3afan
10-08-2004, 09:50 AM
Odessa fans pleased with 'Lights'
Many in town say film rights the wrongs of 14-year-old book
By ARNOLD HAMILTON / The Dallas Morning News
ODESSA – For 14 long years, The Book nagged at Kirk Edwards, an inescapable, deep-in-his-gut sense that his beloved hometown was trashed – unfairly and inaccurately – in the best-selling Friday Night Lights.
In two short hours this week, The Movie exorcised those literary-inspired demons, he says, replacing helplessness with hope that America, finally, would see his West Texas as it really is: caring and welcoming, fiercely loyal and competitive.
Call it The Redemption of Odessa, Texas.
"I'm proud that this is the end [result] of 14 years of controversy," said Mr. Edwards, after previewing the long-anticipated film about Odessa Permian High School's 1988 season that opens today in theaters across the nation.
"It focuses so much more on the sport and the team – the town is a minor plot. Being an ex-player, it brought home very realistic feelings, no doubt."
In a town where mention of author H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger's name still evokes passionate debate, Friday Night Lights' arrival on the big screen is evolving into something of a community catharsis.
Local leaders were so taken with an early screening that they turned Thursday night's Odessa premiere at the Century Theaters here into a fund-raiser expected to net about $100,000 for the academic-minded Odessa Educational Foundation.
In addition, the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau uses its Web site to promote itself as the hometown of Friday Night Lights –unthinkable 14 years ago in the volatile, early days after the book was published.
And when 100 or so West Texas media previewed the movie this week, they erupted in applause at its end – giving a proverbial "thumbs up" that the filmmakers got it right.
Not many here dispute Odessa's reputation as a rabid football town.
Mr. Bissinger's book chronicled Permian in an era when the team routinely challenged for the state championship, playing in what was – at the time – perhaps the finest high school stadium in the country, a 20,000-plus-seat gridiron mecca with press box suites for dignitaries and artificial turf.
Randy Eli Grothe / DMN
Glen Atkins, 77, shows his mojo at the Odessa premiere of Friday Night Lights.
Even now – after four playoff-less, sub-par seasons – it's still the Friday night place to be. The parking lots are filled with tailgaters, much like at major college games. Season tickets are so precious they get passed down in wills. Large black P's adorn front yards where Permian Panthers live.
With the debut of Friday Night Lights, the football stage may loom even larger: Days in advance, tickets for the film's showing here were sold out. And next Thursday's game against Midland Lee will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net, along with a 30-minute documentary on the two West Texas powers.
What still rankles many here is what they perceive as the book's depiction of Odessa as a racially charged, football-obsessed oil-and-gas town that abandoned players who became injured or otherwise couldn't perform to a level that helped satisfy the town's lust for victory.
Joe Beene, 21, said the Odessa he knows isn't that way.
Four years ago, in the last practice before the final game of his senior season, the Permian linebacker was gravely injured making a tackle. Left a quadriplegic, he has seen townsfolk raise about $250,000 for him – and another Permian player injured more recently in a car crash – with golf tournaments and other events.
"I am so blessed to live in Odessa," said Mr. Beene, who appears as an extra in the movie. "I have people who care about me here. I wasn't a star. I wasn't a starter. When I got hurt, Odessa treated me like one of their own kids – better than their own kids."
Even though some Odessa residents despise Mr. Bissinger, at least 50 people were lined up Thursday at a Hastings bookstore when he arrived for a late-afternoon book-signing.
He said that he did not regret a word he wrote but that he was sorry that it seemed to hurt Permian's former head coach, Gary Gaines, who has said he wouldn't read the book or see the movie.
"I captured the truth," Mr. Bissinger said in a radio interview conducted at the book-signing Thursday. "I wrote the truth in the book."
He described the movie as a "significant dramatization," but it "will be very well received."
Promotion of its release, he said, has helped spur book sales – back to No. 2 on the New York Times paperback best seller list.
Some here suggest that Odessa's remote location – 350 miles from Dallas and 280 from El Paso – and its boom-bust economic history in the heart of the energy-rich Permian Basin may help explain residents' devotion to their football teams – and to each other.
It's the kind of town where, when Permian football was at its zenith, a defeat would yield an overnight crop of For Sale signs in the head coach's front yard. Talk shows still buzz with armchair analysis of coaching decisions. And local TV covers the team as if it were the Dallas Cowboys.
