In 1999, two of my favorite football movies were released; Varsity Blues and Any Given Sunday. One was the real life portrayal of the daily pressures and expectations of a football player and the other was about ... well, the daily pressures of being a football player in Texas, getting pigs drunk, and watching your sex education teacher strip. So obviously were gonna talk about the one with the stripping teacher, so let's take a look back at Varsity Blues.

I don't think anyone in late 1998 or early 1999 who watched MTV will ever forget the massive marketing that MTV did for Varsity Blues. It was the fourth MTV film and they went all out, with commercials at least every fifteen seconds on the channel. It was obviously their biggest budget and widest release yet, starring the then incredibly popular James Van Der Beek who was starring in the second season of the one of the hottest teen dramas around, Dawson's Creek. I know that may be hard to believe for some people but in 1999, Van Der Beek was the man.

Football movies had been done quite a few times prior to 1999, but they usually focused on the professional level and lacked "realism." The hits were always filmed at an angle where you could tell there was no major contact, and when comparing to actual football on TV it was almost laughable.

Well Varsity Blues changed all of that for the better, and the commercials seemed to focus on Van Der Beek's horrible Texas accent and the new filming style for fictional football games; crystal clear, slow motion hits that really occurred. It seems that someone smartened up and decided to slap shoulder pads on stunt men and let them actually knock the crap out of one another, and this made for an incredible looking trailer minus the accent and all.

So, not only is Varsity Blues credited with the first realistic football hit scenes, but also the first film that I know about, that focused on Texas high school football. Being that I spent my freshmen year of high school at Cedar Hill High School outside of Dallas, Texas, I can fully appreciate the public's fascination with high school football in Texas. It's almost a religious experience being around football in Texas and the lengths that the players, parents, teachers, and coaches go to support the teams is just insane. I was attending Cedar Hill High School when Varsity Blues was released and to say it was the most popular movie of the year at school is an understatement. I don't think I've ever seen so many people trying to fit into the stereotypes represented in that movie.

Of course, years later we were treated to a much better and more realistic movie in Friday Night Lights, which was followed by the superior TV show of the same name. And while both the movie and show are a more serious, dramatic take on the similar setting in Varsity Blues, it does have to give some credit to Varsity Blues for establishing an audience for such a film and exposing the word to the madness that is Texas high school football.

If you haven't seen Varsity Blues, the movie takes place in West Canaan, Texas, a small town that lives and dies by high school football. The town is full of former players, who now sit and encourage their children who play for the West Canaan Coyotes under the watchful eye of Coach Kilmer. Coach Kilmer is played by Jon Voight who nails the part as an overbearing, sleazy, unethical coach who will do anything to continue to feed his ego with the football team being successful. He's been with the high school for thirty years and is looking forward to another successful division title with star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) leading the way. When Lance is hurt and out for the season, Coach Kilmer is forced to go with backup Jonathan "Mox" Moxon (James Van Der Beek) for the remaining regular season games. Coach Kilmer doesn't like Mox and hasn't allowed him to play at all, so now the fate of his dream season rests on the shoulders of someone he finds incompetent and disrespectful.

Mox turns out to have superstar potential and quickly becomes "the man." All of a sudden, the crazy Texas football world that Mox had grown to hate has embraced him and it's hard for Mox to turn down the attention or fringe benefits of being the star quarterback. Mox struggles with loyalty to his teammates, he struggles with who he wants to be, and and struggles with his hatred of the unethical practices of Coach Kilmer. All of this comes together as Mox finishes out the season and tries to keep his tight knit group of friends together.

Varsity Blues has a nice story behind it, and while it remains true to some of the underdog sport narratives, it still distances itself enough with Mox's depth that you find some of it refreshing. Too bad the rest of the cast isn't near as deep. You've got the overbearing dad living his dreams though his kids, the fat, stupid, crybaby, the token black guy, the stunning handsome quarterback, the fun, drunken cowboy, etc. It's almost laughable at how different the characters are but at how you've seen every single one of them in a variety of movies. The 90's teen spoof, Not Another Teen Movie, used a lot of these characters to poke fun.

The movie also struggles with figuring out what it wants to be. It's billed as a drama, and its hard to argue that it doesn't end a drama, but a good portion of the movie comes across like a bad 90's teen flick (which I love!). I can't help but to think MTV had some creative control and added these scenes which totally changed the flow of the movie. And some of the scenes are just down right laughable. Heck, the opening scene in the truck makes you roll your eyes and wonder what the hell you've gotten yourself into, at least the movie doesn't stay like that.

I think what I like best about the movie is that at the core, it's about being true to yourself and doing what is right regardless of the outcome. That may be cliche and a little after school special, but it's still a decent lesson that isn't usually seen in movies like this. Mox's relationship with his girlfriend, his dad, his coach, and even the community is a constant struggle of people telling him how he should act and who he should be. He's rewarded for being someone by everyone else, but is deep down ashamed of himself for not being true. When you step back from all of the goofiness, you can see this struggle and maybe it's not so much about football, but just being a teenager in America.

Varsity Blues won some Teen Choice Awards and some MTV Movie Awards and honestly, I don't think they deserved either. Jon Voight is quite sensational, if even a little over the top, in his portrayal of Coach Kilmer, but the rest of the performances do leave a little to be desired. James Van Der Beek is great in character, but the accent is just atrocious. However, this movie launched the careers of some good actors who went on to do some decent flicks over the years such as; James Van Der Beek, Paul Walker, Amy Smart, Ali Larter, and Scott Caan. It's also hard not to believe that it didn't partially open the door for Friday Night Lights to come to be, and for that we all owe a little to Varsity Blues.

It's not a horrible movie by any means, but it definitely is not great either. It's a fun watch if you can enjoy it for what it is; MTV's attempt at Friday Night Lights before there was Friday Night Lights with a side of cheesy 90's teen movie to boot.

Oh, yeah... there is also a part where Ali Larter is wearing a bikini made of whip creme. 

Full disclosure: about once year I get a desire to watch this guilty pleasure and will spend a couple days walking around saying "I don't want your life" over and over again in Van Der Beek's Texas accent until my girlfriend yells at me.