The film opens in the small town of Odessa, Texas where the local high school football team, The Permian Panthers, face the town's expectations of winning a state championship. We are introduced to Mike Wincher, the quiet quarterback who seems caught up in the hype surrounding this team.
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When star player James "Boobie" Miles goes down with a knee injury, the team must rebound and find a new identity without the man their entire offense was built around. However, even as the team begins to pull things together, they end up coming face to face with Dallas Carter, the best team in the entire state. The pressure can't be any higher as coach Gary Gaines fears his job is on the line in this game as well.
The review of this Movie prepared by Adam Whitton
It's the 1988 season for the Permian High Panthers, the high school football team which carries the weight of all the hopes and disappointments of the depressed oil town of Odessa, Texas. Mike Winchell (Black) is the sober quarterback with a very sick mother, Don Billingsley (Hedlund) is the receiver whose concentration is riddled by his father's abuse. (Charles Billingsley, the alcoholic veteran of a former state champion team from Permian, is played by country star Tim McGraw.)
The team's best ball carrier, high-flying and fun-loving Boobie Miles (Luke) suffers a bad knee injury early in the season, and the pressure mounts on straight arrow coach Gary Gaines (Thornton) to guarantee a win at state against traditional rival Midland and the big, bruising Dallas-Carter team. This 2004 film, based on the book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger, has all the elements of a typical high school sports movie, with a few bittersweet twists stirred in.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus