I'm not a football fan and never watch it (love only basketball), but really enjoyed the film. There was great poignancy in seeing the football program as a microcosm of this town's hopes, dreams, and disappointments. The use of fast-edit, jittery camera work off the field was excessive and a bit annoying, though.

Hard to believe that's Lucas Black of "Sling Blade", all grown up as the quarterback! Billy Bob Thornton was great as the coach -- such a versatile actor.

Just saw this....well acted, but man if it felt looooonnnngggggg. My initial feeling is C for enjoyment factor, and a B for the acting quality.

I lived in Odessa when the book takes place and was at all of the home games that year. I also saw the writer hanging around practices and the yogurt shop next to the high school quite a bit. He was very quiet-probably thinking about his project and wondering if he would get death threats.

The book deals with racism, football budget vs. education budget, and other issues the town didn't expect since people in general only want to hear the positive or what they see as their version of reality.


I saw the movie tonight and it was pretty realistic to the scene at the time. I can't really remember the final game at this point, but most of the scenes didn't take much artistic license. One fact that was changed for drama was having them practice at the stadium. They always practiced on the fields behind the high school. Obviously some of the dialogue/situations were made up or enhanced but that's hard to pin down. I wonder if the coach's speech was anything like Thornton said during halftime of the big game.

I was glad to see they didn't Hollywood the story too much and add a fake love interest or end with the team winning.

I keep reading that it's a small town but 100,000 plus is not a small town to me-at least population-wise.

A very good flick and I'm not really much of a football fan.

Varsity Blues basically took stuff from the FNL book and should not be considered the original of this type.

"Go Tigers!" is an excellent documentary along the same lines. I've been to some of their games as well and was surprised to see how many people turned out for the games.






I knew the star running back from Permian's 1987 team. He was a very nice guy but not an intellectual giant. His size wasn't enough to get him a big scholarship so he went to a small school. I believe he got injured and lost his deal. He was back in town and doing some menial labor job. At the time I thought to myself how sad things turned out for him. The town showered him with attention and a year later he was mostly forgotten.

Ahhh life.

What talk show?

I had the exact opposite reaction -- I never allow myself to check my watch during a movie, but I was never tempted to during this film.

Saw it today and thought it was okay. I really wish the director would've invested in a tripod. The shaky camera was very distracting (at least, to me).

I did like the heavy use of classic Public Enemy songs.

Jane Pauley

I don't usually watch it, honest. Got lucky and stumbled upon it. It was on last Friday.

Saw the movie last night and I enjoyed it. A couple scenes could have maybe been trimmed but overall I liked it. I think the reason they were using handheld cameras the whole time was to give it a documentary feel.

Going back to Go Tigers! - these movies were eerily similar. Or, I should say - the stories about the towns, the high schools, the people - very, very similar. These people eat, sleep and breath their HS football. In some ways it's sad. In some ways nice to see the town bonding.

Finally got a chance to see this film, and I was glad I didn't read the book, or any plot details, because I got hooked into what would develop for this high school football team given the setbacks it faced, and how luck plays a part in the game of life, not just in football.

How fleeting is the moment in time to create lasting high school sport memories? The film captures that aspect very well, and in spite of giving one's all in that moment, life lessons, large and small, are imparted with the speed of a blitzing linebacker meeting a running back in the backfield.

A common criticism of the film is the lack of character development, but I think the team development was emphasized more, while also addressing the different types of self-doubt and issues from these high school football players. For its running time, I think the film was cut down to basics to focus on 4 main players and how their home life shaped their play on the field.

I recommend it for fans of sports films, and especially football films.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

I give it **** out of *****. Very solid movie. I liked how they cut right to the chase and didn't build up too much background. Good cast, too.

And my favorite part of the film - the soundtrack.

This film was very well executed.

But, for some reason, the story itself wasn't overly engaging for me. Maybe it was because I felt like all of the themes/storylines had been done before (Hooisers, Varsity Blues, the Program, etc.). I don't know.

I somewhat enjoyed this at the time, but reflecting on it leaves me flat. I don't get why directors feel the need to reinvent the wheel telling sports stories. American audiences will by and large understand the game based on how its covered on TV. If a play is for a crucial 3rd down, it does me no good to see a medium shot of 2 players with no perspective on the play. And apart from that, none of the characters resonated as presented, though I get the feeling a lot was left on the cutting room floor, especially in regard to Jay Hernandez. Very blah feeling overall, and the crituqes of Berg's directing style are accurate in my view.

this movie really suprised me, I really enjoyed it. I agree though that the story could have further benefitted from characterization, but in terms of the theatrical cut I didn't think it was long at all, I could have sat through an additional fifteen minutes. I thought the shaky camera, cinema-verte was very effective and really brought us into the game. (It was nowhere as annoying as the flawed "Bourne Supremacy" film). I also liked how certain scenes did and did not play out, the fragmented "not show all" editing compelled the viewer to see how and where the story went.

I enjoyed this as well. I thought it had good pacing and great acting all around. Like others have said, the heavy-use of Public Enemy songs was great.

It's funny (to me anyway) cuz I actually saw Public Enemy play Odessa in 1998.

Here's some info from the Odessa newspaper:

http://oaoa.com/specialsections/frid...idaylights.htm

I think this may have been one of my problems. I just saw Go Tigers! (which is a very good documentary)...and also heard this was an awesome sports movie. Last night I saw FNL and I walked out thinking it was 'okay'. Not great not bad.

I did like the look of the film...a bit washed out, dusty, kind of feel.

The acting was decent, but I did not care at all for any of the characters, especially Boogie, or whatever his name was. I would recommend Go Tigers instead. Not as pretty but a decent documentary on hardcore HS football or read the book FNL.

His name was Boobie. If you can't remember that name you don't deserve the name Flashback.

Yes I do...the reason why I can't remember is because of the my name ... Even worse... I went to edit Boogie to Boobie
(because I looked it up right after) and still put Boogie back in .... [hits head on every wall]

You sure don't have boobies on the brain.

Guess you gotta Boogie Til You Puke!



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I missed this in theaters and finally picked it up on DVD the other day and watched in this morning. I loved the book when I read it years ago, and was just as impressed with the movie.

As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Larry King here, best sports movie I've seen. Very realistic without being overly cheesy (Hoosiers) or overly negative (Any Given Sunday).

Solid 3.5/4 for me.

I watched this on dvd Friday night and I really enjoyed it. I think Lucas Black mimicked the real Mike Winchell if you look at the featurette on the real players. There were many strong performances here. I think Tim McGraw gave a great performance as the alcoholic dad. Thorton, Luke, and Black gave some really great performances. The game action was just brutal. It is a great football movie. I give it four out of four stars.

I knew Mike Winchell at the time and he does do an excellent job.

Very good movie and the dvd extras are just as good.

Just saw this on DVD the other night, too. I wasn't overwhelmed by the presentation of the characters (I thought it was too fast at the beginning . . . we are asked to care about the characters before we know who they are). However, the story is very well done and the "football action" was intense (a big plus for a football fan like myself). And the scene in which . . . . . . made me cringe like few other scenes evver have . . . very realistic.

Excellent DVD features, too . . . will probably add this to my collection at some point (you can never have too many football movies. ).

i enjoyed it.