Some here say the book may have tempered the zealotry that once permeated Odessa Permian football. Others say the team's lack of gridiron success recently is more responsible for any decline.
In the movie, Permian boosters occasionally sat down with the head coach to discuss plays and systems – and to not-so-subtly warn that his job always was on the line if he didn't win it all.
True to life in Odessa, circa 2004?
"What I feel with the folks is they want a hard day's work; they don't want any excuse-making," said Permian's current head coach, Scott Smith, who appears as an assistant in the movie. "I think that's a positive thing."
Mr. Smith conceded there are "huge expectations." Even so, he said, "It's still about working with young people. We're going to keep that in perspective, helping them to be the best they can be.
"Bottom line is, you don't win enough, you're probably not going to be here long."
Just how Friday Night Lights plays nationally remains to be seen. But early screenings suggest it will be a big hit here.
Where some here felt the book damaged their town's reputation, they now hope the movie will help put Odessa on the map nationally – with positive, long-term results.
"To me, it's a great way to expose Odessa," said Kirk Edwards, a 1977 Permian graduate and former University of Texas walk-on kicker who runs an oil and gas business.
"To me, it's going to be like Baby Jessica. Nobody on God's green earth knew where Midland, Texas, was until Baby Jessica fell in that well. ... It got Midland on the national map.
"Whether it's good or bad, Odessa's going to be on the national map for a while, too."
Just the Facts
The movie Friday Night Lights played fast and loose with the facts. Some notable differences between the movie and the reality of the 1988 season:
•Carter and Odessa Permian play for the state championship in the movie. It was actually a state semifinal game.
•The Carter-Permian game is played before a crowd of 55,000 in the Astrodome in the movie. It was actually played in front of 10,000 people in a driving rainstorm at Memorial Stadium in Austin.
•The Carter-Permian game is a high-scoring shootout in the movie. The actual result was a 14-9 Carter victory. Click to read the game story.
•Permian's first-round playoff opponent in the movie is Jesuit. It was actually Amarillo Tascosa. Jesuit did not compete in football in the UIL until this season.
•The movie indicates that Carter is the state's top-ranked team. Carter was actually never ranked higher than No. 3 in the Associated Press poll.
Many in town say film rights the wrongs of 14-year-old book
By ARNOLD HAMILTON / The Dallas Morning News
ODESSA – For 14 long years, The Book nagged at Kirk Edwards, an inescapable, deep-in-his-gut sense that his beloved hometown was trashed – unfairly and inaccurately – in the best-selling Friday Night Lights.
In two short hours this week, The Movie exorcised those literary-inspired demons, he says, replacing helplessness with hope that America, finally, would see his West Texas as it really is: caring and welcoming, fiercely loyal and competitive.
Call it The Redemption of Odessa, Texas.
"I'm proud that this is the end [result] of 14 years of controversy," said Mr. Edwards, after previewing the long-anticipated film about Odessa Permian High School's 1988 season that opens today in theaters across the nation.
"It focuses so much more on the sport and the team – the town is a minor plot. Being an ex-player, it brought home very realistic feelings, no doubt."
In a town where mention of author H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger's name still evokes passionate debate, Friday Night Lights' arrival on the big screen is evolving into something of a community catharsis.
Local leaders were so taken with an early screening that they turned Thursday night's Odessa premiere at the Century Theaters here into a fund-raiser expected to net about $100,000 for the academic-minded Odessa Educational Foundation.
In addition, the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau uses its Web site to promote itself as the hometown of Friday Night Lights –unthinkable 14 years ago in the volatile, early days after the book was published.
And when 100 or so West Texas media previewed the movie this week, they erupted in applause at its end – giving a proverbial "thumbs up" that the filmmakers got it right.
Not many here dispute Odessa's reputation as a rabid football town.
Mr. Bissinger's book chronicled Permian in an era when the team routinely challenged for the state championship, playing in what was – at the time – perhaps the finest high school stadium in the country, a 20,000-plus-seat gridiron mecca with press box suites for dignitaries and artificial turf.
Randy Eli Grothe / DMN
Glen Atkins, 77, shows his mojo at the Odessa premiere of Friday Night Lights.
Even now – after four playoff-less, sub-par seasons – it's still the Friday night place to be. The parking lots are filled with tailgaters, much like at major college games. Season tickets are so precious they get passed down in wills. Large black P's adorn front yards where Permian Panthers live.
