50 Best Sports Movies Ever

29. Friday Night Lights

Year: 2004
Sport: American Football
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Lee Thompson Young
Director: Peter Berg

Between college and the NFL, those who endure the sport of American football have a chance to achieve sports immortality. Yet, if you were to ask players at the highest of levels what their greatest memory is as an American football player, many would answer with something that happened in high school.

That much was further established when Friday Night Lights, a film revisiting the glory of high school football, became a massive success.

The 2004 high school football film was one that connected with sports fans of multiple generations. It revisits the days before the glitz and glamour, when passion reigned supreme and every game helped build an eternal and unbreakable brotherhood.

There were enough quotes to last a lifetime, but no scene stole the show quite like Billy Bob Thornton’s motivational halftime speech.

Friday Night Lights was such a well-executed and popular film that it was spun into a television series that experienced similar success.

Thornton gives a lights-out performance—no pun intended—as head coach Gary Gaines. Derek Luke’s appearance as Boobie Miles, Lucas Black’s Mike Winchell, Garrett Hedlund’s Don Billingsley, Jay Hernandez’s Brian Chavez, and the late Lee Thompson Young’s Chris Comer all stood out as actors and characters.

If you’ve yet to experience Friday Night Lights—the film or the television show—then you’ve been missing out on quite the experience.

Next: 28. The Longest Yard