Was it necessary to make Friday Night Lights into a soap opera?
No.
I love how football movies set in Texas feel the need to portray Texans as knuckledragging, dumb as shit hicks who know nothing about life outside small towns other than the sweet, addictive lure of football, which consumes everyone’s lives and is all everyone cares about.
Really, Varsity Blues is just the soapy version of Friday Night Lights, which is ridiculous given the fact that Friday Night Lights is about as good as it gets regarding football movies. The town they’re essentially portraying is one lone town in West Texas where football is king. There’s reasons for that; and while football is pretty much the preferred sport in Texas, I don’t think it’s this obscene. (No standing head coach of a high school has a freaking statue erected in his honor.) It’s hyperbole of the most ridiculous form and the movie lost me when they introduced the fat, slovenly character Billy Bob, who drives a souped up truck, eats stacks of pancakes slathered in peanut butter and has a pet pig.
There’s a point where it’s satire and then there’s a point where it’s just stupid. Varsity Blues is just stupid. And I don’t think Varsity Blues is even thought out enough to venture into satire.
To give it credit, Amy Smart and James Vanderbeek are pretty good; both have decent accents and handle the crap they’re given capably. Crazy Jon Voight doesn’t have to stretch much as he’s essentially playing himself with a Texas accent.
Just don’t ask me to buy into a football movie about Texas when you’re pretty much bordering on mocking said characters and then when you try and get me to buy Scott Caan as the teeniest, smallest running back in the entire history of football.
The movie is, in short, lame.
I loved Varsity Blues. When I played varsity football, I saw parallels with the characters and my team (Southern California), so maybe there’s just a disconnect for you via experience.
You’re right, I never played football, so I wouldn’t have an inkling… and I cannot relate in that respect.
When it comes to the depiction of the town, I just kind of roll my eyes, though. I can honestly say that I think the way they portray the entire town as being football-rabid is way over the top, even for Texas. For me personally it elevates the movie into just utterly ridiculous kind of territory which makes it a hard sell for me to say, “Yeah, I appreciated that movie”.
Plus, why mess with a good thing? Friday Night Lights, as we’ve seen, is great on its own; it didn’t need the MTV soap opera treatment, I think.
Though I’ve resisted the seemingly wonderful charms of “Varsity Blues” (tongue firmly in cheek), I’m also pretty sensitive to Hollywood’s treatment of Texas. Even the great Aaron Eckhart doesn’t make it out alive as a supposed Texan in Alan Ball’s “Towelhead” which takes place in suburban Houston. His accent is terrible and in one scene, he’s watching a rodeo on TV. How many people do you know that watches rodeo on TV? Are rodeos even on TV here in Texas? I’ve never seen one. Why can’t Richard Linklater be the official director of anything Hollywood puts out with a setting in Texas?
Are rodeos even on TV here in Texas?
Oddly enough, you can watch professional bull-riding on Versus. That’s cable, though. The only reason I know is that is because NHL games often dove-tail into either PBR or MMA fights. I think that’s about as close as it gets.
I’m also pretty sensitive to Hollywood’s treatment of Texas.
It’s good to know I’m not the only one! I get really tired of it. About the only movie I can recall seeing in the past few years set in Texas that I enjoyed was Frailty, oddly enough, and that’s because Bill Paxton cast a bunch of Texans in it so the accents are pretty realistic – obviously. Plus, with Austin alone you’d think we’d have different stuff coming out of here.
Why can’t Richard Linklater be the official director of anything Hollywood puts out with a setting in Texas?
WORD.
Seriously, the accent is not that hard! Making a different kind of movie other than a movie about football, rednecks, or small towns is possible. It’s a huge state with a great mix of cultures and terrain; you’d think someone would make a less than typical movie about the state, but NOOOO! :D
Bite your tongue!
I realize Varsity Blues isn’t a masterpiece, but it fits squarely in the realm of not-so-good (ok, bad) movies that I loooove.
It’s damn near perfect in this regard. Voight wonderfully overacting (harkening back to his Anaconda days), gratuitous nudity, Scott Caan kills me (and he’s a WR, by the way), classic lines (”I don’t want (beat) your life!!”), Billy Bob, good alt/rock music throughout – it’s got it all.
In all seriousness, Van Der Beek is great in it – it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen him in, and I think it tells a simple story well. As a bonus, it doesn’t insult you with the superhappy ending, either.
And I’m neither from Texas nor a former h.s. football player. Love it, though.