With the debut of Friday Night Lights, the football stage may loom even larger: Days in advance, tickets for the film's showing here were sold out. And next Thursday's game against Midland Lee will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net, along with a 30-minute documentary on the two West Texas powers.
What still rankles many here is what they perceive as the book's depiction of Odessa as a racially charged, football-obsessed oil-and-gas town that abandoned players who became injured or otherwise couldn't perform to a level that helped satisfy the town's lust for victory.
Joe Beene, 21, said the Odessa he knows isn't that way.
Four years ago, in the last practice before the final game of his senior season, the Permian linebacker was gravely injured making a tackle. Left a quadriplegic, he has seen townsfolk raise about $250,000 for him – and another Permian player injured more recently in a car crash – with golf tournaments and other events.
"I am so blessed to live in Odessa," said Mr. Beene, who appears as an extra in the movie. "I have people who care about me here. I wasn't a star. I wasn't a starter. When I got hurt, Odessa treated me like one of their own kids – better than their own kids."
Even though some Odessa residents despise Mr. Bissinger, at least 50 people were lined up Thursday at a Hastings bookstore when he arrived for a late-afternoon book-signing.
He said that he did not regret a word he wrote but that he was sorry that it seemed to hurt Permian's former head coach, Gary Gaines, who has said he wouldn't read the book or see the movie.
"I captured the truth," Mr. Bissinger said in a radio interview conducted at the book-signing Thursday. "I wrote the truth in the book."
He described the movie as a "significant dramatization," but it "will be very well received."
Promotion of its release, he said, has helped spur book sales – back to No. 2 on the New York Times paperback best seller list.
Some here suggest that Odessa's remote location – 350 miles from Dallas and 280 from El Paso – and its boom-bust economic history in the heart of the energy-rich Permian Basin may help explain residents' devotion to their football teams – and to each other.
It's the kind of town where, when Permian football was at its zenith, a defeat would yield an overnight crop of For Sale signs in the head coach's front yard. Talk shows still buzz with armchair analysis of coaching decisions. And local TV covers the team as if it were the Dallas Cowboys.
Some here say the book may have tempered the zealotry that once permeated Odessa Permian football. Others say the team's lack of gridiron success recently is more responsible for any decline.
In the movie, Permian boosters occasionally sat down with the head coach to discuss plays and systems – and to not-so-subtly warn that his job always was on the line if he didn't win it all.
True to life in Odessa, circa 2004?
"What I feel with the folks is they want a hard day's work; they don't want any excuse-making," said Permian's current head coach, Scott Smith, who appears as an assistant in the movie. "I think that's a positive thing."
Mr. Smith conceded there are "huge expectations." Even so, he said, "It's still about working with young people. We're going to keep that in perspective, helping them to be the best they can be.
"Bottom line is, you don't win enough, you're probably not going to be here long."
Just how Friday Night Lights plays nationally remains to be seen. But early screenings suggest it will be a big hit here.
Where some here felt the book damaged their town's reputation, they now hope the movie will help put Odessa on the map nationally – with positive, long-term results.
"To me, it's a great way to expose Odessa," said Kirk Edwards, a 1977 Permian graduate and former University of Texas walk-on kicker who runs an oil and gas business.
"To me, it's going to be like Baby Jessica. Nobody on God's green earth knew where Midland, Texas, was until Baby Jessica fell in that well. ... It got Midland on the national map.
"Whether it's good or bad, Odessa's going to be on the national map for a while, too."
Just the Facts
The movie Friday Night Lights played fast and loose with the facts. Some notable differences between the movie and the reality of the 1988 season:
•Carter and Odessa Permian play for the state championship in the movie. It was actually a state semifinal game.
•The Carter-Permian game is played before a crowd of 55,000 in the Astrodome in the movie. It was actually played in front of 10,000 people in a driving rainstorm at Memorial Stadium in Austin.
•The Carter-Permian game is a high-scoring shootout in the movie. The actual result was a 14-9 Carter victory. Click to read the game story.
•Permian's first-round playoff opponent in the movie is Jesuit. It was actually Amarillo Tascosa. Jesuit did not compete in football in the UIL until this season.
•The movie indicates that Carter is the state's top-ranked team. Carter was actually never ranked higher than No. 3 in the Associated Press poll.