Product Details

• Actors: Billy Bob Thornton, Jay Hernandez, Derek Luke, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund
• Directors: Peter Berg
• Writers: Peter Berg, Buzz Bissinger, David Aaron Cohen
• Producers: Brian Grazer, David Bernardi, David Hudgins, James Whitaker
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: August 28, 2011
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (196 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001KZOUQE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,847 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #28 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Sports
• For more information about "Friday Night Lights [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Based on the perennial nonfiction bestseller by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights looks at high school football in the harsh light of reality, finding heart and hardness while stirring our emotions. Actor-director Peter Berg (Very Bad Things, The Rundown) is Bissinger's cousin; he knows the material well, and understands how an obsession with winning turns high school kids into somber, over-pressured gladiators--expendable soldiers in a community war against shame and obscurity. The fact-based story focuses on the 1988 football season of Odessa-Permian high school in West Texas, and as a fast-paced sports movie, Berg delivers the goods with a rousing, frenetically styled crowd-pleaser. But there's darkness in this tale of weary underdogs, including an abusive father (well-played by country music star Tim McGraw), threatening townsfolk, an injured star running back (Derek Luke), a tormented quarterback (Lucas Black), and the melancholy coach (Billy Bob Thornton) who takes his team to the finals. Berg's film could use less flashy cutting and more drama to support its gridiron intensity, but Friday Night Lights offers a refreshing alternative to the conventional sports movie, and makes a perfect triple-feature with the equally exciting documentaries Go Tigers! and The Last Game. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

A genuine stand-up-and-cheer movie about a courageous high school football team's fight to fulfill their destiny and live their dream, Friday Night Lights is "unforgettable and real!" (Larry King) Billy Bob Thornton stars in a true American story of how one legendary Texas town made hope come alive under the exhilarating glare of Friday Night Lights! "One of the greatest sports stories ever told" (Sports Illustrated) is now "one of the greatest sports movies ever made!" (Larry King)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, January 28, 2005

By 

D. Mikels "It's always Happy Hour here" (Skunk Holler) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Friday Night Lights (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

My Gawd, I love football.

'Tis a sport that offers the purest microcosm of life: Play as a team--succeed; play as individuals--fail. Those of us who have strapped on the pads and grunted and groaned in the trenches know this incontrovertible truth all too well. A single unit is much greater than the sum of all its individual parts, and this stellar truism is manifested magnificently in Peter Berg's sensational film FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS.

Again, I love football, and I particularly enjoy football movies that capture the grit and dark hubris of the sport, but this film stands alone in its overwhelming ability to portray a game, a west Texas town, its residents, its players, and its shameless addiction to the gridiron to a degree that transcends every single facet of human existence. In a community intoxicated with football, in a culture intoxicated with football, in an infrastructure that lives, eats, breaths, and sleeps football, the 1988 Odessa Permian Panthers are about to embark on a spectacular odyssey that will catapult and devour them at the same time: a magical, mystical season taking the coaches and players up and down the peaks and valleys of high school sports nirvana.

This is a film that garners attention to itself for infinite reasons. A great story, based on a bestselling book. Cinematography second to none, thanks to Tobias A. Schliessler, that gives the movie its gritty, handheld, "documentary" feel. A fast-paced, action-packed, totally believable series of scenes, augmented by an absolute killer soundtrack. And acting--oh yes, some very convincing, authentic, been-there-done-that acting.

As great as this film is, it is enhanced by the talents of the players who bring west Texas football to life before our very eyes: Lucas Black as a scowling, brooding, ultimately insecure quarterback Mike Winchell; Derek Luke as the budding NFL superstar "Boobie" Miles, whose knee injury derails his career and summons one of the most poignant scenes in the film; Jay Hernandez as steady, reliable Brian Chavez; and Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gary Gaines. Thornton is a gifted actor, but this is perhaps his best role, as he portrays a man obsessed with getting his team to the pinnacle of success--yet disgusted with the one-dimensional, win-at-all-costs mentality of his current gig. Thornton is flawless; he does exceptional work.

