It is this unifying theme that is also expressed in both the book, Friday Night Lights, as well as the movie, Miracle.
The Unifying Effects of Representative Sports as Demonstrated in Friday Night Lights and Miracle:
In Bissinger's Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, the author explores the societal webwork that is Odessa, Texas. An oil town that soars and plummets as oil comes and goes, is held together by the local high school football team -- the Permian Panthers. In the book, Odessa is a town that is both metaphorically and literally divided. There is the racial division of Whites vs. Blacks and Hispanics. Reminiscent of a far earlier time in America, Whites in Odessa in the late 1980s, on the whole are bigots, who feel Blacks are inferior.
There is only thing Blacks are valued for in Odessa -- football. For this reason, the town is literally divided into the two high schools, Permian and Odessa. The districting lines have been drawn so that all of the White students go to Permian. Only a select number of Black students get to attend the school. This, Bissinger surmises, is due to the school's desire to have students that play football. Yet, despite this divisional layout of Odessa society, it is the Permian Panthers' football that brings the town together. These students that otherwise would be seen as second-class citizens are respected and envied for their football prowess. It allows friendships to form that wouldn't normally. Town members relate so strongly with the success of this high school team, it can override the economic turmoil of the oil industry, as well as the social turmoil caused by the underlying bigotry. The movie, Miracle, has a similar theme of societal division being overcome by representative sports.
Miracle centers on the real-life story of the 1980 men's United States Olympic hockey team. The beginning of the film clearly illustrates the natural divisions this pieced together team must face. The 20 members of the Olympic team come from different teams. Some even were intense rivals in the past. The 'us vs. them'...
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