Friday, October 15, 2004 5

‘Friday’ lights up screen

‘Pullquote etc. etc.’- Source Name

By Mike Caputo

When high school foot-ball players look back to their careers, the memory often remains. Through the oil fields of West Texas, these memories are collectively shared, not only by the players, but also by the entire community as well. The extreme magnitude that high school football has on the lives of people in Odessa, Texas was chronicled in the book, Friday Night Lights, written by H.G. Bissinger and also on the big screen in a film directed by Peter Berg. Bissinger centered his book on the success and hardship of the 1988 Permian (Odessa) Panthers high school football team’s road to earning a spot in the state championship. The author included a detailed description of Odessa’s negative characteristic as pos-sessing a “backwards” identity, especially when it came to racism and domestic issues. Bissinger explained that a major portion of such shortcomings was a result of an economic depres-sion caused by the oil economy in past years. The one night that brought the entire Odessa community together each week was Friday at Ratliff Stadium, which seats about 20,000, to watch their beloved Permian Panthers win. A loss was never considered in the minds of a Panther fan, since winning was indeed everything. Friday Night Lights, the movie based on the book, stars Billy Bob Thornton as pres-sured head coach Gary Gaines,

Derek Luke as hot-shot run-ning back Boobie Miles and Lucas Black as low-key senior quarterback Mike Winchell. The movie begins with pre-season training camp, with-out much of a background on Odessa, but effectively manages to illustrate the attitude of the town right from the beginning. One key difference between the book and film is that Thornton’s weak and modest portrayal as coach Gary Gaines takes away the tough demeanor that he possessed in Bissinger’s book. The remainder of the cast performed their roles “to the book” alongside an inter-esting and unpredictable char-acter development. This char-acterization was nearly identi-cal to the array of perspectives that Bissinger presented in his account, in which he centered upon the individual worlds of Gaines, Winchell, Miles, the family pressured Don Billingsley (Garrett Hedlund) and the straight-edged, yet vicious, Ivory Christian (Lee Jackson). Each of these players differed, but molded together as a team. There is nothing typical about the story of Friday Night Lights. It contains all the sweat and tears of a football team’s daunting season both on and off the field. The film comple-ments the book so wonderfully by illustrating all the bone-crunching hits and spine-tin-gling emotions that, even if the viewer has never had their own high school football experience, it will be sure to never leave their memory bank.

Photo copyright Universal Pictures

Friday Night Lights entered theaters on Friday, Oct. 8. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund and Derek Luke. The movie is based on a true story.

Paying tribute to a true heroBy Vincent Civitillo

Christopher Reeve never knew it, but he and I had some amazing adventures together. Him, on screen in his cape; me, watching with a blan-ket wrapped around my neck as his eight-year-old sidekick. Together we stopped L.A. from sinking into the ocean, laid waste to General Zod and rid the world of nuclear weapons. As the man who played Superman, Reeve was my hero growing up. He had all sorts of powers, beat the bad guys and, at the end of the day, got the girl. Aside from that, Superman was the perfect role model for children because his strong moral grasp helped to teach kids right from wrong. However, unlike most

childhood heroes, Reeve remained mine even in adult-hood. The tragic accident that left him paralyzed would have brought most people’s spirits to a crippling halt. However, Reeve stayed optimistic and, with each passing day, still promised us he’d walk again. As someone who was inspired by

his courage, I always believed him. His passing on Sunday was most devastating to me because my hero died before ever realiz-ing that dream. He, who made me believe that a man could fly, never got to walk again. Still, I’ve come to realize that some dreams do not have to be fulfilled during our life-time. Reeve raised countless funds for paralysis research and became big in the fight against bans on embryonic stem-cell research as well. While it may be too late for him, his work will help many others in the years to come. In essence, Reeve dies as a superhero after all. And so, somewhere “up in the sky,” I am convinced that he is both walking and flying, again.

‘Stepford’ falls just short of perfectBy Nicole Southern

The ideal woman. Every man is looking for her. She’s beautiful, she’s smart, she has the per-fect body and, best of all, her main goal in life is to please her husband every second of every day. But this fantasy of the perfect woman is just that—a fantasy. Right? Not for the town of Stepford. The Stepford Wives takes the idea of the flawless woman to the next level and adds an interesting, somewhat frightening, twist. What could have been a movie that tee-tered on the border of good and bad, turned out to be one with great potential. The Stepford Wives boasts an all-star cast, including some of Hollywood’s biggest stars like Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick, as well as some of its older leading ladies and men such as Bette Midler and Christopher Walken. After Joanna Eberhard (Kidman) loses her job, causing her to have a nervous breakdown, Walter Kresby (Broderick) decides his wife needs to get away from all the hype. So the whole fam-ily moves to Stepford, a quaint suburban town in Connecticut. Joanna does not fit in, however, and is skeptical of the town from the very begin-ning. When Walter is let in on Stepford’s little secret, he’s faced with a difficult decision. If he could change Joanna, would he? The starring women in the movie seem to do a much better job than its leading men. While they deliver performances up to par, the men fall slightly short of expectations. Kidman plays an obsessive workaholic who never has enough time for her family. She is very convincing as Joanna, providing viewers with a taste of how important good acting really is. Although Joanna is not one of Kidman’s best roles, she does a great job of fooling viewers. Glenn Close does an amazing portrayal of Claire Welling, Stepford’s leading lady. At the beginning she is able to fool the entire audience with her smile and charm, but not long after, Close turns on the evil instinct in her that we all know and love. She is once again able to entice viewers to develop a genuine hatred for her; although why they do so is something they just can’t place their finger on. Midler also gets two thumbs up for her role as Bobbie Markowitz, a former liberal woman with no desire to play the role of the housewife, turned neat freak with total devotion to her hus-

band and his wishes. In this film, Midler gets to play her fun, crazy self and draws lots of laughs along the way. The performances of Broderick, Walken and John Lovitz were respectable, but not something to be bragged about. This time around they seemed much less believable than some of those in their pasts. However, they still manage to provide a decent representation of the characters they are embodying. The original Stepford Wives was released in 1975. It was intended to be a suspenseful horror film. Frank Oz’s version, however, tells the same story, but with humor. The story manages to keep viewers on their toes in the second act. When Joanna is finally brought before her husband in front of all the men in Stepford, she pleads her case, begging Walter to remember all the good and bad times they have had together. Shortly after is when the real action begins. The film’s costumes and sets help to give it that little push over the edge. The sets are very charming. It adds credibility and allows the audi-ence to feel as though they are actually a part of the incredible little town. The costumes are also very well done. They give characters depth and help display their personalities. Each wife has on a beautiful pastel-colored dress every day while Joanna is always seen in a dark, simple outfit. The Stepford Wives is a lot of fun to watch. It presents ideas that are ahead of its time and shows the audience that being less than perfect may actually be a good thing. The movie also demonstrates the idea that everyone is different and the world would be a lot less interesting if they were not.

Photo copyright Paramount Pictures

The Stepford Wives is playing in the BLC Theater this Thursday through Friday.

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press

Christopher Reeve, famous for his role as Superman, passed away on Sunday, Oct. 10.

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