Friday Night Lights
Sep. 20th, 2005 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeStayed up late last night watching Friday Night Lights which is quite good. I love a thoughtful, intelligent sports movie. Way back in the early '90s I read the book upon which it's based which is fantastic. It's about the 1988 Permian High School football team, in Odessa, TX. Football is INSANE there--it's impossible for me to relate to that level of fanaticism, since I don't ever get that worked up about a team. But the book takes you inside this mindset--I still can't relate to it, but I can understand it a bit. A little--it bothers me that the system is so male-oriented, the only way females can enjoy any of the status the male players do is to date a player, or be a cheerleader and make cookies and Rice Krispie treats for the players. Some fun! Yeah, that'll get you a scholarship in 1988. (Although I think it's different now, since cheering has become so big and almost outstripped football in some town, as in Bring It On when the cheerleaders had much more status than the football team because they were a lot more successful.) There's more about the girls and how the system affects them in the book--I remember the chapter about the "Pepettes" and the pride they took in making stuff for the team and the cute things they would do for their assigned player. There's almost nothing in the movie about the girls--one pretty girl basically throws herself at the QB at a party and they boink. No date, no nothing--WTF is that about? Way to send the message that the girls are there just for sex. Even if that did really happen, the movie should show the context in which it happens--how the system denies these girls any legitimate, earned status, and how it's derived solely from their relationship/connection with the players.
That said, I still like the movie--the athletes are not assholes, not thugs or jerks but are acutely aware of how much stress they are under and how much their town lives through them. It seems insane to me that a town would care that much--I've lived in small towns before but Falls Church was not like that at all (our most successful teams were tennis and basketball, and of course Falls Church is in a major metro area and we had a fairly cosmopolitan outlook). Milford (in New Hampshire where my dad and stepmother live) was pretty sports crazy and we had a lot of state championship teams--in fact, my freshman year when I was on the varsity soccer team, we were state runner ups. I still have that medal; I sewed it to my letterman's jacket (which I could WEAR if it were COOL enough outside!!). We also had a LOT of championship titles in football, tennis, skiing, basketball--the gym was literally wallpapered with state banners. But even in that town there wasn't the level of community support/fanaticism as in Odessa, as when all the businesses shutter up with signs saying "Gone to the Game." I guess--it's an exaggerated sense of community--when you're rabidly cheering for a team, or wearing black and white, and screaming "MOJO" you're saying "This is who I am. I am an Odessan, and this is what we do." I guess that's comforting and that expression of identity comes in many forms--religion, nationality/ethnicity, activites (movies, games, etc.). Sports just seems so arbitrary though, because the team really has nothing to do with you unless you actually play on it.
Anyway, the movie necessarily simplifies and dramatizes the story--it does take some license but it's pretty respectful to the town and the boys. They also had a followup extra on the DVD showing what the actual 1988 kids--now in their mid-30s--were doing now. It was great to see them until they went out back to throw around the football, which was just sad because they were not at all what they used to be.
That said, I still like the movie--the athletes are not assholes, not thugs or jerks but are acutely aware of how much stress they are under and how much their town lives through them. It seems insane to me that a town would care that much--I've lived in small towns before but Falls Church was not like that at all (our most successful teams were tennis and basketball, and of course Falls Church is in a major metro area and we had a fairly cosmopolitan outlook). Milford (in New Hampshire where my dad and stepmother live) was pretty sports crazy and we had a lot of state championship teams--in fact, my freshman year when I was on the varsity soccer team, we were state runner ups. I still have that medal; I sewed it to my letterman's jacket (which I could WEAR if it were COOL enough outside!!). We also had a LOT of championship titles in football, tennis, skiing, basketball--the gym was literally wallpapered with state banners. But even in that town there wasn't the level of community support/fanaticism as in Odessa, as when all the businesses shutter up with signs saying "Gone to the Game." I guess--it's an exaggerated sense of community--when you're rabidly cheering for a team, or wearing black and white, and screaming "MOJO" you're saying "This is who I am. I am an Odessan, and this is what we do." I guess that's comforting and that expression of identity comes in many forms--religion, nationality/ethnicity, activites (movies, games, etc.). Sports just seems so arbitrary though, because the team really has nothing to do with you unless you actually play on it.
Anyway, the movie necessarily simplifies and dramatizes the story--it does take some license but it's pretty respectful to the town and the boys. They also had a followup extra on the DVD showing what the actual 1988 kids--now in their mid-30s--were doing now. It was great to see them until they went out back to throw around the football, which was just sad because they were not at all what they used to be.
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Date: 2005-09-25 03:54 pm (UTC)I don't really have anything else to add.
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Date: 2005-09-26 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 05:19 am (UTC)Interesting story about the Cabinet. They started doing newspapers in three other towns (the Hollis/Brookline Journal, Merrimack Journal, and Bedford Journal) several years ago. I was the sports department for the Merrimack and Bedford papers for about two years, covering Merrimack, Trinity, and Manchester West High Schools, a little bit of Derryfield H.S., and a very little bit of Bishop Guertin High School, as well as doing some Little League-type articles, essays/columns, movie reviews, and theater reviews. I only really saw Milford teams when I freelanced for the Nashua Telegraph for a winter.
I heard from my former editor (Dave Cummings) a few months ago that the Telegraph bought the Cabinet papers from the previous owners. It had been a family-owned newspaper for 202 years (or so). I think they still work out of their old skank-ass office off the Milford circle, though.
I live in California now, but I'd rather be living in New Hampshire. (That is a sentence that has never before appeared in the English language.)