Varsity Blues

I remember this film receiving reasonable reviews when it came out in 1999. It stars James van der Beek (at the height of his Dawson's Creek fame) as the reserve quarterback for a high school American football team, that is being ruthlessly driven towards success by their coach, played by Jon Voight. I have thought that this might be a better film if it was focussed on Voight's character alone. He certainly gives the best performance in the movie, probably the best I've ever seen of him. His breakdown at the end is particularly impressive. As it is, however, the film is about van der Beek. As the reserve to a star quarterback, he hasn't played a game in a long time, and is disillusioned about the team and the lifestyle, eagerly waiting for it all to be over so he can go to university. The movie gods, as you can guess, aren't going to let him get away with this. The star quarterback is injured and he has to play the final crucial games of the season, bringing him into conflict not only with the obsessive coach, but also his family, friends, and own ideas about what he wants from life. As you might be able to tell, I think this is a pretty good premise, the problem is that the film feels confused about what it is. It blends comedy with drama, when I think it should've just been a drama. Van der Beek also isn't quite good enough for this role. It needed to be a dark, oppressive film, but instead doesn't achieve what it could've been. Good elements interchange with some fairly average, if not awful, ones. There's a pretty good soundtrack, but perhaps too any slow-motion footage of players being tackled. Most teenage dramas that start with the main character as an outsider hating everyone else, end up with him/her being accepted, and this film sort of concedes to that formula, but I'm not sure if it does completely. Does the main character submit to the idea of success that coach wanted from him? No, but it still feels like he has conceded in some way. I'm aware of the book, film and television series Friday Night Lights, which has been highly recommended to me, and focuses on a high school football team as well. Perhaps it is the fulfilment of what Varsity Blues should've been.