 17, 2016. Additionally, Joe Pichler has been missing since January 5, 2006.

• Ron Lester spoofed his role as Billy Bob when he played Reggie Ray in Not Another Teen Movie (2001).

• Plans for a television series based on the movie were planned. The series also was going to feature Ron Lester reprising his role as Billy Bob. But for unknown reasons the plans never got past the pilot episode.

• The screenplay was about sixteen years old when it entered production.

• At the very end of the movie, when Mox is talking about Coach Kilmer and his statue, Coach Kilmer is seen in the background leaving the stadium carrying a box.