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Article: `Friday Night Lights'.
- Article from:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA)
- Article date:
- October 7, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Philadelphia Inquirer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Steven Rea
Once a week, September into December, the town of Odessa, Texas _ an unpretty swath of mini-malls, trailer parks and modest homes ringed by flat, scrubby desert _ comes to life. That's when the Permian High School Panthers play football.
"Friday Night Lights," a smart, sharp, stirring adaptation of the H.G. Bissinger best-seller about one season _ 1988 _ in the West Texas burg, examines the ferocious subculture of high school athletics, and how a whole community is measured, and measures itself, on the performance of its beloved team of gridiron teens.
Focusing on six players and their coach, Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), ...