One Of Billy Bob Thornton's Best Movies Became An Even Better TV Show

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There are many great books about football (Dan Jenkins' "Semi-Tough," George Plimpton's "Paper Lion," Dan Feldman's "'Cane Mutiny"), but the best book about the smashmouth sport digs into one thrilling, bruising, heartbreaking season on the high school gridiron.

Buzz Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream" tells the nonfiction tale of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers. The school isn't quite a Texas football powerhouse, but, up until that season, they'd won four state championships and were four-time runners-up. Not bad in a state where games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are treated as religious rites. High school ball, however, is different. More than college, it's a community affair. Locals watched these kids play Pop Warner, went to school with them, maybe taught them, saw them around town, and, even if they were total jerks, were proud of their achievements on the field since they represented their dot on the map.

Bissinger couldn't be more different from the people he wrote about in "Friday Night Lights." He's a native New Yorker, an Ivy League grad, and an aesthete with an avowed passion for designer clothes. But he won the confidence of Permian citizens and the kids, and he came away with a warts-and-all account of what football means, good and awful, in the U.S.

There are also many great movies about football, but I'm hard-pressed to think of one that tops director Peter Berg's "Friday Night Lights" adaptation starring Billy Bob Thornton. It can't termite its way into Permian like the book does, but Berg's hand-held approach immerses us in the hard-driving delirium of a tradition that means too much to everyone save for the kids. And while the NBC series it spawned might be even better, the film's unsentimental tone is truer to Bissinger's book.

Peter Berg (Buzz Bissinger's cousin) is an East Coast product who exudes Texas swagger. Berg is passionate, intense, and whatever he's working on is the most important thing in the world to him, so woe betide the person who attempts to distract him. His intensity has produced a number of very good films like "The Rundown," "The Kingdom," "Lone Survivor," and "Patriots Day." But he has yet to top "Friday Night Lights," which is hardly derogatory because I consider it one of the best movies of the 2000s.

Billy Bob Thornton is spot-on casting as Coach Gary Gaines, who maintains his cool despite being under crushing pressure to win a state championship with blue-chip running back James "Boobie" Miles (Derek Luke). That cool is seriously tested when Miles tears his ACL in the first game of the season — a dramatic liberty because, in real life, Miles injured his knee in the preseason. Nevertheless, Gaines rallies his young charges, and, with a little luck, gets them to the championship game — which is every bit as exciting and suspenseful as the climactic contest of the first season of the "Friday Night Lights" TV show, even though the outcome is somewhat different.

Chronicling the ups and downs of the fictional Dillon Panthers, NBC's "Friday Night Lights" had the space to open up its heart and let you fall in love with, or at least come to understand, all of the players and townspeople. Kyle Chandler's Coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami Taylor (Britton) are the compassionate center of the show. Eric is as tough as he has to be with his players, but he's never cruel or mentally abusive as too many high school coaches can be. Meanwhile, as the high school's guidance counselor, Tami is concerned with these kids' post-football lives; she sees their potential and tries to set them on the path toward a successful, meaningful life. And while the players can be a handful at times (they are, after all, teenagers), even bad boy Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) is a kind dude under the rough exterior.

The film is nowhere near as cuddly. Permian's championship past is overwhelmed by the acrid stench of failure. The Permian residents either place unreasonable demands on the players or, in the case of Tim McGraw's alcoholic Charles Billingsley, become physically abusive when they believe their child can't cut it. Meanwhile, the kids range from entitled (Miles) to horribly insecure (backup running back Chris Comer, played by Lee Thompson Young). There's not a lot of hope to go around in Peter Berg's movie.

Berg's "Friday Night Lights," currently streaming on Prime Video, breaks your heart, but it mostly leaves you feeling sad. These players are making memories that will haunt them forever. In five years' time, most of them will be occupying a bar stool reminding everyone of when they were worshipped in Permian.