re: Thread Change: Let's Overanalyze Varsity Blues

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And then over there is Mox’s little brother participating in a cult

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And his parents thinking it's just come cute phase. No way presumably christian parents in small town Texas are okay with that.

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I wouldn’t say that. If Kilmer didn’t have an up to date offense, then Lance would never have gotten a scholarship to Florida State.

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Not really true. Recruiting was much different back then. He had the size and talent obviously, and I’m sure Kilmer used his connections to get him real looks by the big time programs.

Guy lost his mind at the sight of a 4 WR offense, he wasn’t at the height of innovation

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Kilmer was just a typical hard arse football coach, and MTV (who produced the movie) wanted to make him the villain and the story be “rebellious teens overcome their azzhole football coach”. Except the football coach is a huge winner, and most towns/players support winners by whatever means they use as long as they win. It felt like this movie was written by people that never actually played football. For me the only real entertaining part of the movie is Tweeder’s funny lines. Making Voight the villain, and Mox the hero pissed me off.

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Never thought I’d see a pro Coach Bud Kilmer guy but I guess there’s a contrarian for everything. I mean not liking Mox is one thing but I think making excuses for Kilmer is a step way too far

I also don't see Bud Kilmer going out like that. No way he lets a handful of players run him off at halftime of a game.

And where are the assistant coaches? Do they all bail out with Kilmer?

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I also don't see Bud Kilmer going out like that. No way he lets a handful of players run him off at halftime of a game.

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I mean what was he going to do? They weren’t going to listen to him so he could’ve awkwardly been on the sideline, or more likely he could’ve just gone out there and forfeited the game

He basically had his entire life structure shattered in 30 minutes. I’m guessing he had a bit of a mental breakdown or panic attack, as he walked off still acting like he was the HC leading the team out. I think you’re supposed to take away that he has some feeling of remorse and seems like he lost his way in place of winning a long time ago and can’t figure out how that happened.

And it wasn’t a handful of players, the entire roster told him to frick off

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And where are the assistant coaches? Do they all bail out with Kilmer?

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That’s another one that’s always points out as a movie plot hole. Simple answer is it’s just a more fun movie with the players acting as coaches.

If you want to try to explain it, yeah I could see the assistants walking out with him. High school coaches , especially really successful established ones, love filling their staff with good ole boys they’ve known for years. For a program like that, he likely had all his friends on staff that would’ve been just as unwelcome back on the field as Kilmer and would’ve followed Kilmer wherever, because he’s their meal ticket

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This is actually a pretty common theme in football movies/tv throughout the years. Stuff like the Program and Any Given Sunday were yelling it from the rooftop.

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Yeah that’s true. I guess what resonates with me is Billy Bob tearfully taking a gun to his youth trophies. It’s a legitimately sad moment to see what’s supposed to be a high school kid grappling with his life not being “good enough” and the constant head injuries and that’s the first time I think I really saw that conveyed by someone who is supposed to be young (unlike LT in Any Given Sunday where’s it’s like yeah but he at least made a career out of it I guess). Varsity Blues gives this real portrayal of the legit stress and pressure and danger of the sport at that level amidst other batshit insanity within the movie

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There doesn’t need to be any excuses made for Kilmer. He won a million district titles. If any coach is winning at a high rate, then his methods are clearly working.

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The dude was forcing doctors to give bad medical advice to players and do sketchy shite to bump up his high school football record. He should be in prison, who cares that he won a lot of football games that’s insane

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The whole “our coach is too mean” is such a weak storyline for a movie. Mox was such a pussy that he’d have quit on Goldie Hawn in Wildcats for making him run till he puked.

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I feel like we didn’t even watch the same movie

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That’s another one that’s always points out as a movie plot hole. Simple answer is it’s just a more fun movie with the players acting as coaches.

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Oh no doubt, it's just a fun movie, I've never worried too much about all the plot holes.

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Also there’s a big gap in their plights that Mox couldn’t understand. Mox has no issue quitting because Kilmer is a dick and he just wants to have fun and he’ll get to go to Brown, where he doesn’t even plan to play football, so really who cares for him. I took the implication that Wendell needs a football scholarship to be able to go to college, and so his issue is much much larger than Mox’s, so he was frustrated with Mox brushing off his problem like he did.

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That's a good point and one I didn't consider initially.

I guess that scene stood out to me this time around because it felt like Wendell was solely focused on his own TD total. And once he workhorsed the ball down the field, Kilmer called the play for Lance or "some white receiver." Well maybe there aren't any good black WRs on that team. I'm saying it seems like a stretch that Kilmer would not give Wendell TD calls because he's black...because he has no problem handing it to him 30 times a game otherwise. And even though he likely played favorites with Lance, the one (and maybe only) thing Kilmer cares about is his next District title. And if Wendell scoring TDs helps that Kilmer would be all for it. I also thought it seemed kinda funny that Wendell is bitching that it's because he's black, and then he says he's got Grambling coming to look at him.

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Interesting fact: the whip cream bikini was actually shaving cream. The whip cream kept falling off.

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Don't think this fact would have changed how fast I'd have eaten it.

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Yeah that’s true. I guess what resonates with me is Billy Bob tearfully taking a gun to his youth trophies. It’s a legitimately sad moment to see what’s supposed to be a high school kid grappling with his life not being “good enough” and the constant head injuries and that’s the first time I think I really saw that conveyed by someone who is supposed to be young (unlike LT in Any Given Sunday where’s it’s like yeah but he at least made a career out of it I guess). Varsity Blues gives this real portrayal of the legit stress and pressure and danger of the sport at that level amidst other batshit insanity within the movie

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Yeah that's actually a fairly powerful scene in an otherwise silly movie. Mox saying "Who gives a flying frick about Bud Kilmer's 23rd District championship...I don't!" and BB saying "I DO!" was pretty heartbreaking at the time.

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Interesting fact: the whip cream bikini was actually shaving cream. The whip cream kept falling off.

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I always love Amy Smart and how she says "You mean to tell me you've never seen her in her whipped CRAYME BIKAYNI?"