Varsity blues (1999) - Brian robbins - film review
84%
By O. Jacobs
Paramount Pictures
It’s perfect timing - the landing of some thoughts on the 1999 cult classic comedy-drama Varsity Blues, while wrapping up the general youth football season in America. Ironically on the heels of my praise for Collective Soul and their song “Shine” - they contribute their single “Run” to this flick’s collection of songs for the official compilation album and final cut.
Friday [11/7/25] I attended a High School football game in a local town of South-Central Pennsylvania, as my alma mater competed for a District Round win on the road against an undefeated team of stacked seniors. My girlfriend [the best human] and my grandparents tagged along with me for this special event. As a small rural school, it’s typically rare to be seen taking snaps after the regular season, let alone matched up against a local-leagued team basically in their backyard. We sat with family friends of ours [whose son bears my number, and plays the same defensive position] and is practically an informal younger brother to me, as he finished out his glory years with his longtime teammates. If you know the feeling, you know.
It was a full circle moment - bittersweet, nostalgic, joyous, congratulatory. I don’t have kids yet, I’m not married, but I felt the commencement of a child moving on from one life-stage to another, as if he was my own. I sat to the left of my grandfather, one-half of the grandparent unit who never EVER missed a game to my memory, from Pee-Wee to Senior High - feeling content as we shared pretzels under rain jackets while the mist came down. To my left, my sweet girl - happy just to be [in all things], sharing space with my grandmother on the end [the other half] murmuring and chit-chatting to themselves throughout.
In this moment it all comes back to you. The sweat, the intensity, the pride - I could practically smell the pads from my seat. Along floods in the decisions and choices too - the things that made me who I am today [good and bad]. Broken hearts, missed classes, fights with your parents and friends, taking your anger out on the field. It’s what turned boys into men, what molded our capacity to endure in the real world after it’s all over.
I watched him [the family friend] fight for what was left - the last 48 minutes. Calling back to a memorable quote during the climactic final “Let’s Be Heroes” speech John “Mox” Moxon [James Van Der Beek] gives to his mates after throwing out the mad king in John Voight’s [Bud Kilmer], the antagonistic West Canaan head coach, in the film.
“Let’s go out there, and we play the next 24 minutes for the next 24 minutes, and we leave it all out on the field.”
A sentiment not only applicable to young men clinging onto their last opportunity for greatness on the field, but how to approach your attitude toward every day life. Tomorrow doesn’t exist, we have no idea what’s going to happen - but we sure as hell can control how we attack today. How we choose to battle while we know where we are, right now. It’s a great lessen in focus, and clarity for what you’re up against, no matter the foe or dilemma.
Johnathan “Mox” Moxon [James Van Der Beek] (Left) - Lance Harbor [Paul Walker] (Right)
If Varsity Blues succeeds in anything, it’s the accurate depiction of in the ins-and-outs of youth football programs across the U.S., and the fun [and turmoil] that can occur when navigating that time as a late teen. Parties, Pain Killers, Concussions, and Big-Plays, it’s ALL there throughout this watch. Every silly-delivered Texas-accented line of dialogue reaching out for a laugh [while maybe not in the way it was intended] is equally matched with brilliantly choreographed sequences of gridiron play, linebacker hits, practice meltdowns, and overbearing displays of authority by that guy with the whistle we all had to tolerate on week nights.
Van Der Beek is a standout, in his believable portrayal of a calm [but ready to engage] back up QB balancing between what’s best for his team, himself, and his community. To get what you want? Or not? To stand up to the long-standing regime of negligence, malpractice, and greed? or go through the motions and let the program’s future youth suffer the same consequences - at the hand of Kilmer’s win-over-everything obsession complex. [A quarrel I also fought on the front lines of with my comrades at one point in time].
If that doesn’t convince you, maybe the third act revelation of Ron Lester’s “Billy Bob” will. Starting out of the gates as the heavy-set lineman, comedic-relief cliche you thought he was set up to be - later showing an incredible amount of depth as a head-injury laden, spiritually broken trench-fighter, who would clearly give his life if it meant it provided one more score, or one more conversion on downs. He is just one, of a cast of leading roles who all receive a realistic and accomplished arc from the beginning to the end, walking away from that “Last Game of Our Lives” tale with something learned, something lost, and something changed within them.
Jon Voight [Bud Kilmer] (Right)
There’s plenty of American Pie inspired debauchery, sexed-up solo cup nonsense to go around - maybe just a rule of the times. Scott Caan’s “Charlie Tweeder” performs as ringleader in most of these tropes in a way that makes me point to the screen and go - “I played with that guy, I know him”, as it’s not too far off from the shit-eating, horned up attitude of the seniors that played ball ahead of me when I was just getting my footing on the main stage as a freshman and sophomore. There’s a fantastic amount of moments in W. Peter Iliff’s screenplay to make any former headsmasher go: “Yepp, Yeah, Uhuh, Yes” as we carry from scenario to scenario.
In the late summers, during sweltering two-a-days, icebaths, and film sessions convened during the pre-season - myself and a few friends always made sure to throw Varisty Blues on to get us jazzed up, to remind what it was all about. Football is - about taking care of your fellow man, pushing beyond your mental threshold for a greater cause, completing a mission.
Amy Smart [Jules Harbor] (Left)
And it can be fun, when you conquer your oppressors - stand up for what’s right, and take ownership of your voice as a boy blooming into a man. Varsity Blues is a staple of “what once was” for many of us, certainly for me. I cannot refrain from full-body chills while AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” blazes through the bodies of a few hungover shit-bags, rallying to survive a miserable game of pain - resulting from Thursday night mistakes, and bad decisions. Set to the visual beat of slo-mo body slams, thrown clipboards, and enough foam and sweat falling from the mouth to make you cover your eyes. When it’s bad, it’s that bad - and some can still feel it.
But when it’s good it’s great - It’s exhillarating, and Brian Robbins’ execution of capturing the glory is delivered in gigantic doses, saving the best for last in its final minutes, just like we’ve all dreamed, or experienced for ourselves standing on the turf.
Memories exist in our minds and hearts, regrets and wins - and Varsity Blues reminds you why you loved it in the first place, and why there may just be more positivity in the revisit, verses the negative. Box office hit or not, Cult following or the declined partaking in late-nineties cheese, you cannot deny the incredible ammount of heart this film has - and I don’t think our characters [calling back to people you may know] would let you tell them otherwise.
