Varsity Blues Essay, Research Paper
Varsity Blues
Varsity Blues was written by W. Peter Iliff is about a Texas high school football team that is the center of the small town. The team faces a loss when its star quarterback, Lance Harbor, played by Paul Walker, has a knee injury. Coach Bud Kilmer, played by Jon Voight, had to go to his bench for his second-string quarterback, Jonathon Mox Moxon, played by Dawson s Creek star James Van Der Beek. Mox now experienced what being the star quarterback entailed. He had to deal with the pressures that the town and coach Kilmer set for him. Despite this, Mox had the challenge of pleasing his friends, his teammates, his family, and maintaining a relationship with his girlfriend. Varsity Blues is an enjoyable action-drama story that incorporates sports and romance.
The title Varsity Blues represents the varsity high school football team and its school color blue. However, the blue in the title doesn t just represent the school color. It also foreshadows events that occur throughout the movie to add suspense and drama. These events create rough patches that the characters need to overcome.
The actors and story help to bring the audience into the action, feelings, and lives of the football players and their families. The sounds of the clashing helmets, the grunting of the players sprinting towards the end zones, and the slow movements of the players
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were created by the director, Brian Robbins, with the help of the editing team during the editing process, which helped to produce a dramatic effect. This dramatic effect made the
audience feel involved in the actions and emotions of the players, as well as integrating them into the game. The director established, through cinematic components, a final production that incorporated the audience into the picture. Viewers felt the pain, anger, joys, and excitement of the characters through every aspect of the movie. Close-ups during the action-packed scenes created intimacy between the audience and the actual scene. The camera angles ranged from a high angle to a low angle that brought the action up close and personal for the viewers. The final production included some montages during the actual football games to show lapses of time throughout the game to speed it up. Also during several scenes there included point of view shots which aided in gaining perspective from the characters about what they saw and felt.
The entire town has a loss of perspective on life. The town is so engrossed in football and winning that they lose sight of what really matters in life. Van Der Beeks character is concerned more with graduating and getting accepted to Brown University than he is with becoming head quarterback of the small Texas high school football team. Coach Kilmer, on the other hand, is concerned with winning. He is like a military figure that is always looking for a way to kill his opponents. He doesn t look at his team as a group of high school football players, but rather a group of men who are preparing for battle. The players are no longer enjoying the game of football that they once did. It is now a matter of life or death. Going into their final game, Kilmer gives a speech stating, The next 48 minutes decides the next 48 years of your lives. The players begin to look
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at this perspective more like Van Der Beeks character; it is just 48 minutes that has no effect on the next 48 years of their lives.
Each actor embodied his or her characters with full characterization. They were dressed as they were supposed to be perceived. The attitudes, emotions, and personalities were all established clearly and effectively. It was made clear from the characters and their views on life that they were from a small town. This small town idea was fulfilled through the setting and closeness of the community. Everyone knew each other and was always butting their head into everyone else s business. No one s life was kept secret.