FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black

Universal Pictures; Directed by Peter Berg

Rated PG-13; 117 minutes; 2004

Based on the best-selling book by H.G. Bissinger, this film chronicles the 1988 football season of the Permian High Panthers in Odessa, Texas. In this economically depressed town the weeks tend to not be happy ones but when Friday night comes around everyone heads to the football field where the team is revered like royalty. Odessa stands in for every small town that has been broken down by time but whose inhabitants need just one bright spot to keep their dreams alive.