Three other characters moved me, and moved me considerably. Perhaps, because I can readily identify with all of them. Garrett Hedlund plays Odessa tailback Don Billingsley--a troubled soul because his father, a former jock (Tim McGraw) refuses to accept his son's perceived inattentiveness and does nothing more than relive his own glory days two decades before. I know so many men who suffer exactly from the same malady, and could readily identify with the character, despite his shortcomings. Yet, at the end of the film, when troubled father and son reconcile problematically, I was very much affected.

Finally, I identified with "Preacher," the stoic, silent, solid defensive end from Permian, played by a somber-faced Lee Jackson. He went through the hell of two-a-days, saying nothing. He went through the trials and tribulations of the regular season, saying nothing. He saw games won, games lost, players come, players go, but still his resolve was not shaken, and at last--during halftime of Permian's game against very formidable Dallas Carter for the state championship--he released his fury and anguish to his teammates to fight and scrap and persevere, the character rose above the din and ruckus to prove, very admirably, how sports is, once again, a splendid microcosm of life.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is a whirling Texas twister of entertainment. The film is priceless; the DVD extras remarkable. This product is quality entertainment, top to bottom. Highly, highly, highly recommended.
--D. Mikels, author, WALK-ON

38 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful meditation on the state religion of Texas, October 17, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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I live in Minnesota, where high school hockey is the state religion and the right of passage for seniors is to go to the State Tournament, even if there school does not make it that far. Parents (not just fathers) send their sons to live in other school districts so they can get more playing time or play with a better team. Everyone who has seen "Hoosiers" know that in Indiana it is high school basketball that is the subject of such devotion, but if you needed to see "Friday Night Lights" to know that neither of those state religions holds a candle to high school football in Texas, then you are just not a true sports fan. Even before H.G. Bissinger's Pulitzer Prize winning book, "Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream," I knew the people of West Texas took their high school football seriously (I lived in New Mexico when I went to high school, so it would have been hard not to notice).

Director Peter Berg's film version of "Friday Night Lights" is based on the true story of the Odessa-Permian Panthers and their 1988 season. What "true" means in this case is that the name of the coach and the key players are accurate, as are the number of losses the Panthers had that year (although the scores are different, as is one of the opponents). Overall, the film avoids going Hollywood until the final game, which does manage to be true to the spirit of the film even if it requires a stupid play call to help things along (I am sorry, but if it is 4th down and half the length of a football to go, and your offensive line outweighs the defense by at least 50 pounds a person, you call a quarterback sneak and get a least a yard more than you need just by firing off the ball; at least, that is what my father has always told me and since he played college football for an undefeated team, Trinity in Connecticut, I tend to listen to him).

This film affirms, for the upteenth time, that the main thing wrong with sports involving kids are the adults, either in the form of the parents, or the concerned citizens whose support of coach is based primarily on the score of the last game. The prototypical parent in this story is Charles Billingsley (Tim McGraw), who has his state championship ring and makes it clear that his son, Don (Garrett Hedlund), will be a failure if he does not do the same. Unfortunately, Don has a tendency to fumble, so Charles has no problem going down onto the field during practice to set the boy straight. Is Don playing football for his dad or despite his dad? There is no easy answer to that question, because life, family, and football are all wrapped up together in Odessa, Texas. The town might be mired in an economic depression, but that does not stop them from having a football stadium bigger than what some colleges and universities enjoy.

Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) is supposed to go undefeated and win the state championship. Perham has done this four times before, in 1965, 1976, 1980, and 1984. Apparently they have a four year crop rotation program going and everybody in town can do the math to figure out 1988 is going to be the year. When the Boobie Miles (Derek Luke) the star running back gets hurt the coach gets the blame even though it is clear, like in a classic Greek tragedy, that the Fates are punishing the sin of hubris. Boobie is all ready to spend his money for playing in the NFL and he has not even picked a college yet. Basking in his stardom, Boobie gladly admits to reporters that he gets straight A's because he is an athlete and as he leaves defenders in the wake of his sweet moves you can understand why he is the most important play for Permian. But the goddess of mischief hides the helmet of his backup Chris Comer (Lee Thompson Young), and everybody knows that when you are running the score up and keep your superstar in the game, somebody is going to go gunning for him.

There are several key factors that make "Friday Night Lights" work. The first is Thornton's performance, which is yet another reminder that he is one of the finest film actors around today. His Coach Gaines goes between moments of screaming at his players in the grand tradition of football coaches going back to Knute Rockne and beyond and measured silences as he endures another rabid fan excoriating him on talk radio or the "For Sale" signs that have sprung up in his front yard after a loss. But there are also moments when the speaks from the heart, whether it is to his quarterback, Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) in the squalid home the kid shares with his mentally disturbed mother (Connie Cooper), or the final halftime speech to his team. What distinguishes Gaines from every other man in the story is that he knows that in the end, football is just a game. He just has to be careful about who he shares this particular bit of wisdom with during the season.

Berg makes a brilliant decision to shoot this story as if it were a documentary. This works well in the extended game sequences, but suits the rest of the film as well, which is important because the most important moments in "Friday Night Lights" come at other times. Some of the best scenes take place away from the lighted field as Boobie and his uncle (Grover Coulson) deal with the disappearance of the dream during a visit to a doctor, when the garbage truck makes it rounds, and when the kid cleans out his locker. This leads to the third key factor, which is that we care about the kids that the story focuses on, including the silent "Preacher" (Lee Jackson) and the kid who is going to Harvard to become a lawyer, Brain Chavez (Jay Hernandez). We do not care about the fans or the families or the rest of the town, just the kids, and their performances match those of Thornton in providing a realism that we just do not get in most of the films in the sports genre.

I really liked this movie until the end, where the action and the emotions smack too much of Hollywood, not to mention David versus Goliath, than what had been established up to that point. Still, in the end Berg focuses exactly where he should, on the kids who have finished their high school football careers and the coach who has to immediately start planning for next year, when Odessa-Permian would again undertake the sacred quest for perfection.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal Movie, April 23, 2006

By 

WebViking "WebViking" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friday Night Lights (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

I read the book this film was based on several years ago and thought it was absolutely riveting. This movie truly captures the spirit of the book in a way that few adaptations can. True, in the book, and in real life, the Permian Panthers met the Dallas Carter Cowboys in the semi-final game of the state playoffs and not the championship game, but the end result was the same.

The film follows a season of Odessa (Texas) Permian High School football and anyone from anywhere near the area has heard about West Texas football and how seriously it's taken by the inhabitants of the region. Permian plays it's home games in a $20 million football stadium, an amazing thing for a high school to have. High School football is almost always played on Friday evenings during the fall, hence the title "Friday Night Lights".

But this is not your typical movie depiction of sports, it's based on a real story like most movies about sports, but it differs in that it's much more real. In this movie are all the ugly things that as much make up life as all the good things. Early in the season the star player, Boobie Miles, blows out his knee and has to come to grips with the fact that he'll never be the same player, never go to the big-time college football school, never go to the pros. He's 17, almost an adult and the only thing he is prepared to do in life is play football, and now he is physically unable to do that.

We also see the intense pressure leveled on the coach, Gary Gaines, to succeed; in Permian a good season isn't enough, a State Championship is always expected. After the second early season loss, coach Gaines and his family arrive late at night back to their house, only to see about 30 "For Sale" signs planted by angry fans in his front yard.

In the end, the Panthers triumph, not on the field, not as a team, but individually, each knowing in his heart that he did everything possible to win. And three players a couple of days after the final game meet at the parking lot of the high school, and each go their seperate ways. The QB tossing a ball off to a group of kids playing in a nearby field as he walks away.

And in real life, for 95% of high school football players, and 95% of college football players for that matter, that is the reality of football. The last game for your school is the last game that you will ever play. Football is unique in that respect, you don't see adult football leagues like you do soccer, baseball, softaball, volleyball, etc. leagues. Once your school career is over, the game is done with you. All you will ever do from now on is watch.

And the movie catches this poignancy perfectly, one of the most beautiful endings I've ever seen in a film. The overall feel of the movie is more that of a documentary than of a dramatic presentation. And it's wonderfully done. Even if you hate sports movies in general, you should watch this one. It's different, wonderful, and not to be missed. You'll be sorry if you do.