Film Review, by James Cameron-Wilson
June 1999
Film Reviews: Varsity Blues
Anybody with even a passing knowledge of American football knows that,on home ground, it is revered in away that seems totally ridiculous to outsiders. So much so, that the sport has almost become a metaphor for the american Way, a glorious institution in which the mentally challenged - but physically advantaged - can thrust their way into the very epicentre of academic circles. Indeed, the subject has been ripe picking for the movies, from the Tom Cruise vehicle All the Right Moves (1983) to the Tom Cruise vehicle Jerry Maguire (1996). While essentially a Saturday night blast of escapism, Varsity Blues attempts to present a new angle on the phenomenon.
Having grown up in a typically football-obsessed Texan backwater, earnest student Jonathan Moxon (Van Der Beek) loves the game but intends to give it all up after college. His girlfriend, Julie (the promising Amy Smart), happens to be the sister of Lance Harbor (Walker), Moxon's best friend and current star quarterback of the local school team, the West Canaan Coyotes. In spite of her association with the two best players in town, Julie is bored by the whole razzmatazz and is keen for her friend to put the grid-iron behind him. Moxon concurs, but when he replaces the injured Lance, he finds himself intoxicated by his new popularity.
Throw the quandary the brutal tactics of the team's bull-headed coach, Bud Kilmer (Voight on scenery-chewing form), and this by-the-numbers escapade falls neatly into its stride. The good news is that director Robbins knows which buttons to push and is abetter by a fine cast of up-and-coming faces. Combining both the raucous energy of National Lampoon's ANimal house and the moral stance of Chariots of Fire, Varsity Blues strivew to have its cake and consume it.
Tossing in the usual cliches of the genre - th visit to a strip club, a plethora of ripe language, adrenaline-pumping stunts and the usual array of hard-driving rock (Van Halen, Foo Fighters, Green Day) - the film is a slick package with a strong narrative thread. Formulaic but diverting.